The Timely Truth for this week is ... MUSIC

”Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16)

Music has a way to be able to significantly transform moments, heal wounds and connect hearts across time and space. For believers, it serves as both a vessel for worship and a companion through life’s most profound experiences. In my own life, music is an enjoyable form of worship and an opportunity to personally and pensively commune with God through artists and songs that praise and honor the Father.

Recently in my personal studies, I’ve been reading about the life of Corrie Ten Boom. During World War II, Corrie found herself imprisoned in the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp alongside her sister Betsie. In that place of unimaginable darkness, where hope seemed impossible, something extraordinary happened. Despite the guards’ prohibition against any form of worship, Corrie and Betsie would whisper hymns to fellow prisoners huddled in their barracks. “Jesus Loves Me” became their anthem of defiance against despair. The simple melody, sung in hushed tones, carried more power than any weapon. It reminded broken souls that even in humanity’s darkest hour, God’s love remained constant. Music became their lifeline, transforming a place of death into a sanctuary of hope.

Corrie later wrote that these songs sustained them when food could not, comforted them when human touch was forbidden, and united them when the enemy sought to divide. The melodies carried prayers beyond the barbed wire, lifting spirits that circumstances sought to crush.

I also encountered a story of a small rural church in Kentucky, where a young boy named David had been mute since a traumatic accident claimed his parents’ lives. The eight-year-old boy retreated into silence, unable to speak despite doctors finding no physical cause. His grandmother, a woman of deep faith, brought him to every church service, believing that somehow God would break through.

One Sunday morning, as the congregation sang “Amazing Grace,” something stirred within David. The familiar melody seemed to unlock something deep in his heart. Tentatively, barely audible, he began to hum along. Week by week, his humming grew stronger. Then came whispered words, followed by full-voiced singing. Music became the key that unlocked his voice and, ultimately, his healing. The same song that had comforted millions became the pathway for one boy’s restoration.

Music possesses a unique role in our spiritual lives. Like the psalms David wrote while hiding in caves or celebrating his military and spiritual victories, music gives voice to emotions too deep for ordinary words. It carries us through valleys of despair and lifts us to mountaintops of praise.

The apostle Paul understood this when he instructed the Colossians to let Christ’s message dwell richly among them through “psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” Music isn’t merely entertainment in the Christian life — it’s a spiritual discipline that shapes our hearts, teaches truth and builds community.

When we sing together, we join a chorus that spans centuries. We harmonize with martyrs and missionaries, with mothers and children, with the broken and the healed. Our voices blend with angels and archangels in a symphony that began in Eden and will crescendo in eternity.

Whether whispered in a prison camp or sung in a country church, music remains God’s gift to His people — a language that transcends words, a comfort that outlasts circumstances, and a celebration that echoes the very heart of heaven itself.

This week, praise God for the gift of music, and offer a song of thanksgiving to Him wherever you may be, whether in a church sanctuary, driving from place to place or even in the familiar surroundings of your own home.