We’re not the first to use music to add richness to our celebration of God and the life He’s granted to us. Apparently angels did so from before our universe existed. There’s something powerful about any exercise or endeavor that predates our cosmos! The Holy Scriptures indicate music previously happening in Heaven, with a prefallen angel, Lucifer (“Son of the Morning”), then having a physical body that was seemingly pre-fitted with built-in musical instrument capabilities. See Ezekiel 28:13:
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Many Bible scholars have theorized that the Archangel (i.e. “head angel”), Michael, leads the warrior angels of Heaven (possibly one-third of all the angels at the time of Lucifer’s fall), and that Gabriel leads all of the messenger (or “service”) angels (another one third of all angels at that time), and that Lucifer once led all the praising/musical angels. The Bible does indicate that when Lucifer arose in rebellion against God and was cast down, that he (also known as “the dragon” in the Book of Revelation) took with him a third part of the angels, those who had followed him in his sedition against the throne of God.
It is debatable whether there is still music in Heaven after Lucifer’s fall. Some have theorized that any later presence of music in Heaven is dependent on the arrival of human believers, there (in part) to replace the fallen Lucifer, who is now more well known as Satan (“adversary” or “accuser”).
If the thought of having musical instruments pre-built into one’s body sounds odd, it should not: humans have vocal chords capable of producing an astonishing array of musical notes. This author has personally theorized that Lucifer may have been capable of polyphony within himself, in other words, capable of harmonizing with himself, all by himself.
If so, it should be considered poignant that his failure, literally, to maintain harmony (unity) among all angels in heaven, while being able to harmonize with himself, could be contrasted with our need of each other, to have harmony in either music/singing or in emotional/relational harmony (unity).
A church is a community
We are many members, yet one body. See 1 Corinthians 12:12, 20; and Romans 12:4-6a:
1 Corinthians 12:12:
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[a] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[b] yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Romans 12:4-6a
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us….
From many we become one
The very essence of a godly community is for each of us to see the good of God’s hand at work in those around us, and to be tied together them by a covenant of fellowship, established between “each other” and with the Lord Jesus. Just as good musical harmony requires a willful collaboration and cooperation between people, so also emotional/spiritual unity/harmony between believers demands deliberate collaboration and cooperation between us. As we practice the former (in music), it helps foster and strengthen the latter, in richness beyond what any of us could achieve on his own or on her own. The musical questions, such as “what instrument do you play?” or “what part of the harmony will you sing?” are parallels to crucial spiritual questions: “what gifts has God given to you, to uniquely edify (build up) others in the body?” and “what destiny or calling do you sense from the Lord on your life?” or “how will you serve others, to bless and inspire, to encourage and equip, to help and to repair that which is broken?” We all have a part to play. Let’s get to playing!
