I started playing the trumpet in fourth grade at Oaks Elementary School. I pity the music director who taught me in those beginning years. Of course, one of the things I really liked about the trumpet was that you could play it loud! All my life playing the trumpet, I have heard choir directors complain about how loud the trumpets were playing. I must smile every time I hear them tell the trumpets to play more quietly. It is not an instrument that lends itself to playing quietly.
When I was in college, I traveled in a singing group for a year. I remember going to a small church that was very uniquely built. The church auditorium was inside the building and was totally encased in block walls. There were no carpets, and the chairs were metal, folding chairs. I played my trumpet during the time the offering was being taken. When I practiced in that room, I was thrilled with how the sound just ran around that room. Without carpets, or padding on the chairs, the sound had freedom to resound around that room.
After the service in that church, I had an older man come up to me and he said the most interesting thing. He commented that he was impressed that I had played so quietly. He told me when he saw me stand up to play, he was worried that his eardrums would burst! Today I read some verses that made me smile deep within my soul. Psalm 47:5-6 says, “God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.”
I was so glad to read this verse, because it is God telling us that it is okay to play the trumpet loudly in praise to our God! I have written this with some humor (intended), however, the point of these verses is that when we praise God, we ought to do it with all our might. We are told to praise God with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet. I don’t think God’s choir director will tell the trumpets to play quietly! I think that the trumpets will be asked to play as loudly as possible in order to draw the attention to the God Who deserves it!
Even though most of you reading this today do not play the trumpet, I hope you will do all you can to praise God with your whole heart. There is nothing more satisfying to a trumpet player than playing music that was arranged and written by another trumpet player. There is nothing more satisfying to a Christian, than to praise the God Who saved them with their whole voice (or trumpet)! Praise God loudly today!