Bring Me a Guitar Player

     Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
     Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”
     "No,” the king of Israel answered, “because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to deliver us into the hands of Moab.”
     Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you. But now bring me a harpist.”
     While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha... (2 Kings 3:12–15)

As I was soaking in the hot tub this morning (an enjoyable morning ritual), I was thinking about this passage, and in particular the part I underlined above. Interesting, isn't it.

We don't read elsewhere about Elisha, or Elijah using music as some sort of aid to hearing God's message. There are a few other times that prophesying and music seem to be joined. In 1Samuel 10:5, when Samuel tells Saul he will meet a procession of prophets "...with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying." In  1Chronicles 25:1 David and his commanders set some men apart "...for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymblals..." A little later in the same passage (in verse 3) the sons of Jeduthun "...prophesied, using the harp in thanking and praising the Lord." Interesting isn't it.

It makes me wonder whether musical accompaniment to prophesying was considered so normal, that the those who wrote these things down for us simply didn't see the need, most of the time, to note such an obvious thing. The passage from 2Kings seems especially casual in mentioning the need for "a harpist."

"Bring Me a Guitar Player"

I know. I know. It doesn't say guitar in the Bible, it says "harpist." Actually, it doesn't say that in Hebrew. It says someone who plays a stringed instrument. We are assuming it was a harp because it was a common stringed instrument of the time. It may have been another stringed instrument, like the lyre (although some Hebrew scholar may point out my error here). My point is that Elijah is asking for someone to play a stringed instrument, not a flute, a tambourine, or a trumpet, or even a shofar.

Why "Bring Me a Guitar"? You might say, they didn't even have guitars back then, and you'd be right. At the same time, what we call a harp, wasn't what was played back then either. Whatever the instrument was, whether, harp, lyre or some other instrument it was portable, and likely to be found among ordinary soldiers. Kind of like a guitar in our day. ;-)

Anyway, I'm a guitar player, so I'm going with my re-contextualization of the principle.

The playing of a stringed instrument is also interesting to me, though maybe it's because I play one. It's interesting how stringed instruments work to create sound. They actually create a multi-layered sound that most people can't distinguish. When you pluck a string it is making several tones at the same time, these can heard using what guitar-players (and others) call harmonics. Harmonics are interesting in acoustics, but I bring them up here as an example to remind us that in music there is more going on than we are often aware of - and yet it still affects us.

Music and Prophesying

So, what's the connection between music and prophesying? Why didn't Elisha just go off by himself for a while and pray, and let God talk to him that way? Why would he need to even do that; if God wanted to say something to this great prophet, why wouldn't he be able to hear it immediately? Sometimes the prophets did these sorts of things. I suppose we shouldn't imagine there was only one way that a prophet sought to hear something from the Lord. But it is one way. As a guitar player, I find that interesting.

Obviously, we don't know the definitive answer to any of those questions. (I love questions like that; they're great for meditating on the Word!) What we do know, is that Elisha felt the need for some music, so that he could prophesy. Maybe it was a psychological reason (as some commentators suggest): he was upset and needed to calm down because of the way he was asked to do this. That's really reading into the text what isn't there, isn't it. Yes he may have been unsettled, but there's no hint that this is why he asked for the harpist (or a guitar player ;-) if he lived in our day).

Looking at this, alongside the other passages I noted above, there is a connection between prophesying and music being played. How the connection is made is not explained to us. My philosophy of music (explained below), leads me to believe that music helped Elisha not merely to calm his emotions, but to actually connect with God Himself. The music became the means by which Elisha's spirit connected with God's Spirit. That's what it looks like to me. That's what I read in how this part of the story is told.

As the music was playing "...the hand of the Lord came on Elisha." Doing a quick study of the phrase "hand of the Lord" in the Bible, what we find is that the hand of the Lord most often comes as a blessing, or in judgment. Most often when God speaks to a prophet, what we read is that the word of the Lord came to the prophet. In Ezekiel the hand of the Lord takes the prophet places and more often seems to simply indicate God's powerful and overcoming presence. If you've every had someone put their hand on your shoulder when you needed it, maybe you've had an experience similar to what Elisha had here with God's hand on him.

It looks to me like the music opened a spiritual door that wasn't opened before it was played. It opened a door to the presence of God, or at a minimum to the awareness of God's hand.

When David played music a tormenting spirit left king Saul. No explanation is give as to why this worked, or how it worked - it just worked.

I draw from this the conclusion that music has a kind of spiritual power, or perhaps it's a way to access the spiritual world. I can't make up my mind. Maybe it's both. I'm just wondering here. I'm not totally sure, but it certainly looks that way to me.

I know many Christians who will put on Christian music, just to help them tune into God better. They do it as a part of their prayer life, or while doing there chores, or when facing difficulties. They all tell me it helps. I prefer to play music for the same reasons. Music acts like a catalyst to restructure our thoughts on God - or it can, if it's good music.

Of All the things God Created...

I sometimes wonder why God decided to create music. Of all the things He made, this one seems the least practical. By itself, it doesn't feed anyone, doesn't plant seeds, build homes, tend animals, stop bullets. It seems like a thoroughly and yet wonderfully impractical thing. 

I think it tells us that God isn't interested in mere practicality. He is the ultimate creative artist. He delights in the beauty of things simply because they are beautiful. Unless I'm reading my Bible wrong, He apparently enjoys being sung to and worshiped with voices and instruments. That's all I really need to know, but I still wonder about these things.

What Is It about Music That Stirs Our Hearts?

There's something about music, that stirs us, isn't there. As the harpist or lyre-player plucked the strings, something in the heart is plucked at the same time. I'm going to share my personal thoughts on music in the next few paragraphs. This isn't Scripture, so don't take it as "gospel truth." It's sort of my philosophy of music, as I've come to understand it. Since I play a stringed instrument (guitar), you can call this my "string theory" (apologies to theoretical physicists).

Christians from all over the world, from many diverse cultures sing, and many play instruments. This isn't true only of Christians, of course. (Many religions include music as an important part of what it means to be involved in their religion.) When something great happens, we often sing. We sing at weddings, often (not always) at funerals, at birthdays, anniversaries. We sing at Christmas time and Easter. For most of us, those things wouldn't be complete without music. Even folks who don't sing well, still enjoy music (at least most of them, most of the time).

We fight about musical styles -- contemporary vs traditional, classical vs popular, this musical artist vs that one, etc., etc. I think we fight because, when it comes to music, it's always personal. It's sad that we fight, and often evidence of shear selfishness, but people take sides because it's personal. (It would be better if we would instead learn to appreciate a broader range of musical styles). Certain kinds of music touch us especially deeply. When we hear certain songs, or other pieces of music, we are moved by them, and perhaps remember a time when we were very deeply moved by them.

Of course, there's cheap music, just like there's imitation sugar. It's superficial, predictable, and designed to be "here today and gone tomorrow" and while it's here today, to make some money. It plays with shallow emotions, and becomes an analgesic to deeper ones. It's like settling for a light donut (mostly air and sugar), when our hearts are hungry for steak and potatoes.

There's also music that's so esoteric that one wonders if it can properly be called music. It claims to be in the avant-garde (forefront), whether from the classical genre or in jazz (and perhaps some other genres I'm not familiar with). But much of the time (though not always!) these art forms appeal only to the elite few who "understand" what the artist is "really doing." Often what they are really doing amounts to snobbery. (And yes there are musical snobs in every musical genre that people are involved in.)

Good music communicates creatively and with excellence, and is still able to stir the hearts of ordinary people, and even stir them deeply. Good music evokes from us something more than bubble-gum smiles. A good song is both approachable, and at the same helps us sing what we didn't know we wanted to sing. Good music can bring to us an awareness of grandeur we hadn't imagined, or of the beauty found in the simple and humble. It can transport us to the pomp of golden throne rooms, or to plainness of fields of blowing grass.

Music is an art form that has the capacity to connect directly with our spirits, beyond mere intellect (though not by-passing it), beyond emotion (though involving it); it has the unique ability to drive down into the core of our being and wake up what was sleeping and give courage to what was hiding there. Music can make more than our mouths sing; it can make our spirits sing too.

Whatever it is, music has something in it our spirits resonate with. 

Sing or play something today.

You Are My Son, Whom I Love; with You I am Well Pleased

When Jesus comes out of the Jordan, after being baptized by John, the heavens are torn open, the Holy Spirit came down on Him like a dove and He hears His Fathers' voice from heaven say "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. (Mark 1:11)"

There's a lot here for us to ponder, to consider, to meditate on. We have here something about Jesus' identity as God's Son. We have something about His relationship to God as Father. We have the Holy Spirit descending on Him, empowering Him for ministry--which brings up Jesus' humanity, in that He ministered as empowered by the Spirit (not out of His Divine power which He left behind - Philippians 2:6-8). We have a single scene in Scripture where all three Persons of the Trinity are seen as distinct persons (not as three different modes of one Divine Person). Then there's the question of why did Jesus need to be baptized by John -- a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins -- since He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). And, of course, the question about why the first thing the Spirit did after coming upon Jesus was to drive Him out into the wilderness to be tempted/tested by satan. In fact, there is more even here worth careful thought: what is baptism? How is John's baptism different than Christian baptism (Acts 19:3-6)? Who is satan, and where did he come from? How are the 40 days in the wilderness significant? What about those wild animals and angels attending him (Mark 1:13)? And so much more!

What I want to do today is ruminate a bit on what the Father says to Jesus: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

"You Are My Son"

Let's start here. We are overhearing part of a conversation within the Trinity: the Father speaking to the Son. The Father sees and recognizes Jesus as His Son. Not for the first time, obviously! No, He sees Him and recognizes this most important thing about Jesus and reflects what He sees back to the One He's seeing: You are my Son. The Holy Spirit had just descended upon Him, but that is not the most important thing about Jesus. The most important thing about Jesus is that He is God's Son.

Jesus was about to begin His ministry--a ministry of bringing in the Kingdom of God and demonstrating it with miracles, signs and wonders. But what's most important about Jesus is that He is God's Son. His ministry would culminate in becoming a ransom for many, the Savior of all who would come to Him, the Redeemer of a fallen humanity. Of course, this is important (!), but what's most important about Jesus is that He is God's Son.

The same Spirit that descended upon Jesus at His baptism was poured out on the church on Pentecost, and now lives in us. That Spirit calls out "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). We who follow Jesus, are also sons and daughters of God. It is right for us to call Him "Abba, Father." By the way "Abba" is an Aramaic word that roughly translated means "Dad*." For some of us, the term seems too familiar, not formal enough. Yet, the term is actually intentionally familiar (did you ever notice that the word "familiar" comes from the word "family"?). While we are not other members of the Trinity (!), we who have received him have been given the right to become children of God (John 1:12). "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1John 3:1a).

That is also the most important thing about us. We are God's sons and daughters. In human terms sons and daughters are always sons and daughters. Nothing ever changes that. No matter what, my sons will always be my sons. I don't have the privilege of having daughters, but if I did, they would always be my daughters, no matter what. Even if they rejected me, or what I believe, I would always see them as my children and do what I could to woo them back. So it is with our Father in heaven, Who is so good that in comparison to us, he makes us earthly fathers look evil (Matthew 7:11)!

Can you hear God say to you: "You are my daughter" or "You are my son"? Listen. Put yourself in the story, you who have been baptized and hear Him address you by your core identity: sons and daughters of the Most High.

Who we are as God's very own children, is the most important thing about us. It's more important than our calling. More important than what we accomplish. More important than anything God does through us - whether subtle or amazing. More important than the number of people we influence, or the degree to which we influence them.

Who we are as God's children is more central to our identity than the abuse we have suffered, the pain we have born, the betrayals we have experienced, or all the other ways we have been sinned against and made to believe we are something less than who we really are. My victimhood is not my identity; I am a child of God.

Who we are as God's children is more central to who we are than the ways we have failed others, the ways we have abused them, betrayed them, sinned against them, or in other ways failed them. Sinner is not my identity; I am a child of God.

Neither sonship or daughterhood are earned. They simply are descriptions of a reality given to us as a gift of God's grace.

"Whom I Love"

The second thing the Father wanted to reflect back to Jesus was what was in Him toward Jesus: Love. He saw Jesus as His son, and His response to His identity is to love Him. Whatever happens to Jesus, it happens in the context of the Father's love for Him. He ministers in the context of love. He heals others filled with the love and compassion of God that is poured into Him. He sets free the demonized out of His experience of being loved. He feeds the multitudes, preaches the gospel, cleanses the lepers, raises the dead, teaches His disciples, all out of a place of being deeply and truly loved by His Father.

It is in the atmosphere of His Father's love that He suffers too. He suffers ridicule, scorn and rejection, knowing His Father loves Him, even when others don't. He is misunderstood and misinterpreted, but remember His Father knows and loves Him. He is abused--beaten, spit upon, mocked, tortured, executed, displayed naked on a cross--but knows the love of His Father never leaves Him (John 16:32).**

"God is love" as John reminds us (1John 4:8). It is God's nature to love, in fact it is central to His nature. It is part of God's personality that He goes around loving people and in fact His whole creation. He declares His love for Jesus before Jesus had in any way demonstrated that He had earned it. Yes, we know that Jesus was a pre-incarnate member of the Trinity (John 1:1-3, 14). So, in an important way the Father's love began long before, and simply continued here. Just as importantly, it wasn't withdrawn, or withheld until Jesus accomplished something worthy of it. He was loved because He was the Son.

We too, as God's children are loved. We need to know this, as we go out to live in this big, scary world. We need to know it as we go out to fulfill God's call on our lives. As Jesus ministered not for love, but from love, we need to remember that God loves us because of who we are in Christ, not because of what we do for Him.

Some of us learned that we were loved more in our earthly families when we did our chores, or behaved, or got good grades, or whatever else we did that showed we were worthy of our parent's affection. We also learned that affection could be withdrawn if we neglected our duties, misbehaved, disappointed them in some way. But God's love isn't like the love of imperfect and limited earthly parents.

God's love is so generous, so complete, so freely given, it's hard for us to believe. There is no earthly love that is like the love God has for us. He loves us, not because we are so lovable, but because He is so loving. That's what He's like.

"With You I Am Well Pleased"

Much of what I want to say here is wrapped up in the idea of being loved before Jesus had actually done any ministry. The Father was pleased with Jesus before he defeated the first temptation of satan. He was pleased with Him before He preached the good news for the first time. He was pleased with Him before His first miracle.

The Greek word for "be pleased" here literally means to consider something to be good, and that meaning became extended to include finding pleasure, satisfaction and delight in that thing.

The Father takes pleasure in His Son, just because He sees what is good and beautiful in His Son. He sees all He is and all He will be, from beginning to end. He sees the Person inside the skin, inside human flesh, and is delighted in what He sees. He sees, as we might put it, a beautiful soul.

As the Father He also sees Who His Son will become--He sees all His potential: His heart of devotion and obedience; His resolve to do all and only what He sees His Father doing (John 5:19); His willingness to go to the cross, and everything in between.

Can God be please with us? Is He pleased with us? That God should be pleased with Jesus does not seem surprising to us. Jesus never sinned. We however, are another story. It's true that we're another story, but the meaning of a story isn't found at the beginning but in the telling of the whole story.

We are not Jesus, but we are created in God's image. We are not without sin, but our sins have been covered (Romans 4:7). We are not perfect, but we have been given the righteousness of Christ (Romans 3:22). While God cannot be pleased with our sin, He does delight in us (Psalm 149:4).

God sees our hearts, our spirits. He sees what He created and all the good in us that has not been lost because of sin. He sees the beauty of who we are that lies behind the scars, the dirt, the stains and even the tattoos of false identity that have branded us (or by which we have branded ourselves). He sees every ounce of gold that is buried in our mire. He also knows who we are becoming, through His Spirit Who lives within us. He sees us for who we will be, not only for who we are. As when the angel called the cowering Gideon a mighty warrior, long before he was one (Judges 6:11-12), so God sees us for who we will be, long before we are. And He is pleased with what He sees.

Too often we see ourselves for who we were. We see all that we have done that's wrong, and all the wrong that's been done to us. We see all that's wrong with us. It's not that hard to get depressed looking in the mirror. There is a sort of false piety that takes perverse delight in reminding ourselves about how horrid we 'really' are. But God doesn't see us that way.

God sees us for who we are in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17), who we are becoming through His Spirit (1Thessalonians 5:23), who we will be after He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). He sees us now as His holy people (Hebrews 10:10, 14). Though we are sometimes ashamed of ourselves, Jesus is not (Hebrews 2:11).

...for those who are in Christ Jesus

Let's be clear, that all this stuff about Jesus is true of us only as we are in Christ. It's true of us only because it's true of Jesus, and therefore as we are in Him, it's true of us too. But we are in Christ, if we live a life of  yielded trust in Him - that is, if our faith is in Him.

For those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1 , word order changed for emphasis). No condemnation, means zero condemnation. No condemnation means no punishment. No condemnation means no penalty. Jesus took care of all that on the cross. All of it. There's none left. None. ...for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If God sees us for who we are in Christ, and sees us as His children, whom He loves and in whom He is delighted, maybe we should start seeing ourselves that way too -- and living as if it's true.

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*I choose "Dad" over "Daddy" (as some suggest) since the Aramaic word is one used not only by young children, but also by adult children as an intimate term to address their Father.

**Whether Jesus was actually abandoned by the Father (Mark 15:34, for example), is debatable. It depends on whether we understand Jesus only quoting Psalm 22:1, or recalling for us the entire Psalm. Regardless of that, even if His father withdrew His presence from Jesus, His love for Him could no more be withdrawn than God could stop being God, since "God is love."