We Will Sing a New Song

I typically listen to 40 hours of music a week. Few things bring me joy like sharing an album with a friend, discovering a beautiful song, or seeing a favorite band live in concert. I have curated 44 playlists on Spotify that cater to the many genres and moods I might feel in a given day.

One of my favorite days of the year is when Spotify releases “Wrapped,” where I get to see how the near 100,000 minutes of music I listen to in a year are divided across songs, artists, and genres. I love seeing my top song, how it was a short soundtrack of the previous year.

Recently, I have used a lot of headspace considering how to draw the line between a healthy love of music and an unhealthy love of music. I write this as a reference point for myself; hopefully it can be helpful to you, the reader, as well.

Music is a comfort to me, but I can choose its noise to temporarily comfort me instead of sitting in silence with my Father.

Music is a relationship-builder for me, but I can use it to isolate myself instead of being present with others.

Music can help me put words to my feelings, but I can use it to glorify my feelings instead of giving them to my God.

Music helps me remember places, people, and times of life, but I can turn up the volume instead of being where my feet are.

Music inspires me when I hear people using their talents to directly or indirectly glorify God, but it can plant impure thoughts in my mind (Philippians 4:8).

So, music can be helpful and destructive for me. Let’s look closer at both and see how it might apply to any of the loves in our life. I am defining “loves” as anything that is a gift from God that is of high importance to you. It could be family, sports, exercise, work, fill in the blank for yourself.

When our loves are disordered

John Calvin famously called the heart "a perpetual idol factory,” where we turn good gifts (or less than good things) into something to worship instead of God. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things.”

Martin Luther warned that “whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your god.” There are days, weeks when my heart clings to and confides in music instead of clinging to the love of Jesus.

I can use music to completely direct thoughts and feelings, which shows there is an unhealthy level of dependence or need. We can abuse good gifts to hide from what God has for us in just spending and enjoying time with Him. In Psalm 46:10, our Maker calls us to “Be still, and know that I am God.”

When our loves are rightly ordered

In Revelation 5:8-9, a “new song” is sung in one of the most glorious moments that will ever happen. In the middle of your Bible, there are 150 passages meant to be cried out by us to our creator. In 1 Samuel 16 music played by David was used to chase away an evil spirit tormenting Saul.

Our loves are gifts from God. They have been used and will continue to be used in glorious ways by Him. When we order these loves properly, it is worship.

“Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves,” wrote James K.A. Smith in his book You Are What You Love.

I struggle with the common idea that if your life were to be made distraught when you lose something that you love, it’s an idol. If I lost a friend or family member, I would be devastated. I don’t think that means I have an unhealthy love for that person.

It is good to enjoy the gifts of God, and when we practice ordering our loves behind the love of God, it can make a beautiful life of worship out of us.

What I know is that I love music now, but one day I will sing a new song for eternity, and it will top the charts on my Spotify Wrapped.