More and more I’m discovering that music reaches into places that nothing else can.  It is interesting that God gave us eyelids to shut out sight, but nothing equivalent to shut out sound.  Having said that, viewers of the recent royal wedding may remember junior bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem’s efforts to block out the noise of a boisterous crowd.  Sound in general, but music in particular has a way of sneaking in and having its way with us.

Of course, so do words.  Words can cut me or soothe me, make me wise or lead me astray, bore me, tire me, or inform me, either of the loftiest complexity or of the most mundane necessity.  Words carry meaning: we process and respond.

But music’s assault on my mind and my heart is unique.  It is disarming.  It seems to connect directly with my emotions.  It’s almost as if I don’t get the same opportunity to process cognitively as I would with words.  And when I do try to process the music, sometimes its power can slip away.

Some music makes me crunch up my face with distaste; some makes me feel like moving around and dancing; some music makes me want to sing; some music even brings me to tears.

Music is used by advertisers and film-makers because it seems to help their respective causes.  Nothing like a painful jingle… we might not like hearing it repeatedly, but we’ll never be able to forget it, and neither will we be able to forget its association with a particular product.

Film music is often not so memorable.  But I’m not sure it’s meant to be.  When the film-maker wants us to feel the emotions of a particular story or event more deeply, it seems that there are some fairly tried and true methods of using music to do so.

Funnily enough, we don’t always agree on “what is music”.  I remember older relatives criticising music of the youth for having no melody; or for being too unpleasant to listen to; how could it be in the same category as their own favourites?

To some extent music gives us a soundtrack for our lives, not just our movies.  We remember events by songs we were listening to; we remember songs by the people we associate them with.  Often the words aren’t even remotely important.  Although sometimes they are made many times more important by the tunes to which we sang them.

I read not long ago a quote from Yip Harburg, the lyricist of the song “Over the rainbow”: Words make you think a thought; music makes you feel a feeling; a song makes you feel a thought.

It’s a slight exaggeration.  I’ve certainly had words spoken to me that make me feel a feeling.  But Harburg does point us to the fact that song is so important in human life.  When words and music are joined together, we are in for a wild ride.

So for the church, this a treasure given straight from the hand of God.  We have words of eternal life, and a language that speaks directly to our hearts.  How could we possibly go wrong?  Surely this means that our churches are full of meaningful, passionate response to the gospel!

Well, yes they are.  In every congregation in which I’ve ever led singing, there have been people who have been demonstrably affected by the singing of the gospel of Jesus.  People of all walks of life are impacted by our songs: regulars and visitors, professionals and blue collars, men and women, old and young.  I am always heartened to see people who may not fit easily in a social sense singing their hearts out: people with disabilities, people who struggle socially, people who have suffered severely or carry great burdens.

And yet, sometimes things do go wrong with our music.  Sometimes we fear its effects on our hearts and tone it down; sometimes we take advantage of its ability to affect people’s hearts and wind it up.  Sometimes we are just too caught up in ourselves for the songs about the gospel to affect us and it doesn’t matter how good the singing is: our hearts and minds are elsewhere.

I love it when our pastors and congregational leaders lead us without fear, without manipulation, and without self-absorption.  Just as God reaches out to us with the long arms of the gospel of Jesus, so he also uses the long arms of music to reach into our souls.