new song

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Oh sing him a song that is new, play loudly with all your skill. Psalm 33:1

 

A new song? Solomon taught that there is nothing new under the sun, so I guess we have to take what is old and say it in new ways, with our own voice. St. Paul knew the words he shared were from God and carried God’s living power. (1 Thess 2:13) Oh, Lord, grant us the same confidence and let us be as empty a vessel as can be. Pour your old, true words and power into the shape of this vessel. Let them take the unique form that is ours by your grace and send them out as a living power. Amen

Play loudly with all your skill?  I must play my instrument with great enthusiasm and soulfulness. My song of praise is sung with my pen. Others might sing, draw, parent, practice their profession, but whatever form it takes, we are to belt it out! 

David praised God with his voice and his harp. These were his instruments, what are yours? Mine are words. To me God says, ‘Write without care, abandon yourself to expressing your praise. Use everything you have and are to tell of my Goodness.” Yes! Come Holy Spirit, fashion a new song within us and let us sing it loudly. Amen.

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Patience when you’re in the Pits?

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog. Psalm 40:1

David, caught in a miry bog and a desolate pit is able to wait patiently for God to relieve him from a sticky and lonely place. Wow. He did not cease crying to God, (I’m assuming for deliverance and help) yet he could patiently remain. That blows my mind.

I transfer the images of a literal pit and miry bog to emotional ones. I see a hole in the ground either so large, I could fall into it and be trapped; or so small and unnoticeable, I could trip into it and lie immobile because of an injury sustained from the fall. I imagine a lake that seems safe, but is in fact quicksand. I am stuck, all my efforts to free myself only end with me sinking deeper in the muck.

I don’t purposely fall into pits or bogs, but sometimes I find myself in a situation or relationship where I feel lonely, abandoned, conflicted or trapped. I long for escape but there is no relief. I remain desolate and in tumult, stranded in an unbearable situation.

David could wait patiently for God’s response. Can I? Can I trust God is aware of and involved in this process? Can I continually voice my desire for rescue without demanding it?

A sense of uselessness and a fear of insignificance is my pit and bog. God, though, is graciously granting me a glimpse of how this trapped-ness is purifying my soul. When I angrily beat my fists, against the wall of my nothingness, God joins me in the pit and reminds me I am his and I am enough. When I accuse myself of being a loser in all things spiritual, God shows me that my standards of success are set higher than his.

I am quieted, I am grateful, I trust this pit is a place of transformation. And when I am delivered, God puts a new song in my mouth. One of praise that points to God’s glory, not my own. Lord, have mercy.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Psalm 40:3

With you in the journey,

Debby