Ben has posted a portion of a forthcoming book on "work in the light of kingdom come." Ben says, "I want to present a brief case for being an artist as a proper way to glorify God and edify others." Read on...
Update: I decided to add an excerpt in which Ben refers to God as an inspirer of music:
God is not just a ‘visual’ artist, God is both an inspirer of, but also
a composer, of music, as Robert Banks points out. So for instance God
tells the Israelite leaders in Deut. 31.19 “write down this song and
teach it to the Israelites, and have them sing it.” In fact there is a
direct connection made between God giving verbal
wisdom to someone and
God inspiring song in 1 Kngs. 4. 32—“God gave Solomon wisdom…he spoke
3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005.” The precise number of the
latter suggests someone took a specific count of the number of times
the King was inspired and given lyrics this way.
God however is not just heavenly source of inspiration. God is a blues
singer. Thus in Jeremiah we hear ‘Therefore I wail over Moab…my heart
laments for Moab like a flute…” (Jerm. 48.31-36), but he also sings
joyful anthems and ballads “The Lord your God is with you…he will quiet
you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.’
(Zephan.3.14,17). God doesn’t just sing morning music however, he also
sings night music—“By the day the Lord directs his love, and at night
his song is with me…” (Ps. 42.8). No wonder the natural response to
God, is music of all sorts, for God is not merely the inspirer of all
sorts of music, God embodies and shares all sorts of music.
Robert Banks puts it this way:
Just as love is not only
directed to or expressed by God, since God, as the apostle John says,
is love, so is God not only the one who inspires and enjoys music, but
also is music and song. This makes God the supreme exemplar, as well as
the supreme author and audience, of music. This makes God music’s chief
patron, which is why making music ‘to the glory of God’ is so fitting.
It is only giving back to what God has given in the first place. It is
only recognizing that the musical dimension of life, like the orderly
character of the universe, ultimately stems from the musical character
of God. In the end we make music not simply because God gives us the
capacity to do so or appreciates our making it, but because God is
inherently musical. . . (more . . .)