Daily PresenceSample

What did Jesus say about praise and worship in Luke 19:40?

He [Jesus] answered, “I tell you, if these [people] were silent, the very donkeys would cry out.”

Whoa! Donkeys?

Well, of course not. Jesus said the very stones will cry out. But I do have a donkey tale, recalling a childhood memory.

I was in junior high, and my Daddy pastored a country church situated at the intersection of two dusty gravel roads in southeast Louisiana. The church building was under construction, so we met in the open-air, only a roof overhead covering the yet-unwalled structure.

Across the road from the church was a pen where a farmer kept a donkey. One Sunday morning in congregational singing, as members raised an old-time hymn in an exuberant open-air chorus, that donkey across the road caught the spirit and began noisily braying: “HEE-HAW, HEE-HAW.” Over and over, loudly, the donkey brayed, as if he understood the need to hoist a joyful noise unto the Lord. Afterward, we laughed well at the donkey’s “spirit-filled” antics. We had witnessed a true Psalms 103 moment: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

The point of recalling this episode in the context of today’s reading is to recognize, beyond chuckling over an amusing tale, the importance of music in worship, as well as the importance of those who lead our music. We needn’t look beyond the magnificent collection of liturgical hymns and songs in the Psalms to understand how important musicians were in ancient Israel. The importance of their role is noted in I Chronicles 9, where the musicians were assigned a privileged designation in the temple and were “exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night.”

We should remember the committed musicians who lead our worship today, for they are likewise important. Our church’s gifted amateur musicians invest hours of personal time in preparation and practice for each service. The polished musical product that comes together on Sunday mornings is the result of their faithful stewardship of talent.

Let us, then, give thanks two-fold: (1) for the God-instilled impulse for music that heightens and brightens our worship, and (2) for skilled musicians who lead us in song and praise.