Daily Devotional | God’s Design for Music

Music is often linked with our emotions. But the word music calls us to use our minds. It comes from the Greek mousa where we get the term “muse”—to meditate, think carefully and thoroughly. For us as Christians, this also means to think biblically. Not doing so would lead to music being merely for our amusement, negating the very meaning of the word. Paul said, “I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding” (1 Cor. 14:15).

In Job 38, God spoke to Job out of a storm: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?” “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand” (vv. 2, 4). We can ask ourselves a related question: Do we sing on Sundays only with emotion or with knowledge and understanding?

In Job 38, we discover that there was musical worship when the Lord laid the earth’s foundation, when “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (v. 7). A faithful pastor once said that “singing is as old as creation. Singing was there before the creation of the very world you and I inhabit...the DNA of singing is worship to God. It was there in the heavens before we ever enjoyed it here on earth.” Apart from God— from whom comes all knowledge, understanding, and truth—music and our singing in praise and worship is meaningless.

Whether we sing in public or private, work or leisure, church or home, it is important to understand the divine design and purpose of music (and our entire lives): to worship and to give glory and honor to the living God. We worship Christ, the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20) who laid the cornerstone (Job 38:6). “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” (Ps. 150:6)!

Go Deeper

What has been your personal experience with music and worship? Have you ever experienced music in a way that made you both feel and think?

Pray with Us: Lord Jesus, how incredible to realize that even the stars sing, and the angels shout Your praises. What a privilege to join this eternal choir! As we study, may our hearts understand Your divine design for music in our lives.

BY Brian Lee

Dr. Brian Lee is a professor of Music at Moody Bible Institute. He serves in music ministry at Maranatha Bible Church in Chicago and is an active classical pianist as a soloist and chamber musician. He earned a doctorate from The Juilliard School and has been invited as a guest artist, adjudicator, masterclass teacher at many institutions, competitions, and festivals. He and his wife, Helen, are the parents of three sons.