To Whom Are We Singing?

I told you about planting cuttings of my Tradescantia plant yesterday. Well, this morning she looked a bit pekid, many of her leaves drooping terribly. I googled and learned that she was experiencing "transplant shock," I think is what they called it. She's already a little better tonight, I think. And I sang to her a little while ago. I've heard plants like to be spoken to, so I'm sure if that's true, they would also like being sung to. Which brings up the subject of music. Music is a wonderful gift from God. Some people worship music as God, which is strongly warned against throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Every Sunday my Bible reading chart has a couple of Psalms for me to read. Psalms, as you know, are songs. So, singing, therefore, has been a key component of the Judeo-Christian tradition for many hundreds of years. The Hebrew psalms, we're told, did not rhyme, so they are not like our typical songs. The way I understand it, they alternate comparing and contrasting of themes. Anyway, they bring to mind the question, "To whom are we singing?" Something we don't think about that often, I suppose, especially if you are a performer. Of course, you sing to your audience, but who was the song written to sing to? Usually someone, right? There are different kinds of songs, of course, different genres. There are story songs, love songs, drinking songs, national anthems, dancing songs, lullabies, nursery rhyme songs, folk songs, classical music, which is pure compositions, many to God, and today, mostly for enjoyment of its pure and beautiful melodies. You can probably think of different ones. In gospel songs, we are usually telling others about the gospel, blues songs tell others about how we feel, supposedly "blue." I have learned that blues is not really defining a feeling but a form, as in 8-bar and 12-bar form and a particular chord progression that musicians are familiar with so they can jam the blues with other musicians without worrying about arrangements and verses and choruses, necessarily, just a form that originated, they say, in the cotton fields during slavery days, or, well, they could have originated earlier than that. And then there are "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," which are written to and for the Almighty. I find these fascinating, and every week I look forward to reading some psalms on Sunday. If you notice, they also may speak of the Lord in third person, or they may speak to him in first person. I have a whole book about the different kinds of psalms and what they are about, but I have a very short theme tonight. This morning on NPR, on the way to church, I heard them talking about "secular praise" songs, and they did sound just like modern praise and worship, but they were actually love songs. I have noticed that much contemporary secular music and contemporary church music does sound very much the same, so when I go to the gym sometimes the music sounds a lot like the church music I hear on the Christian radio stations in the car. This, I decided, was just a spin-off of what has happened in music for a very long time. You know how many famous musicians started out in church, and if you listen to a lot of old rock music, you will hear the influence of the traditional gospel music. I have read about how gospel music written in the 19th century copied secular music, including music that was currently popular and sung in bars, to bring the music out of the staid tradition of some church music of the era. Lastly, I just want to say that singing and music are gifts with which we bless others, ourselves and the Lord, and it's just something to think about when we are singing. I sing a lot of sad country ballads to my retired widow ladies every month and they know all the words. They also know the words to the popular hymns I include like "In the Garden" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Music stirs our hearts and it's something to ponder, whether we are singing and playing or whether we are listening. Just another wonderful something to enjoy in the life God gave us. Have a good night!