Make Melody in Your Heart to the Lord

We like variety. Just look at the world around us and you’ll see it’s true. God made the world for us to enjoy, and He didn’t make it bland. He didn’t make it black and white only. He made it full of color and depth and beauty. Think of an animal or insect (like a butterfly) that you find beautiful. There are scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying individual insects and animals. Each time that scientist finds a butterfly, he most certainly marvels at the beauty found in the wings and the designs and patterns displayed on them. He may look at that butterfly for several minutes or hours, but after some time he will find another butterfly, beautiful just as the last, but also with its own unique qualities. While he still admires the beauty of the previous butterfly, he spends his current time focusing his gaze on the new, perhaps comparing it to the old, and ultimately he will place the new alongside the old and turn his gaze to the next beautiful specimen he has found, which will go through the same process.

Think now, what if that scientist had simply become completely absorbed in the first butterfly he found? He saw the intricate designs on the wings, the exquisite colors and the beauty they created as he continued to focus ever more intently on the minute details and the individual lines and curves, never taking his eyes away, even for a second. How sad for the scientist as we, the onlookers, see that had he shifted his gaze, even for a moment, he would have seen all the other butterflies that had come to rest on his now slumped shoulders and hunched over back. How much richer his existence could have been, had he simply looked around him!

We recognize the good that can come from variety, but many times we become set in our ways just as this man did. There is an idea within the brotherhood that there are certain songs which are “worship songs” and others which are “devotional songs.” Some Christians have gotten the idea that only “worship songs” are proper to sing when the church meets on Sunday and Wednesday. “Devotional songs” typically are songs that more recent songwriters have written in praise of our God. I pose the question: “What makes these songs less worthy to be sung by gathered Christians in praise of our God?”

As you search for the answer, try this on for size and see if it fits. “I just grew up singing...these other songs.” This is one of the major points of reasoning used by those who decide we shouldn’t sing more recent songs, although biblically correct, in praise and worship to our Creator. Perhaps we are guilty of looking at the beauty we have always had in front of us with the songs we grew up with, to the neglect of the other beautiful things that have landed all around us. Don’t just dismiss new songs, learn them! Write them! Be honest with the songs and don’t just sit in your tradition and “sing what you’ve always sung, because it’s what we’ve always sung and we all know it.” SING BECAUSE IT PRAISES THE LORD! Sing because it TEACHES a good lesson! Sing because it EDIFIES your brethren! Do your best to find the beauty in everything, even new songs.

“…be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:18–19 (NAS)