Sermon
Psalms 96
The Bone-Melting Music of God
In her 1997 Lyman Beecher Preaching Lectures at Yale University, Barbara Brown Taylor said that to preach is to “toss the fragile net of our words over the bone-melting music of God.” I am fascinated by her turn of the phrase “the bone-melting music of God.” It seemed a fitting phrase for our church on this Music Appreciation Day. Ms. Taylor’s point is that preaching attempts to hint at the majesty of the music of God. And I think that’s what our worship services are – a hint of the majesty of the music of God.
God must love music because we find music everywhere in the Bible. Our ears can lead us right through the Bible – from the trumpet that blares on Mt. Sinai when God speaks to Moses, from the song of Miriam after the Exodus, from the great collection of the songs of David, from the songs of the heavenly choir at the birth of Jesus, from Paul’s admonition to worship God with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, to the awe-inspiring music of Revelation.
God must love music because of the abundance of sound in creation. God didn’t just make one bird to sing, but millions of them. God made the thunder of the waterfall, the rustling of the leaves in the trees, the pounding of the waves on the shore. The Psalmist speaks of trees clapping their hands for God. It’s a reminder that the whole world is alive with acclamation.
When we lift our music in worship Sunday by Sunday, we are simply joining all the voices of nature in praising God. And we are reminded that our efforts at worship are only a poor representation of the “bone-melting music of God.”
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Music has a mysterious power over us. God seems to use music to accomplish certain tasks within us.
First, music reminds us who we are. There is a scene in Alex Haley’s Roots where Kunta Kinte is lying on the dirt floor of his slave cabin in the New World. The horrors of slavery have about obliterated any memory he had of his native Africa. He has forgotten what it is to be a free person. He has forgotten who he was in that land across the sea. But then, in the night, he hears a woman singing. She is singing a song from Africa, and its melody awakens long suppressed memories for him. He remembered that he once had a home. He remembered who he was.
Sometimes on Sunday when we are busy praising God, we hear our name called in the music. Something stirs within us, and we, too, realize who we were meant to be. “Deep cries unto deep,” and we find ourselves surrounded by the “bone-melting music of God.”
Sometimes, music reminds us of our past. That’s especially true today as we sing the old hymns. In fact, every song we are singing today is old.
The newest song we have sung today was written 88 years ago.
George Bennard wrote “The Old Rugged Cross” in 1913.
“He Keeps Me Singing” was written by Luther Bridges 91 years ago in 1910.
Civilla Durfee Martin wrote “God Will Take Care of You” and “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” in 1904 and 1905, 96 and 97 years ago.
“When They Ring the Golden Bells” was written by Daniel de Marbelle 114 years ago in 1887.
There’s no telling when “Old Time Religion” was written because Charles Davis Tillman heard it from the blacks at a camp meeting in Lexington, South Carolina. Then he published it in 1887.
Edgar Page Stites wrote “Sweet Beulah Land” 125 years ago in 1876.
“Almost Persuaded,” by Phillip Paul Bliss, is 130 years old, written in 1871.
In 1863, William Paton Mackay wrote “Revive Us Again,” 138 years ago.
“The Church in the Wildwood” was written by Dr. William S. Pitts 144 years ago in 1857 – before the Civil War.
The old-timer in the group is “Amazing Grace,” written by John Newton 222 years ago in 1779.
We think a song written 222 years ago is really old, but these songs are just “middle aged” when compared to the really ancient ones. We didn’t even touch the ones 300, 400, 500 and 800 years old:
Praise to the Lord the Almighty – 1680.
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow (The Doxology) – 1674.
All People That On Earth Do Dwell – 1561
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – 1529.
All Creatures of Our God and King by St. Francis of Assisi – 1225.
I guess the songs we sing today are still babies compared to these truly ancient songs in our hymnbook. The Psalmist admonishes us to “sing a new song,” and we are always mixing the new with the old.
These hymns we sing today remind us of a former time and a former life. Most of the songs we are singing today were relatively new when some of our older members were growing up in these hills. It was a time far removed from the fast pace of Pikeville in the twenty-first century. Singing these songs probably reminds you who you were back in the old church on Scott Avenue. They remind you of people and friends and religious experiences you had many years ago. And they bring a warmth of security and a fondness for the good, old days.
One of our members gave me the book Creeker by Linda Scott DeRosier for my birthday last year. This book gave me a new appreciation for life in the hills of yesteryear. She writes about growing up in a holler just north of here, near Paintsville. At one point in the book, she reflects on the religion she experienced in these hills. She writes:
“The God I came to know in the hills was one tough hombre. He took no prisoners, and flexibility was not in His vocabulary. He was the one who made the rules, and we followed those rules without question or we were Hell bound and we knew it. Furthermore, we did not actually have to ask God, Himself, for clarification, since any number of good folks in the community were willing, some might say eager, to apprise us at any time as to the sinfulness of our behavior and – even more frightening – our thoughts.”
I hope the religion of your youth was not so frightening as Linda Scott DeRosier’s, but maybe you also recall the extended revival services, the potluck meals, and the funeral services as she did. Like the story of Kunta Kinte, music reminds us who we are and where we came from.
But music does more than that. Music also has the power to transform our lives. There is a spell-binding scene in the wonderful movie The Shawshank Redemption. If you have seen this movie, you will remember that the main character, Andy Dufrain, has been sentenced to two back-to-back life terms for crimes he did not commit. He is thrown in the tough world of Shawshank Prison where everything conspires to destroy humanity. Andy writes a letter every week to the state legislature requesting books for the prison library. Everyone is surprised when a huge shipment of used books and records appear out of nowhere. His letters finally did some good.
Andy puts one of the records on the prison record player. Intoxicated by the beauty of an aria, Andy locks out the warden and plays a portion of “The Marriage of Figaro” over the prison loudspeaker. Everyone in Shawshank Prison stands transfixed by the music – a moment of intrusive beauty in a horrible place.
Andy Dufrain is tortured for his little trick. On his release from solitary confinement, Andy explains to his inmate friends how he endured. “I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company. It is in here (pointing to his head and heart). That’s the beauty of music… so you don’t forget that there are places in the world not made out of stone, that there’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. It is yours.” We, too, are transformed when we hear the “bone-melting music of God.”
Furthermore, music is a favorite weapon of God. Some people try to avoid God in every way they can. They may put their Bible in the attic, drive the long way to work to bypass the church, and avoid the minister. But any child who has heard the Christian hymns carries within them a repository of faith from which they can never escape. A single word, a phrase, a chord of music later in life can fill the soul with thronging echoes of a hymn he tried to forget, of a sermon put out of the mind, of the Savior whose dying love he tried to ignore.
The church’s music seems far less substantial than the magnificent sanctuaries and educational buildings. But time will take a heavy told on the physical structures of the church. The seasons of weather and storm, the destructive power of steady decay will one day win the battle against the strongest buildings. Tell me. How many buildings of the church are still cherished after 130 years, or 400, or 800? Show me a building, or a sermon for that matter, with the staying power of “Amazing Grace!”
Music is one of God’s toughest and most indestructible weapons for it dwells in the heart, far removed from the ravages of time. Neither moth nor the rust of time can fade its message. Nothing matches the power of the “bone-melting music of God.”
Lastly, the music of God under girds our lives. My former pastor, Dr. Don Harbuck, once preached a sermon on the “Songs of the First Christmas.” In that sermon he told of being in the home of a friend when the tragic news came that he had lost his wife. Years later, that friend commented, “Harbuck, you were with me when the music stopped.”
In every congregation, there are people for whom the music has stopped. The song has gone out of their souls. There is no melody left, no hymn of joy or meaning. Or perhaps there are those who have never had a personal experience with the music of God. For all of those, there is good news. For all who have never known the music, for all who have known the dying of music, and for all of us who long to hear it clearer, there is good news. God is calling us to sing again. God wants to put a new song in your heart. God wants you to hear the music.
Listen! What’s that sound? Can you hear it? It’s the “bone-melting music of God.”
Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.
Copyright 2000, Mickey Anders. Used by permission.