Song gives wings to the soul. We sing our sweetest to the One who put the new song in our hearts.
It has to be one of the most descriptive—and delightful—sentences in the Chronicles: “And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began” (2 Chron 29:27). How could the burnt offering be described? It was the best that could be offered, and it was given all for God. The altar in Jerusalem that had been cold and neglected for so long now glowed with a divine flame as their hearts glowed with joy and devotion to the Lord. The ultimate Burnt Offering, of course, was offered at Calvary’s hill. Who can imagine the song that began in the heavenly courts when the cry, “It is finished!” rent the veil between? Hezekiah had seen to it that “he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps,…for thus was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets” (v 25). “So all the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished” (v 28). I believe that would have been for twelve hours—from sunup until sundown! It was a literal fulfillment of Psalm 113:3, “From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is to be praised.” But heaven’s song, whose strength and sweetness increases with each ransomed soul joining in as they pass through death into glory, will never have an end. And the fragrant memory from that Sacrifice will linger in the air forever. The apostle Paul links together the sacrificial cost in our love for one another with the ultimate offering of Christ. “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph 5:2). One cannot enjoy the sweetness without the sacrifice. Real love is costly, but precious.