God Loves To Sing

Knowing the Bible is the best education life has to offer, for not only is it

the light by which we come to see our Savior and enter into His salvation, it is

by its light that we get insights into all areas of life that other books cannot

give us. If you do research on the origin of music, you will be taken back to

the ancient world and told of instruments on Egyptian hiroglyphics and in

caves. Gen. 4:21 will be quoted about Jubal, the father of all who play the

harp and flute. All of the books will assume that music had its source in man.

Even so scholarly a book as The Guinness Book of Music will tell you that

the earliest surviving hymn text goes back to the 8th century B.C. to a poet in

Corinth. All authorities stop far short of the Biblical record that tells us that

music is eternal because it is a part of the nature of God. It did not have its

origin in man, but in the God who made man, and made him to love music

and singing, for God has enjoyed it for all eternity.

Music and song are as timeless as the nature of God. If you consider God's

singing as sacred music, then sacred music has no beginning, for it is just as

eternal as God is. It was a surprise to me when I first discovered this text in

Zeph. 3:17 which tells us clearly that God delights and rejoices over His

people with singing. I guess I never thought about it before. Man made in

God's image could hardly live without music. It is so basic to His joy and

happiness. But I never considered whether or not God has delight in singing.

When I found this text and gave it some thought, it seemed a very logical

thing to assume that God would love music. He is the source of all music, for

He created man with the gift of creating it, enjoying it, and using it to praise

Him. If He did not enjoy music, it would be a strange thing to want it used in

the worship of His people.

We should know that God loves music, and that He has been singing for

all eternity, even if this text was not in the Bible. But I am delighted it is here,

for it opens up some exciting windows into the nature of our Lord, whom we

praise in song. This text about God singing led me to search the Bible to see if

there is any other evidence that God enjoys the same things that we do. What

I discovered is that all three persons of the Godhead are very happy persons,

and they delight in singing, and in all that is joyful.

We have a terrible misconception about Jesus because of the great

suffering He had to endure to atone for our sin. He was called the man of

sorrows and one acquainted with grief. This label stuck to Jesus, and most of

the artists of the ages pictured Jesus in His agony, and this has been the image

people have had of Him. The larger portrait of the Bible has been ignored,

which is the portrait of Jesus as the happiest man whoever lived. The Lord of

laughter; the life of the party, and the lover of singing. Joy was the dominant

emotion of His life, and it was the joy of eternity that kept Him going to the

cross. Jesus was spirit-filled, and joy is a fruit of the Spirit, which He

displayed constantly.

We are blinded to the bright side of His joyful life by a focus on His tears

and blood, which is truly a vital focus. We can never forget the blood He

sweat in Gethsemane, and that which He shed on Calvary. Our salvation

depends on that shed blood. But let's not lose the life He died to give us-the

life of joy and abundant living-the life He lived Himself. The book of

Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus was histories happiest man. Heb. 1:9

says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God,

your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of

joy." Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy, and was set above all others by

this unique anointing. In plain language, Jesus was the most joy filled person

to ever walk this planet.

Spurgeon said, "I suppose there never lived a happier man than the Lord

Jesus. He was rightly called the man of sorrows, but He might with

unimpeachable truth, have been called the man of joys." It would seem to

follow, that if singing is one of the key ways by which joy is expressed, that