Music has a powerful way of communicating the faith.
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
As I traveled through Germany a couple of summers ago it appeared to me that the second most revered person next to Martin Luther was Johann Sebastian Bach. Of course, I did see things through my Lutheran lens.
Ansbach, Germany
Every other year a Bach festival is held at four different locations in Ansbach, one of those places is the church of St. Gumbertus in the background of this picture. Ansbach was an early convert to the Reformation under the leadership of George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He was an original signer of the Augsburg Confession in 1530.
Faith uses music to communicate the wonder of God’s activity in human history. What would Christmas be without Christmas Carols? What would Easter be without the songs of Christ’s victory over death?
We love to sing the faith.
“Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the LORD; exult before him!”
Psalm 68:4 English Standard Version
The desert could be a fearful place. Wild beasts roamed the wilderness. Highway robbers preyed upon travelers, yet King David could sing that it was the Lord who road through the desert.
Our lives can be as dry and dangerous as the desert, yet it is the Lord who rides in victory through our wilderness.
We sing about God’s victory, and we’ll continue to sing throughout eternity. New songs will join with the old to form a constant symphony of praise to the Lord.
Copyright Douglas P Brauner
In BSF we have heard that the wilderness can also be a place of learning and refreshment and communing with God. In Revelation people go to the wilderness to be protected by God. So the wilderness can be a positive in our growth as members of the body of Christ.
It can be positive in another way as well in that as Christians we’re called to suffer with Christ. We spend a great deal of time trying to avoid the desert, where the desert might the place God is calling us to grow, even if it involves pain.