I will sing

Thursday

Psalm 104:24-31

³³I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

I sat down to work on this post, and wrote “I just wish that I could hear” instead. It’s posted on my blog Jacob_Limping – Jacob limping towards the Promised Land.

There are times we can’t sing. It’s why we come together as a worshipping community – so that others can carry us with their song.

It is the hardest thing to teach congregations. We are so wired to think of worship in terms of what it does for me. We evaluate the preaching, the music, the hymns, the prayers – even the acolytes and ushers – based on what they do for me. Does the preacher inspire me? Do the songs speak to me? But there have been times when I have not been able to sing – or even to speak – and in those times the congregation has carried me.

We sing for one another. We pray the ‘Amen’ for one another. We say the creed even if that morning we cannot believe any of it, because there are people there who need to hear all of it – that there is a God who fashioned them in love, who embraces them in Christ, who gathers them by the Spirit.

We sing for one another. We bear each other up like the men bringing their friend on his mat to Jesus. So determined are they that, when they cannot get in the door, they carry home to the roof and lower him down. Would we were so determined in our song. Determined to sing for one another. Determined to sing for the world. Determined to sing for the whole creation. Determined to sing with and for the Leviathan in the sea.

The world needs our song. The world of crackling weapons and concussive explosions needs our song. The world of angry mobs and bitter politicians needs our song. The mean streets and lonely houses need our song.

 

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APriereMilan.jpg By Taizé (Taizé) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons