My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 44 - Saturday, October 29, 2011, 3:05 PM
A Mixture of Music and Waiting before God and Patience
Music has a definite place in the life of the Christian whether the music be of the “Humpty-Dumpty” genre or traditional Christian or modern religious – if it appeals to your sense of praise and worship, it can help you in your meditations and your worshipful abandonment of your own carnal self.
Maybe you are not like me, but there are times when a melody, whether original with me or even “pirated” (not really!) from a secular song, will come to my mind. It is usually when I am writing or meditating and, if the melody fits the moment, I will go with the flow of the moment and use it to further my worship. I don’t need to know the lyrics; if the music is smooth and sweet and compatible with worship, I will immerse myself in worship, praise and the river of peace that flows and bears me up heavenward. And if the music has appropriate lyrics, it is just that much more helpful in my devotions.
Inevitably however I run into those times when worshipful meditation is not an easy thing in which I can ease myself like one who soaks in a tub full of warm, soothing water after a difficult day. At that time I am more like Elishah when the kings of Judah, Northern Israel and Edom respectively were asking him to intercede with God for them and their armies.
The three kings were lost in an arid land and had no water to drink. Of the three kings only Jehoshaphat of Judah was a righteous man. The other two were idolaters. The shameless idolatry practiced by Jehoram King of Israel was especially irritating to Elisha because all the children of Israel were God’s chosen people and had been meticulously taught what God commanded them to do, and not to do.
Elisha looked at Jehoram and fumed exasperatedly, “What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother.” Then he relented somewhat,
“And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.” (2 Kings 3.14-14)
He then gave the three kings instructions on how to bring water to their encampment. The point in this anecdote is that Elisha had become so upset with the King of Israel that he could not discern what God wanted to tell him. When the minstrel played softly before Elisha, the Spirit of God came upon him and he could feel the Presence and hear the Voice telling him what to do.
Music has the same influence on those who worship God today. When you are “out of sorts” and not in a good worshipful mood, don’t always give into the feeling and put off your meditation and supplication to God. Wait. Force yourself to wait in His Presence that you do not feel but know it is there. We want things to happen always right now. We want instant gratification. Rome was not built in a day; even the mighty Creator of the universe did not bring the whole shebang into being in an instant, although He could have.
God is a God of gradualism; He is a God who in effect takes a century to bat an eye. He is in no hurry as He has all eternity ahead of Him; and if we are His followers, so have we. Cut back on the frantic haste to get things done. You can’t right every wrong; you can’t save every sinner in the world despite your best intentions; you will not bring every lost lamb back into the fold of the Good Shepherd although your heart yearns so avidly to do so – so take your time to worship and to praise and to present your petitions to God. The same old problems will be plaguing this world long after you are gone, and God Himself will still be there answering some of your prayers after you have left this life. Take your time.
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