Music and Lyrics

I love music. I grew up in a family where musical expression was strongly encouraged. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the piano bench with my dad beside me playing his guitar. I cut my teeth on hymns at church, big band post WWII music, and old school country. I loved it all.

​As I grew, made my way through school, found my own radio stations, discovered PBS television, I found many more types of music to love. I listened to the Eagles, the Beetles, Pavarotti, Bocelli (my favorite), U2, The Bee Gees, ABBA, ZZ Top, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles . . . you get the idea. If there was a melody, I was all in, loving it all. I heard the different instruments, adored how the voices blended and hit the notes, found joy in the rhythms and tempos.
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Then I met Mr. Wonderful. One day as I was listening to a song with a fabulous tempo, great blend of voices, amazing musical score, Mr. Wonderful asked me an eye-opening question that has changed the way I’ve listened to songs ever since. The question: Do the lyrics to that song honor God? Wham-bam-thank you ma’am. Why hadn’t I ever thought about this before? Why was singing lude lyrics set to pleasing music okay, when speaking these lyrics would make me cower in shame?

Let’s just say I had an ahh-haa moment. I hadn’t paid attention to the words at all. I didn’t even know what I was saying when I sang the Italian opera I so enjoyed.
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Ouch. My toes were hurting. I tried to justify my wide array of song choices, some of them just plain ole raunchy, by telling myself I wasn’t hurting anyone, and what I listened to didn’t really affect me. Have you ever noticed that God’s word cuts through the bologna we serve ourselves—if we take the time to read it?

​1 Corinthians 10:31 tells me that everything I do should be for His glory. This includes listening to music. Then, if you want to get a little more specific, look at 1Peter 3:10. As a believer, I’m supposed to keep my tongue from evil and my lips from deceitful speech. Yeah, those country cheating songs, those rock songs that make fun of goodness, they tend to fall into this category Peter is talking about. 

Some of the songs were fine with clean nice lyrics, but I wasn’t filtering my music at all. I listened to the good, the bad and the ugly all with the same gusto.
I would love to say that I turned away from the music whose lyrics were not pleasing to my Savior and never looked back, but I can’t. My prayer now is Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” 

​Have I stepped on your toes, because mine are bloody nubs.