Thoughts from a Musician's Heart

All hail, king Jesus! all hail, Emmanuel!

King of kings, Lord of lords,

bright Morning Star.

And throughout eternity I’ll sing your praises,

and I’ll reign with you throughout eternity.

The lyrics of this majestic hymn have been echoing in my mind since I

asked the Lord to give me the right words for this devotional. How

appropriate and powerful these lyrics sound in the light of a new year!

May the intention behind these lyrics be the desire of everyone of you

in the year 2025. David Moody who wrote both the music and the

lyrics of this powerful song was a piano teacher from Vancouver,

British Columbia. The story has it that as Mr. Moody was sitting at the

piano waiting on his student to arrive one afternoon, he began to

worship the Lord and before long, the words and the music to All hail

King Jesus was born. The song became a sensation and it’s been

sung in congregations around the world since 1981. There is part of

me that secretly wishes I had been the one to compose and write such

powerful lyrics. I believe that we have all been given the creative

power to write music that emanates from our love for the Lord. The

closer we draw to him, the more connected we feel to him and the

more creative we will be to write beautiful music as unto the Lord. I

don’t know about you, but the better I am as a musician, the more free

I am in worshipping him. I have experienced that first hand both in

personal and corporate worship.

I think we as musicians are very blessed to be called into an art form

so close to the heart of God. I can’t help but think of all the psalms

where David (a creator and musician of the highest caliber) wrote so

powerfully about making music unto the Lord. Music as an art form,

brought him closer to the Lord and that is why I believe the Bible talks

about David being a man after God’s heart. David understood that

music could be a tool to draw him closer to God. He did not allow any

obstacles to get in the way of him finding the time to worship the Lord.

I don’t know about you, but every year I find myself desiring to be

even closer to Jesus than the year before and this year is no

exception. How I want to be more and more like Him and to be

conformed into the image of my Lord Jesus. I want to delve deeper

into His word and understand more of who he is and understand his

will for my life. And yet, every year I find myself being pushed to and

fro by the waves of this life. But this year, I want to be proactive in my

daily faith walk and not let the waves of this life so to speak make me

feel out of control. I want Jesus to be the captain of my boat and the

one to make all the decisions. May it be so Lord Jesus! May you have

the freedom to be the one who directs all my steps and may I be the

one who cheerfully obeys his every command. Let us take advantage

of a new year, a new beginning and start afresh and draw even closer

to him than in previous years. Let us use our art form to fulfill Phil 4:8

which puts it this way: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,

whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is

lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthythink

about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or

heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of

peace will be with you”. What powerful words to inspire us to pursue

the God of truth, nobility, righteousness, and purity by doing what he

called us to do. So let’s all get busy and turn 2025 into a year of both

spiritual and musical achievement and give glory to the Lord in the

process. May the one who called you bless you and keep you and

may he inspire you to play, sing, and act as unto the Lord. Have a

blessed and fulfilled 2025