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I Will Keep a Song in My Heart, March 27
Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord.
Ephesians 5:18, 19
God is glorified by songs of praise from a pure heart filled with love
and devotion to Him.... The gratitude which they [Christians] feel and
the peace of God ruling within cause them to make melody in their hearts
unto the Lord and by words to make mention of the debt of love and
thankfulness due the dear Saviour, who so loved them as to die that they
might have life.
The history of the songs of the Bible is full of suggestion as to the
uses and benefits of music and song. Music is often perverted to serve
purposes of evil, and thus becomes one of the most alluring agencies of
temptation. But, rightly employed, it is a precious gift of God, designed
to uplift the thoughts to high and noble themes, to inspire and elevate
the soul.
As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered
their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children today
gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing
His words in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song
has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated
natures; power to quicken thought and to awaken sympathy, to promote
harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy
courage and weaken effort.
It is one of the most effective means of impressing the heart with
spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard pressed and ready to despair,
memory recalls some word of God’s—the long-forgotten burden of a
childhood song—and temptations lose their power, life takes on new
meaning and new purpose, and courage and gladness are imparted to
other souls!
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