A Seasonal Thought

What a better way to start a new year than by praising the Heavenly Father. A spirit of thankfulness and acknowledgement of blessings, big and small, is timely whether it is looking backwards or moving forwards.

Music and singing is ever present in today's society from the factories, the large open plan offices to shopping centres. Talent shows have filled the TV schedules with mainly young men and women eager to make a name for themselves or a living out of singing and those who succeed have their every move reported in online and offline media.

Songs and hymns can be one of our earliest Christian memories. The one way a child can take an active part on a Sunday is in hymn or chorus singing. How often the remark 'we used to sing that at school'. As time passes by the scene reverses and one becomes the one teaching a chorus to a child. What a blessing that can be.

Psalms provide many, 150 to be exact, of the hymns in the Bible. There are others too like the Song of Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15. But the earliest record of music in the Bible is recorded in Genesis 4.21-22. This passage is solely as a record of what happened to Cain's descendants after he had killed Abel. Jubal is accredited as being the father of stringed and woodwind instruments. He was the son of Lamech who was the son of Methusael. They are not to be confused with the progeny of Seth whose progeny included Methuselah, his son Lamech and his son Noah.

Methuselah brings us to the subject of old age when the singing voice goes, the top notes can no longer be reached and one is left nevertheless with the consolations that it is still possible to 'make a joyful noise unto the Lord' nevertheless until the day comes when all will worship and praise the Lord (Psalm 148.12-13).