Daily Verse
Monday, August 10, 2026
Stewardship
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Monday's Reflection
Psalm 33:3 — Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
Johann Sebastian Bach is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers who ever lived. The depth and beauty of his music have moved people for three centuries, and musicians still study it as a kind of summit of the art. But Bach did not see his extraordinary gift as something that belonged to him, to be used for his own fame. He saw it as a trust from God, to be managed for God's glory. At the top of his manuscripts he often wrote the letters "J.J." — short for a Latin phrase meaning "Jesus, help." And at the end, when the work was complete, he wrote "S.D.G." — Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." His talent was on loan, and he signed every piece back over to its true Owner.
Bach lived out this stewardship through relentless, humble diligence. For much of his life he worked as a church musician, grinding out new compositions week after week, year after year, much of it never performed again in his lifetime and some of it nearly lost after his death. He did it not for applause — there was often very little — but because he believed the work itself was an offering to God. He once wrote that the whole aim of music should be nothing other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. He also knew deep suffering: he lost his first wife and many of his children, burying grief after grief, and still he kept working, kept offering his gift back to God.
Bach is a picture of what it means to steward a talent. He had received an immense gift, and he ministered it — to use Peter's word — as a good steward, pouring it out in service rather than hoarding it for himself. Most of us will never have Bach's genius, but every one of us has received some gift, some ability, some capacity that God has entrusted to us. The question is the same for the gifted and the ordinary alike: are we using what we have been given to draw attention to ourselves, or are we writing "to God alone be the glory" over our lives? A gift stewarded well always points beyond the one who holds it.
Prayer: Lord, like Bach, help us to see our gifts as a trust from You, to be spent for Your glory and not our own. Whatever ability You have entrusted to us, may we offer it back to You, writing "to God alone be the glory" over all we do. Amen.