Every once in a while our thoughts turn deep, and we begin to consider spiritual things we otherwise have taken for granted. This often takes the form of reconsidering the doctrines we believe (which we have deemed our
), the whys of what we do in church, or even, the presumptions we possess regarding how things work in nature.
Sound is one of those things that recently came to our attention. This phenomenon called sound is really an astounding feature of God's creation. The process of hearing, including the auditory apparatus and the interpretive ability of the brain, is really quite amazing from a design perspective. Because of God's infinite creativity, we possess the ability to receive and derive meaning from the sounds that fill the atmosphere.
A good example of the above sound wave graph is the vibration of a guitar string. When plucked, it rapidly vibrates back and forth. The harder it is plucked, the greater the amplitude, that is, the farther the string travels from the center point. If a finger is placed on the fretboard and the string is plucked again, the string will vibrate faster (frequency), i.e., it will sound a higher pitch. But since a guitar is relatively stationary, the back-and-forth motion stays in the same space, while the wave above represents sound along an axis.
Notice also in the upper half of the above picture how the air molecules are compressed and released in waves. This is actually what happens to the air when a source makes a sound, though we can't see it. For this, imagine the cone of an audio speaker, moving back and forth as sound plays through it. The effect of this motion would be to compress and release the air around it, which in turn would compress and release the air farther and farther out. Like the waves in a pond when a rock is tossed in.
These are the invisible waves that bring sound to our ears.
Components of Sound
A combination of amplitude and frequency yields loudness and pitch. This would be perceived by the brain as a hum with a distinct tonal center and volume... a musical note. In fact, every musical note vibrates a specific frequency. In our example above, 440 hertz happens to be the pitch "A." The musical scale is divided into 12 steps (the chromatic scale), according to an approximate mathematical division.
Yes, there is a mathematical precision to
pitch:
Musicians have found that absolute mathematical precision does create some auditory problems that require adjustment.
J.S. Bach formalized a tuning where he hedged certain pitches (that is, he tuned them slightly off of mathematical precision) so that all harmonies (combinations of pitches) sound pleasant to the ear. Bach wrote a comprehensive set of musical pieces called the
Well-Tempered Clavier to explore this adjusted tuning.
In musicians today use
altered tunings, sometimes by accident (for example, an audio tape recorder where the tape stretches over time but remains in tune with itself), or on purpose (like a quarter step detune, to make it harder to duplicate the song, or to create a different "feel" to the sound). Trained ears can recognize an altered tuning
That being said, there's more to pleasant sounds than well-tempered or even altered pitch. An unadorned "A" 440 hertz sound would be very "dry," with no character or complexity. That is what we see in the smooth, regular wave depicted above. It is called a
sine wave, that is, a mathematically pure wave, something a computer would generate.
Sine waves are not found in nature. Sound waves are always found in combinations, with variations in the amplitude and frequency contained right within the wave, like this graph:
This wave represents a much more complex sound. In fact, because most sounds are combinations of sounds, they are perceived as containing a richness and depth that comes out of the interplay between various frequencies. That is, a vibration and one frequency will affect another thing vibrating at a different frequency, and the combination of the two sounds yield a sound more intricate than the two sounds separately. This means that all the sounds we might typically hear are many sounds at once (
overtones and
timbre), and each sound colors and affects other sounds.
This is how we are able to recognize the difference between a guitar plucking an "A" 440 and a violin plucking the same pitch. Although both are stringed instruments playing the same pitch, the intricacies (timbre) of their respective sound waves are different and very recognizable to the ear.
The above wave is probably a single sound source, but what happens when there are many sound sources? It might look like this:
This graph could be a musical concert, a large crowd of people, a beach with crashing waves, or a jungle at night. Sound waves are not typically charted this way, however. What we see here is actually an overlay of many sound waves simply piled on top of each other. But as mentioned, sounds combine and affect each other, where the sum of the whole is greater than its parts. Thus a multi-source graph of sound waves, like what might be heard at a musical concert, would look more like this:
This still looks like a sound wave, but at this resolution it looks very dense and intricate. The more we zoom in, the more detail we see in the graph:
The above graph is most likely music. We can see pulses between the large peaks on the left half of the graph, probably the music beat, like the drums perhaps. And even though we have zoomed in, we can still see this still is a highly intricate graph.
Digital vs. Analog
The above graph is a representation of a digital recording, where sound is coded by computer programs into ones and zeros. Digital sound is typically recorded at
44,100 hertz. That is, the resolution (i.e., the highest available frequency) of the recording is 44,100 vibrations per second. Although the typical healthy human ear has an audio range of about
20 hertz to 20,000 hertz, vibrations outside this range can still be discerned in some fashion because as we discussed above, frequencies affect other frequencies, which changes what the human ear hears even if that particular frequency is outside the audio range of the ear. This is why digital resolution is much higher than the human ear can hear.
As contrasted to digital recordings, analog recordings are the actual sound waves committed to a medium like a vinyl record or arranged magnetically on a recording tape. Here's an extreme closeup of a vinyl record:
Audiophiles insist that analog recordings are superior to digital recordings, because analog recordings have what is essentially unlimited resolution, not capped at 44,100 hertz. They would claim that analog recordings are more natural, or warm, or less harsh. The typical person would probably not be able to discern the difference, however.
As we zoom in farther to our digital recording, we can now actually see the smallest resolution of a digital sound wave. An analog wave would still have smooth slopes, but here this digital wave reflects the smallest increment, 44,100 hertz:
This is a very extreme closeup, representing a sound that lasts only a fraction of a second. Notice how the various steps up and down the slope are of different heights, which means it is not a sine wave. It is this limitation of the resolution to 44,100 hertz that creates a jagged sound wave.
Organized Sound
Unorganized sound is known as noise. Noise is random sound, chaotic, orderless sound. Below is a graph of what is known as
white noise, which is all frequencies combined together at once. It is the sound of a radio between stations, or a TV without an antenna, or the sound of ocean surf from a distance.
Here's an audio example of what white noise sounds like.
Organized vibration, however, is sound that carries information and has meaning. The more highly organized, the more information is contained. We know something because certain sounds carry meaning. Rocks crunching under our feet as we walk conveys information, like the relative size of the gravel, and perhaps what kind of rock. Trees rustling in the wind conveys more information, like the weather, the variety of tree, and the velocity of the wind. A bird chirping is sound that is even more organized, because we might be able to tell the species, the reason it is chirping, the time of year, the geographic location, etc.
Human speech is even more organized, with the potential to carry intensely intricate nuance and meaning. From guttural grunts to poetry and grand oratory, the spectrum, variety, and expressiveness of human speech boggles the mind.
We believe that the most highly organized sound that man is capable of producing is music. Music can convey emotion, intellect, profundity, creativity, nuance, mood, and poetry and storytelling all at once. No other sound medium has this capability.
And music is the language of creation:
Ps. 66:4 All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name. Selah
The Voice of God
Now that we have discussed the natural principles of sound, we want to turn to spiritual principles.
As we mentioned at the beginning, all of creation is in a vibratory state. In essence, all creation is making sounds, even if we cannot hear them. But when there is absolutely no vibration, there is nothing. A void. Complete chaos, a totally
entropic state. Chaos is lifelessness:
Ge. 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep...
Where there is existence, there is vibration, which means there is sound. This means existence (vibration) came to be when the eternally pre-existent One spoke, and the power of the vibrations of His voice created more vibrations:
Ge. 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
His first creative act (and all of God's creative acts) was by the agency of His voice. That voice set things in motion; that first creation was the highest vibration, light. It is no accident that God created light first. ...darkness was over the surface of the deep... The first step to bringing order out of chaos is for light to illuminate the darkness:
1Jn. 1:5b God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
So God spoke, which is the most highly ordered sound that can exist. Before He spoke, there was nothing vibrating; that is, nothing was vibrating. His voice is powerful, creating, destroying, reverberating in the heaven and on earth:
Ps. 29:4-5 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
Re. 1:15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
We see the power of His voice at the transfiguration:
Mt. 17:5-6 ...a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified.
The Word of God, Jesus, is the pre-eminent voice in the universe:
He. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
He. 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Even as man Jesus' voice carried the power of His deity:
Jn. 18:6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
If God ever stopped speaking, everything would stop vibrating and stop existing.
The Spiritual Nature of Sound
If the powerful voice of God created everything, and everything vibrates by its very existence, then all of creation produces sound.
Imagine the ocean, covered with waves. Each vertical slice of the ocean, when viewed from the side, looks like a sound wave. Tens of thousands of miles of constantly changing waves. And the mountains, solid representations of a wave. The prairie grass moving in the wind. The changing shape of a bird’s wing as it flies. A massive school of fish shifting in the current.
The whole world represents sound waves.
So, what if this vibration of all of creation could be made audible to us? If we could hear the sound of all the waves of the ocean, what would we hear?
Re. 14:2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
There is one inescapable conclusion. It would be worship. All the stuff God created worships Him with a music intrinsic to its very nature:
1 Chron 16:31-33 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’ Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them! Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for joy before the LORD…
Worship is the language of creation:
Re. 5:13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Worship so fundamental to creation that it is a strange event when it doesn’t happen. One particular instance in Scripture is noteworthy:
Rev 8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
This event, this silence, must have been so unusual, so strange. Our guess is that it had never happened before. Silence in heaven? May it never be!
Worship, the audible declarations of the glory of God:
Luke 19:40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they [the worshipers] keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
You see, if we don’t exalt Him, if we don’t worship, if we don’t sing of His glories, some other part of creation is going to fill in the gap. Therefore, we violate the laws of creation by not worshiping. So we would suggest that you start doing what you are created to do. Don’t let the stones worship in your place!
The Power of the Tongue
We all know the Scriptures regarding our tongues, i.e., what we speak:
Ja. 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Ja. 3:5-6 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
Ja. 3:9-10 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.
1Pe. 3:10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
What proceeds from our mouth is described as fruit:
He. 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name.
We think the spiritual nature of sound impacts the spiritual realm. We don't think our words create reality (see our explanation here), but rather reflect one of two realities: God's reality, or the reality of the kingdom of darkness. Therefore our words find agreement in one of these realities, either speaking blessing and life, or curses and death (i.e., chaos, the original state from Genesis chapter one).
Conclusion
We have discovered that God's voice is the sustaining agent of creation (He. 1:3), that is, the vibrations of His voice keeps the universe in proper vibration. Vibration is a fact of all of creation, and that these vibrations affect other vibrations. The vibrations that comprise our voices and our songs therefore must impact other vibrations, for either good or evil.
The more highly organized the vibration is, the more meaning is contained therein. The highest human expression of vibration is the exaltation of God, who created all things. Thus we should seek to conform the vibrations we produce with the vibrations of the holy and pure.
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