What is the importance of worship music alone and in church?
Psalms is the longest book in the bible by chapters, verses, and words. A staggering 124 of the 150 chapters directly refer to music worship. The entire last chapter is dedicated to praising God through song and dance! Music is an important part of who we are as Christians. Alone or together. It doesn’t require playing at church or in front of an audience. Music can be a type of prayer, praising God and opening yourself to the Spirit.
Even listening to music, we lose ourselves in the words and melody. Music can change our perspective when we just stop over-thinking. Allow God to change our heart, attitude, and perspective. For many, music can be the purest form of prayer and praise. God doesn’t require our words to hear us speaking and music provides a form of communication, from which, the soul can speak its truth. Music is so powerful that it can have a direct path to our heart. What we choose to listen to can change our mood and outlook. Therefore, we should guard our heart and routinely use that path for praising God. Hallelujah!
Verse
"Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." Psalms 150
Photographer’s Notes– Capturing ‘Pawpaw’s Martin’ and the importance of worship music
Pawpaw’s Martin is about one of the greatest Christians I have personally known and his relationship with music. I was inspired one afternoon as Pawpaw played for my boys, songs of praise and worship. His quiet demeanor and single focus spoke to me of how closely tied music is to his prayer and worship life. You can tell that anytime he plays, he is in God’s presence and that Martin guitar is only a tool, one of many this wonderful person uses to praise his Savior. It is hard for me to question anything, like instrumental music, that gets us closer to God and allows us to praise him in such a genuine and powerful way.
This shot was taken handheld with a 100mm Macro lens at f2.8. I wanted to capture the realism of his aged hands and perfect form as he picked the guitar strings in perfect cadence. This picture is exactly how I see “Pawpaw” Parker, engulfed in music and praising his Lord and Savior.
Photography and writing by Jon Frederick, Lead photographer at Seven11
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