July 8 & 15, 2012

Music to Our Ears

“Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance” (Psalm 89:15).

When the “trumpet” of God sounds, it is a wonderful thing to be among those who know that sound and understand just how joyous it is. The Psalmist said, “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!”

In Israel, the priestly trumpets were to be blown on several important occasions. One of these was the onset of war. Through Moses, God had said, “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies” (Numbers 10:9). In this instance, the joyful sound would be that of victory.

Also, the trumpets were to be blown at various times of sacrifice. "Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 10:10). At these times, the people would rejoice to hear the sound of worship.

But there was another occasion also, and that was the Day of Jubilee, that great day every fifty years when slaves were released and debts were canceled. “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:9,10). This trumpet‑sounding might have been the most joyous of all. It was the welcome sound of freedom.

To those whose hearts are turned toward God today, there are no more joyous sounds than those that emanate from God’s throne: the sounds of victory, of worship, and of freedom! Do we have ears to hear? Do our hearts resonate to the sounds of God’s joy? The “people who know the joyful sound” are a fortunate people.

“The trumpet shall be heard on high, The dead shall live, the living die, And music shall untune the sky!” (John Dryden).