Music is an enormous part of virtually every culture. It's hard to measure the extent of its importance. Music has been a staple of religious worship for millennia. It can sooth, inspire, and stir the soul in ways mere words cannot. But where exactly did music come from? Was it an invention of early mankind, an accidental discovery of man's vocal cords, or was it God's creation from the beginning? The Bible speaks of the angels, also called morning stars, singing at the creation of the world (Job 38:4-7; Isa. 14:12). Thus, there was singing long before we came along. Music must have been God's idea. Much of the Old Testament is poetic verse, and was sung. The Psalms were all songs. After the completion of the tabernacle, singers were appointed to lead the worship there. Jesus sang hymns with His disciples. There is singing even now in heaven before God's throne. Music is first mentioned in Exodus, immediately after Israel crossed the Red Sea, their enemies destroyed before their eyes. They were excited, full of joy, so in awe of God's great power they spontaneously broke out in song. Exuberantly, they could declare, "The Lord is my strength and song..." (Ex. 15:2). God had become their joy and laughter, the delight of their heart, even their song. The Bible speaks of singing at least two hundred times before the final crescendos rise in Revelation (5:9, 14:3, 15:3). Singing with the heart is even a key to being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18-19). Clearly, singing is meant to be a fundamental part of our relationship with God. But here's a question: Does God sing? He invented singing, but does He, Himself, sing? It's hard to visualize God doing so. The difficulty is probably an artifact of the world's portrayal of God--an overly serious, somber Person who doesn't get too excited about anything-except perhaps to get angry at us. The religious view of singing is that the rest of the universe is supposed to sing to Him and His role is to enjoy it-not sing Himself. Plus, what would He sing about? To whom would He sing? But the Bible tells us that He does sing. Then what must His voice be like? We often compare great voices to those of angels. To what could we possibly compare God's voice? What superlatives could we assign Him? Surely, every great singer in history would blush at the sound of God's singing. But more surprising than God singing is to whom He sings. Us! The deeper we go into this subject, the crazier it all sounds. God sings, and He sings over us! "The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing" (Zeph. 3:17). This is the only biblical reference to God singing; and the sole object of His singing is us. We are not told that He sings about anything else or over anything else. He rejoices over us with singing. Culturally, music covers the gamut of human experience, but the great majority of ... read more here 
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David McCarthy (Washington state, USA) is a contributing writer for IOM America - Transformational Biblical Worldview & Exchange Life Development.
Permission obtained from author to republish Does God Sing? Copyright � 2014-2015 David McCarthy. Editorial changes by IOM America approved by author.
Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright� 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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