Today I listened to opera. Yup, that esoteric, high brow music sung by stout tenors and regal sopranos in foreign languages which most ordinary people avoid like the plague because it is mostly unintelligible. It often puts wary  people right to sleep or into a frenzied escape. Many find it to be irrelevant and “weird.” Dan would have preferred some   raspy , cigarette- infused honky tonk from Willy Nelson but, hey, I was home by myself. I cranked up Pavarotti, et al, over the vacuum cleaner’s whine and listened to some of the most sublime voices on the planet. As their powerful voices stretched into the stratosphere, into seemingly impossible ranges of pure sound – without benefit of any instruments lifting them along – it was the next best thing to flying.

I am not an opera buff by any means. I’ve only attended a few live operas in my entire life, and assuredly my husband had a sound nap during the performances. Without an English version of the libretto I can’t understand 99% of what’s being sung on stage even if it is in a language I know. Why then does opera move me so deeply? What is the attraction?

It is the voices. In fact opera is all about the human voice and the emotional/ psychological/ spiritual depths it can express. The voice in opera is central to everything else going on, the reason for the musical  score, acting and dramatic story. Today I listened to  exquisite voices  singing about things I didn’t understand and yet, was  still deeply moved. It is the singer’s voice which works itself into the heart and soul, not the text. Interestingly, the word comes from the Latin opera which means to work or labor. Watching an opera singer perform it is easy to understand the concept of laboring in song.

What moved me was hearing The Voice, God’s Voice behind the voices of  opera singers , for their  talent and gifts can only come from the Lord. It was God who created Adam with a voice box and a powerful sets of lungs. The Lord God created us in His own image and likeness. He gave men the same creative power to speak His Word, to create as He did with speech. Or not. James says that we have the power but that…

…Out of the same mouth  come praise and cursing. James 3:10

I’d like to point out that the tongue without the accompanying human voice would be useless.  God gave us both for His purposes. What then can be said of our ability to sing? And to sing like angels, at that?

God wants us  to speak life into creation but can it be that God also desires us to sing  ourselves right back to Him? I like to think that Adam and Eve sang all the time in the Garden before the Fall and that there were incredible,  soaring songs of joy, songs of praise, songs of mystery and songs of wonder. Perhaps they were the very first “opera stars”, able to hit bigger notes than Pavarotti or Maria Callas could ever hope to imitate. Perhaps, the Lord God sang right along with them and through them because He loved His children so much He could not hold back His own voice from them. God’s Big voice and man’s smaller voice blended  in perfect, glorious harmonies.  It’s an image to make  me want to sing at the top of my voice! Then came the fall – and the singing on planet earth changed. We have music and we have have opera, but it is cannot possibly come close to how it once was when man sang with God. Now, it is labor.

In the Book of Job, it implies that God never took away man’s singing. Job asks, and proclaims:

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:6-7

We still sing. There is a tiny melody in the heart which can’t be silenced. Our voices encased in mortal bodies still desire to reach the heavens like operatic stars. Singing is in our spiritual bones and a sign that despite all our waywardness, God Himself is still singing over us!

The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

The Hebrew word for singing is to “joyfully cry out with loudness.” Throughout its history as a nation, Israel sang loudly, cried out to the Lord whenever they were beset by their enemies. Their songs resounded throughout the ancient world, revealing Yahweh to the pagans. David wrote  psalms extolling God’s covenant  faithfulness to His people. Mostly David sang out of joy and love for his God.

Sing to the Lord a new song./ Sing to the Lord all the earth./ Sing to the Lord, praise His Name. Psalm 96:1-2

As the people of God, we sing to  praise Him and to reveal Him to others. If we are gifted with great voices, if we have operatic gifts, literal or metaphoric, it is not for ourselves but for God’s glory. Our Lord prayed, “lead us not into temptation”, especially the temptation of self glorification. If we have  a great voice, there is the danger of becoming self indulgent, temperamental and idolatrous. Humility and obedience to God’s Word is needed to kick the “diva” right out of us.

On earth our voices may shatter crystal or we may barely croak like a frog, but it won’t matter in the end. Revelation gives a glimpse into heaven and clearly shows that those who believe in Jesus will all be singing to Him and for Him forever and ever. Amen.

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”… Revelation 5: 11-13.

It will pure joy,  an eternal, divine, musical opera, without labor ever again.

Friede