Melody has a power to make words stick. Songs rise up within us when we least expect them. They have a way of singing themselves within our own hearts and minds. Neuroscience can explain this quite well, but it doesn’t take a neuroscience to feel the power of music.
Songs teach. “A, B, C, D, E, F, G…” ingrains in children the basic building blocks of written human language.
Songs focus. “Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere,” helps distracted little minds to stay on task.
Songs celebrate. “Happy birthday to you!” rejoices that someone who at one time did not exist, then came into the world, and is still—thankfully!—present in our lives.
Songs rebuke. “How many times must the cannonball fly / Before they’re forever banned,” speaks against the power structures and cultural forces that promote violence and death, no matter how much they claim to be about “freedom” and “rights.”
Songs correct. “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; / you forgot the God who gave you birth,” became the ancient Israelite’s witness against their unfaithfulness to YHWH, and—hopefully—became their path back to him.
(Deuteronomy 32:18)
Songs confess. “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God / And renew a right spirit within me,” admits that we, too, are lustful adulterers and hateful murderers.
Songs lament. “Jeremy spoke in class today / Try to forget this / Try to erase this from the blackboard,” grieves the tragedy of neglect, bullying, and suicide.
Songs comfort. “Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure unbounded love thou art / Visit us with thy compassion, enter every trembling heart,” assures us that divine love is greater—and potentially even more present—than our temporal suffering.
Songs inspire. “All things once sown in weakness / You raise in promise / Your beauty arches above it all,” draws us into full, grand expanse of the Divine Narrative.
And so much more. Keep on singing!
(See Deuteronomy 31:14-22).