Scripture: Psalm 98:4-6

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,

burst into jubilant song with music;

make music to the Lord with the harp,

with the harp and the sound of singing,

with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—

shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Thought for the Day: The title “Psalms” means “songs,” but it is derived from the plural psalmoi, which means “songs to be accompanied by stringed instruments.” Musical instruments in the ancient world consisted of the same major families we use today: percussion, which includes drums, cymbals and keyboards; winds, such as flutes, trumpets and reed instruments; and strings, such as violins, lyres and harps. Notice that other than keyboards, which didn’t really exist in the ancient world in large quantities, all these instruments are highly portable.

It is likely that before people could speak, they sang. Recently uncovered temple complexes in southern Turkey indicate that humans sang and created music—in particular music to their gods, while we were still nomadic tribes. If we’re wandering around looking for food, and as it seems, from one temple complex to another, portable instruments would have been as handy as stone axes and spears. What better way to keep the spirits of the tribe up than to sing and dance from one campground to another?

We are an artistic species. We started painting on cave walls and creating massive geoglyphs in deserts as soon as we saw our own footprints in the sand and wiped the dirt from our hands on a cave wall. We learned that the flickering flame of a fire could make our cave drawings come to life, a crude form of animation thousands and thousands of years before Ub Iwerks would create Oswald Rabbit and Mickey Mouse.

Music and the other creative arts define what it means to be a human being. The more we learn about our evolution, the more we see the arts played a powerfully fundamental role in our development. The more we study our past, the more we realize that our ancestors—perhaps much more so than we, appreciated and understood the power of music to praise the very creative nature of the universe.

In a world where the arts in education are being cut or eliminated, it might be good for us to take a step back, look into our history, and realize that the very foundation of our civilization depends on nurturing our creative nature. And after all, if we believe we are created in the image of God, the greatest and most versatile creator of all, isn’t it our duty to be as creative as possible?

Prayer: Ridiculously Creative God, fill my heart with a new song, my mouth with the words to sing it, my mind with new ideas, my hands with the ability to create them, and my soul with the courage to share Your creativity with the world. Amen.