Psalm 92: 1-5
“Qui cantat, bis orat.” This Latin proverb translates roughly to “The one who sings, prays twice.”
It was quoted by St. Augustine, by Martin Luther, and by a host of other Christian leaders and thinkers through the centuries: to emphasize the importance of singing, and of music in general, in the Christian tradition of prayer and worship.
It is not a coincidence that many of the great theologians in church history were also musicians, cantors, and hymn writers. For Christians, believing and making music, teaching, and singing, are completely natural combinations. We can’t even imagine a service in church that does not include music and singing.
Music is not something that is tacked onto our faith, as much as it is something that naturally flows out of that faith; and out of the joy that is ours, when we know that our God is a God of love and reconciliation, of redemption and forgiveness. And that is exactly the kind of God we have, and who has us, through the gospel of his Son Jesus Christ.
The faith of those who are gifted with musical ability is enriched by that music, when it is wed to their life of prayer and devotion. But also, the faith of others – in the larger fellowship of the church – is similarly enriched, when singers and musicians share their gift with their fellow believers and use their gift in the service of God’s Word and worship.
The loving and forgiving God in whom we trust, and whose joyful praises we sing, is the same God in whom the believers of the Old Testament era also trusted, and whom they praised in song.
They also rejoiced in the many works of salvation that he had performed for them, and in the promises that he had made to them – promises that were ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
They could not contain their joy – and they didn’t try to! – but instead they glorified their Lord and Divine Protector in words of thanksgiving, with the harmonious strains of their music. We read in Psalm 92, beginning at the first verse:
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, on the lute, and on the harp, with harmonious sound. For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.”
Now, why am I taking so much time to talk about music and singing, in a sermon that is supposed to be about Ruth Deglmann and her faith? Well, I am speaking of these things precisely because Ruth’s faith was a faith that was especially marked by music and singing, and by the joy in Christ and his blessings that music and singing express.
Psalm 92 states that God’s people declare his lovingkindness and faithfulness “on an instrument of ten strings, on the lute, and on the harp, with harmonious sound.” According to the psalm, they know that it is a good thing – a supremely good thing – to sing praises to the name of the Most High.
Ruth also knew that it was a good thing to sing the Lord’s praises and to make music to his glory on the instruments of our day. And so that is what she did, as an organist and as a singer.
In so doing, her faith and devotional life were enriched. And she also enriched the faith and devotional life of many others – both in her own family and in her larger church family.
What the psalmist says, as he exults in the goodness of the Lord, Ruth, as a believer in God’s goodness, also would have said: “For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.”
The work of God in Ruth’s life began with the work of her creation, by which Ruth was brought into existence as a member of the human race. She came into this world specifically as a member of a loving Norwegian-American family, in which she learned how to cook and bake like a Norwegian, and of course, how to sing like a Norwegian.
And in time, when Ruth and her husband Russell were joined in marriage, for life, by God, his gracious providence worked in such a way that she then had her own family, with three children. Her family now wasn’t as purely Norwegian as had been the family in which she grew up, but it was just as loving.
These were God’s works. And Ruth could have said – and probably did say – “O Lord, how great are Your works!” Ruth could have said – and probably did say – “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name.” She did give thanks, and she did sing his praises.
The Psalmist also says this in his prayer to the Lord: “Your thoughts are very deep.”
The blessings of life in this world that God graciously works for us – blessings of family and friends, of health and prosperity – are not shallow and unimportant blessings by any means. But there are blessings that involve God’s deeper thoughts, to address our deeper needs. These are the blessings, not of creation, but of redemption.
The human race into which Ruth was born – and into which we are all born – does indeed still bear the marks of the goodness of the Creator who made all things. But alongside the lingering evidence of God’s goodness, creation is also marred and disfigured by human sin.
It shouldn’t take too much effort for someone to become persuaded that all is not well in this world. And all is not well with us either – especially not in the condition that we are in when we come into the world.
St. Paul soberly reminds us, in his Epistle to the Romans, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But he immediately goes on to share this hopeful and healing truth: “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
God’s provision of a propitiation for the offense of sin in the crucifixion of Christ, and God’s justification of penitent sinners through faith in the risen Christ, are among his greatest and most important works.
As an active member of a church where these saving truths are confessed, Ruth rejoiced that she had been baptized into this salvation from sin and death. Ruth rejoiced that in the ongoing gift of the Sacrament of the Altar, she was sustained in this salvation from sin and death.
Ruth knew that her sins were forgiven before God through the atonement of Christ, and that she was an adopted child of God through the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. She could not contain her joy in this knowledge – and she didn’t try to! The music and the hymns simply flowed out of her.
As a singer – a Christian singer – she sang about this salvation, with the deep gladness that God’s redemption and reconciliation in Christ bring to all who admit their need for this redemption and reconciliation.
Ruth, with a true and deep faith that had been worked in her by the grace of the Lord, acknowledged that it was indeed good to give thanks to the Lord for the gift of eternal life in Christ, and to sing praises to his name for this marvelous gift.
And she used her musical ability also to help others sing of these things, as she led the worship of this congregation, on the keyboard of its organ, on many, many occasions.
Ruth, and those whom she helped in their worship, rested in the Word of God and were soothed by it, as that Word found poetic and musical expression in the many hymn texts that passed through her lips, and that were accompanied and underscored by her playing.
Truly, God’s works here in this place, over many years, included the works that he performed for the edification of the members of this congregation through Ruth, whom he had gifted for this purpose. And so, as we today remember her life and her service, we are thankful to the Lord, and sing his praises.
We, today, triumph in the works of his hands, as we celebrate Ruth’s triumph in Christ: as her spirit is with him now, and as we lay to rest in the earth her mortal remains, until the final day of resurrection and restoration which Christ has promised to her and to us.
For Ruth, her rest has indeed now come. Her singing voice in this world has now been silenced, and her musical hands on the keyboard have now been stilled.
But the song remains, and the music continues, because God in his faithfulness, and in his redeeming love, is still reaching out to all who yet live: inviting us to hear and heed his invitation to trust in him and receive his salvation, to glorify him in our music, and to sing his praises.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, on the lute, and on the harp, with harmonious sound. For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.” Amen.