Sounds of Joy

By: Josiah Rosendahl

Good morning, and thank you for allowing me to join in on your team breakfast. I want to take five minutes to encourage you all in the importance of your work, and I'll do so by sharing two Scripture verses with you and exposit each one just a bit. 

1 Chronicles 15:15-16: "And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy." In this context, the ark of the covenant had finally been brought back to Jerusalem after David's resounding victory over the Philistines, David had prepared a place for it, and wanted to celebrate it to the utmost. 

"Sounds of joy" are what the singers and players of instruments are commanded to raise. In my translation, the word 'loudly' is included in the verse as David's command on HOW to play their instruments. Now, the takeaway here is not that every measure of music is to be fortissISSissimo. Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us that there is a time for joy and feasting, but also a time for mourning and sorrow. However, we live in a world in which Christ has already accomplished victory over death. He reigns as king over the whole world already. He is victorious, just like David over the Philistines. So what do we do about it? We sing and play loudly. The generation I grew up in has been burdened with a musical prerogative to singing quietly, a tendency to be embarrassed about our voice, to keep our music to ourselves, even in Christian circles. This was the case for me and my peers in elementary, junior high, and high school. This has been the case in previous generations as well. Families and especially children sit quietly in their pews and mutter the words to great hymns of the faith under their breath. Music has been absent from the family. Fathers have failed to lead their families in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, and as such, have failed to train in their families about boldness about the word of God, and give children a scriptural vocabulary through psalms and hymns. How great would it be for a generation of young men and women to rise up who knew how to sing and play not only skillfully, but loudly. In our world, the name of Christ is going to take more than a piccolo to proclaim - nothing against piccolos. It's going to take trumpets and trombones, and who are going to play those trumpets and trombones? Your students. As Christian revival grows in America, just as Jehosephat's choir led his army, your students will be at the forefront of this revival, and they need to know how to be loud.

Colossians 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Every bit of this verse is directly applicable to your work! But the first part of this is the most important. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. You are instructing your students not only how to sing and play instruments, but you are giving them the vocabulary as well. We have 150 Psalms available to us in the Word of God, and much more instruction outside of the Psalms. Dare I say that music is a part of the WHOLE counsel of God. So be in your Bibles daily. Feast on the Word of God, because it is his word that you are proclaiming as you go into work each day and instruct, or administrate, or account, or lead, or assist. To quickly zoom into our local demographic, and get political at the same time, we are gaining ground here in Moscow against the forces of evil. The growth of the Church shows it, the flourishing of Christian Businesses like Bohnet Music Academy show it, the city council elections show it. We were outnumbered 2.5 to 1 when Christian candidates ran for city council 5 years ago, this year we were outnumbered 1.75 to 1. A younger generation is rising up that will be paramount to this Christian revival, and it cannot be a Christless conservatism. That stinks. It will need to be a Christian revival equipped with the tools of God's Word and Music, and you guys are the outfitters. 

So be in your Bibles, teach musical boldness, and thank you for all your work.