A well known religious TV program is entitled Words and Music. The title prompts us to think about how much the interaction of words and music affect us. The relationship is especially significant when the words come from scripture. When we read Psalm 27 “the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I be afraid?” many of us hear the triumphal solo “The Lord Is my Light.” We hear in our minds the soaring solo voice confidently proclaiming the Lord’s salvation. Even the secular setting of Ecclesiastes “to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven” rings true in our minds and hearts. Many of the settings of scripture in Handel’s Messiah repeat every time we read the passage. Who can remain unmoved by the Alto solo “He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom and gently lead the mother sheep?” We remember in Holy Week Steiner’s God So Loved the World. Even non musicians recognize Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and thrill to “the kingdoms of this world is come the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.” The words and the music together reinforce their significance in our hearts and minds. We do not even need to work at memorizing the words because they plant themselves deeply in our consciousness. Poetry and music combined are powerful in every culture and time. So, “Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth,” and while you are at it sing unto the Lord some old songs as well as together we sign praises to our God.