Last night I attended a basketball game at the local high school. Having just moved back to my hometown after being away for 27 years, I shouldn’t have been so surprised at how moved I was when the band played the school fight song. I should have expected to have a lump in my throat when they played “My Old Kentucky Home”. At least I was prepared for the pride that swelled up in my heart when they played the National Anthem. These songs stirred something deep within me. This was my hometown, my state and my country!

 Since music has the ability to move us in a very profound way, it is no wonder that God has given us this gift and that he has incorporated music as part of our praise and worship that we offer to him. When we sing, we are deeply aware that he is our God! In our songs we praise him for who he is and what he does. We tell of his greatness, his love and his mercy. We proclaim him to the world through music, and we will forever praise him in song when we reach heaven.

“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”—Psalm 150.