I’ve recently started reading CS Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, having only read Lion, Witch etc as a child. They’re good fun, but a long way from Middle Earth in every sense. But I like the image of Aslan singing Narnia into life – a more animated vision of ‘God spoke and it was so’.

The Church Fathers said that a prayer was twice as effective if it was sung, presumably because it involved more of you than simply saying a word or two.

Which is why sung liturgy is so essential, of course. All we can do is sing. We can’t earn our salvation, all we can do is sing in thanksgiving.

What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness gather round!
Songs in the night He giveth:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
(Robert Lowry, 1860)