To the Choir Master: What It Really Means in the Psalms According to Neville Goddard

Many of the Psalms begin with a curious phrase: “To the choir master” (or in some versions, “To the chief musician”). At first glance, this appears to be a mere musical instruction — perhaps a note to the temple musicians, a piece of ancient liturgical formality. But when we approach the Bible through the symbolic understanding taught by Neville Goddard, the meaning becomes far more intimate and profound.

Neville insisted that the Bible is not a record of historical events, but a psychological drama — a coded map of consciousness. Every phrase, every character, every directive is symbolic of something happening within you. So what does the “choir master” represent in this inward journey?

The Choir Master as Inner Director

The choir master is not someone outside of you. It symbolises the ordering principle within your own mind — the one who directs, disciplines, and harmonises your inner world. According to Neville, this would be your imagination or more precisely, your focused attention. It is that faculty of consciousness which brings all the inner voices — thoughts, feelings, assumptions, doubts, and desires — into accord.

In a choir, many voices sing together. Without a director, they would fall into disharmony. The same is true of your inner life. If your thoughts are left to wander aimlessly, they will often contradict each other, pulling you in different directions and creating confusion or stagnation. But when your inner world is governed — when there is a choir master — all thoughts begin to work in unity toward a single direction.

Directing Your Psalms Within

When a Psalm says, “To the choir master”, it is not addressing an external figure in an ancient temple. It is a symbolic instruction: direct this declaration to your imagination. Speak this inner truth or song to the part of you that can gather all mental activity into harmony with a chosen state. These Psalms are affirmations, emotional expressions, and revelations intended to be impressed on the imaginative faculty — the part of you that creates your reality.

In Neville’s words, “Imagination is God.” So to send your Psalm “to the choir master” is to plant it in God — in the creative power of your inner being. You are asking your imagination to take up this feeling, this prayer, this truth, and bring your world into alignment with it.

Conclusion: A Call to Inner Harmony

The next time you come across the phrase “To the choir master”, read it not as a footnote, but as a spiritual cue. It is a reminder that you are the conductor of your inner life. You have the power to orchestrate your thoughts and feelings in harmony with the state you wish to live from. Direct your song — your state of being — not into the air, but to the choir master within.

Only then can the music of your life play out in beautiful and deliberate form.