According to the Book of Job, God’s work of creation was done to musical accompaniment. “Where wast thou,” God asks, “when I laid the foundations of the earth . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” John Dryden carried the idea a bit further than this, but not, perhaps, too far to be true:
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
“Arise, ye more than dead!”
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music’s power obey.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.
From “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”
Verse
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? . . . On what were its footings set, or who laid its footing set, / or who laid its cornerstone—/ while the morning stars sang together / and all the angels shouted for joy?” Job 38:4–5
Thought
God’s work of creation was done to musical accompaniment.
Prayer
In great joy and celebration, You, Father, created the world and all that is in it!