After Moses taught the people the song contained in the first 44 verses of Deuteronomy chapter 32, He tells them in verse 46 to “set your hearts on all these words…” The words of this song exalted the wonders of God’s work in the lives of his people. The music added a positive dimension to the words, but the words mattered more than anything else. What was being expressed revealed the “heart.” God wanted His Words to be upon our hearts.
At Christmas time I’m always astounded at how organizations avoid the true Christmas theme in their music and focus on the holiday season. I love Dave Barry’s “Notes on Western Civilization” published in the Chicago Tribune some time ago. He wrote: To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son’s school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Frosty the Snowman” and—this is a real song—”Suzy Snowflake,” all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.”
My favorite Christmas Hymn is “Come, oh Come, Emmanuel.” That’s God’s Word to music.