by RobertCummins | Aug 17, 2014 | 33. The Song
Psalm 98
“O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things….. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.” (Ps 98; 1,4)
“The Song” may have been an anticlimactic theme for some. I know it would have been for me a few years ago. I would have thought, “Song? I don’t hear anything akin to music playing in me”. And sadly, I was a teaching elder, a worship leader and the adult Sunday school director. Outwardly, it may have looked impressive. Jobs were getting done within the local church which helped keep its machinery running. The problem was – my inner-machinery was starting to “run hot”.
Three warning lights were going off in me; emotions, relationships and physical health. These indicators had been flashing or some time. Others had seen it but few people were brave or skilled enough to approach a machine that is about to explode. Do you have people close enough to you who can recognize signs of a troubled heart or offer anything more than their sympathy even if they do?
Just before my engine completely locked up, I was fortunate enough to find three men who understood that the outer expression of our lives flows from the inner workings of our hearts.
The first was a virtual stranger who had just prayed for me; he asked, “Did you know you are full of religion?” I was taken aback. I wanted to remind him he was asked to pray for my back not comment on my life. Instead I just filed this away as one of those mysterious words which might make more sense in the future. Thank you friend, whoever you were!
The second man was Charlie Finck. He is a counselor with Liberty Cross Ministries. Even though I only spent a week with Charlie, I feel as though I owe Him my life. My praise for Charlie may sound dramatized. All I know is that when I showed up on his doorstep, other than a dirge, I had no perceived song playing in my heart. I left believing that I was meant to sing and that I was to attend to my song. Thank you so much Charlie!
I didn’t know exactly what my song was going to sound like. I just knew there was one within me. It took another person to help me discover what my song would sound like. The third member of God’s intervention team was Brad Sprague. Brad calls himself a life-coach. I think of him as a shepherd because he is a man who knows there are songs within us and he lives with a passion to hear them sung. With his toolkit he is able to help folks like me discover their songs and encourage us to begin singing them. Thank you so much Brad!
There is another essential element to escaping songlessness. It is the example and encouragement of other singers. Without their example and encouragement I might have imploded. I can’t list them for risk of leaving someone out. You know who you are. You are the ones God placed near me who have become my community of faith. Thank you for being my family!
Then there are those who have loved me and endured me in my songlessness. Oh how much I owe these people! My wife in particular, Daneille. She is God’s perfect compliment to me. While it would appear our polar opposite make-ups could produce an explosion, she has instead been a redemptive balance in our marriage relationship. I am certain she has rescued me from social isolation. Her joyful spirit has kept our ship afloat and on course through many a storm. Thank you Daneille!
Then of course there is the Lord Himself who heard my cry…..
Now, thanks be to You who have proven that You are able to keep me from stumbling and have enabled me to stand (and sing) boldly in the presence of Your glory, blameless with great joy. (a personalization of Jude 24)
I believe we are called to recognize the life of God within each other, to affirm it and encourage it. Frankly, when I read the New Testament, I don’t see professionals. I don’t see the gift of counseling and coaching mentioned per se. I do see the word “pastor” (or shepherd) which I suspect embodies what Charlie, Brad (and I suspect you and I) are called to do.
The local church, as it it is currently structured, even with the largest and best staffs, cannot cover all the shepherding needs within the body of Christ. There is simply not enough pros to go around. Hats off to those leaders who recognize this and are taking steps to promote authentic community among God’s people where spiritual fathers and mothers are intentionally being recognized, equipped and reproduced. Hats off to those leaders who are equipping the saints in this way for service – attempting to train us up, so that with the Word and the Spirit, we can serve as coaches, counselors and prophets to those within our relational networks, ultimately releasing new songs all around us.
How truly beautiful His Bride will become when His life finds its fullest expression through her and not a single child’s song will be left unsung. Each of us has a special “part” that is uniquely ours and is essential to the song God is composing and longs to hear. I wonder if this will not be The Song of the Lamb.
O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things…..
Father, may You contend for full dominion over our hearts until every last remnant of opposition to Your kingdom is surrendered. Even if we are models of Christian service, give us the courage to recognize if we are songless, and grant that we might find those around us who are singing; who can model abundant life. Raise up a new generation of your family with prophetic and shepherding gifts who can promote healing and community by virtue of Your life within us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Aug 16, 2014 | 33. The Song
Psalm 98
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.
A melody is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm. It may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment. Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases and are usually repeated throughout a composition in various forms. (Thank you Wikipedia)
Recent music trends remind me how deeply I value melody. When I walk into the gym I am assaulted by rhythm, not greeted by melody. I ask the proprietor if we can please find an alternative Pandora station. He complies but the next station reminds me rhythm is hot, melody is not. When music is dominated by rhythm, something in me shuts down. Melody, for me, is the sound of music, the hallowed foreground. Percussion serves best as a background. When my ear is deprived of that linear succession of tones I feel ripped off. I agree with Wikipedia….
The true goal of music—its proper enterprise—is melody. All the parts of harmony have as their ultimate purpose only beautiful melody.
This week’s Blue Book theme, “The Song”, is, in a real sense, about the melodies which are embedded in the mountains, the rivers and the trees, indeed into all creation. Worshippers understand melody – not just worshippers “singing” a succession of tones – but worshippers “thinking” a succession of right thoughts, deliberately keeping them in the foreground of their consciousness.
O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
When these beautiful words were penned all was not well with the world’s soul. Evil, just as it is today, was stalking the earth. Death was staking his claims. Disease, pestilence, poverty and other plagues, as usual, were having their say. In the presence of evil, the psalmist is demonstrating the worshipper’s capacity and discipline of keeping those themes in the backdrop. In righteous opposition to the rhythms of this world worshippers militantly displace the pervasive drumbeats of darkness with a melody consisting of one true thought of God after another. Again catch the psalmist’s melody …..
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
Father, help us see where we are majoring on minor themes, where background rhythms are drowning melody. Instead, may we burst with the melodies you have planted in us and in all creation. Draw your melody out from within us. Teach us to sing them with all boldness and joy – All for the glory of your precious name. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Aug 15, 2014 | 33. The Song
Exodus 15:1-21
“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, (since) the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea“. (parenthesis mine)
On Monday I proposed that, whether we are aware of it or not, we all have a song and that the living outward expression of our lives is our singing. I even suggested that you try and “name your tune”. Maybe I can help you a bit with this project. If this were the first line of your song, how would you complete it?
“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, (since) He has….. (fill in the blank with your personal experience.)”
How did you you complete your verse? What have you seen and experienced that might have inspired such a declaration? Verse 3 says, “The Lord is a warrior“. What enemies has God overthrown in your life? Those who have been walking with Christ will all be able to fill in that blank with something. As a son or a daughter of God, we just don’t live (sing) without having a story (hopefully many) of our exploits with God against the world, the flesh and the devil. This is our testimony. These exploits become the lyrics to our songs. We ourselves (with our songs), are the bright beams of Truth that have been predestined to shine into the darkness of our specific theaters of operation. Right here, right now, we are strategically located and divinely equipped to bring glory to God and validity to the claim of the gospel; He is making all things new. Especially us.
Some of us may be protesting here, saying the lyrics of our songs are; “But I wasn’t there to see the Red Sea parted and Israel’s enemies drown / Surely I am exempt from singing so exuberantly / Faith is purely a gift. Some have it. / I just haven’t seen evidence that miracles really happen. / I don’t have any great declarations to make and it sounds silly to compose music from all my intellectually valid questions.” I know this song well because I sang it for years. I think of this condition of heart as “songlessness”. (I am going to provide the lyrics to Mockingbird by Derek Webb at the end of this post. It’s about what happens in the religious life when we do not have our own song.)
Moses lived in a day when God was just beginning to make Himself known to His chosen race. We are further down the timeline in the evolution of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. In Moses context, the covenant between God and man involved the Law and sacrifice. In the context we enjoy, the covenant is administrated through grace and faith. So instead of waiting for evidence that He can part oceans to serve as inspiration for our songs, we are expected to “ascribe” God credit not just for what we have seen (or not seen) Him do, but…”by faith” we are to “reckon” that He is the same as He we was “then“, that He is “now” and that He will be “forevermore“. So since in this dispensation where we are to compose our songs via “reckoning” and “faith”, we approach our task of composition by writing…
“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted (since) Christ has come, taking our punishment upon Himself; (since) He conquered death in His resurrection; (since) He sent His Spirit, our Helper to earth after His ascension; (since) His Spirit indwells us – animating our previously dormant spirits.
The songs of the faithful will consist of romantic as well as military themes. Much of the bonding and intimacy between us and God develops in the heat of battle. It’s really in the trenches (living by faith) that we discover Who He is and what He is like. Our songs (if we are honest) will include painful events that seem (in the moment) to be a total loss. (In theses moments it is a great temptation to reckon ourselves as losers. Amazingly some theology will even assist in this condemnation – “What a wretched man I am.”) But our songs will also include glorious conquests where we arise from the ashes (as is normative for new creations in Christ). Our victories (at least to us) will be no less amazing than Israel’s deliverance from Pharaoh and in our spirits we are compelled to sing;
“Who is like Thee among the god’s, Oh Lord? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”
Father, I pray that you would pour out the gift of faith afresh upon us, encouraging our spirits to embrace all that You desire to be to us and through us. May our testimonies be updated with fresh encounters with You and victories over our enemy. May Your Bride be equipped with new songs to sing until that day when we all hear her sing in all her myriad parts the Song of the Ages as the knowledge of God has filled the earth as the waters fill the oceans. Amen.
Derek Webb – Mockingbird Lyrics (included because WE MUST have our own songs)
There are days / I don’t believe the words I say / Like a life that I’m not living / A song that I’m not singing but to you
And there are times / That I believe I’m satisfied / Like an intimate connection / Despite this bad reception with you
‘Cause I can’t afford to pay / For most of what I say / So it’s a lucky thing / That the truth’s public domain
And I am like a mockingbird / I’ve got no new song to sing / And I am like an amplifier / I just tell you what I’ve heard / Oh, I’m like a mockingbird
So yes, it’s true / That I need this more than you / Like one whose name is many / Have mercy, please don’t send me away
When I’ll do all I can do / To be a better man / Oh, I’ll clean up this act / And be worse than when we started
And I am like a mockingbird / I’ve got no new song to sing / And I am like an amplifier / I just tell you what I’ve heard / Oh, I’m like a mockingbird
Oh, I’m like a mockingbird
by RobertCummins | Aug 14, 2014 | 33. The Song
Isaiah 26:1-9
The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.
This verse stands out like a fragrant flower amidst the devastation Isaiah is projecting for this earth. The sobering thing is that God is this devastation’s author. It appears that Isaiah’s eyes too had seen the glory of the coming of the Lord and He was indeed trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath were stored.
Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. (Isaiah 24:1)
But what does this forecasted holocaust have to do with us; we who live within the fortified and impenetrable walls of the United States of America – arguably the most powerful and prosperous nation this earth has known? It may help the steadfastness of our minds to recall that it was idolatry that aroused the anger and wrath of God. If we define idolatry as the devotion and trust to things other than God for hope and meaning, how would the U.S. fair? Is it in God we trust today? Is it to Him this nation looks as its ultimate Commander in Chief? Is it to Him this nation looks in gratitude for its security and abundance?
Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock. For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.
As we compose the verses of our song, we want to keep in mind that there is a day coming where God steps in and through judgement brings order and closure to this earth’s affairs. His means of laying low the so-called unassailable cites does not exactly inspire it yet God promises perfect peace to the steadfast of mind. Since we know neither the day nor the hour of this day we must be very intentional to recognize that His Truth is marching on whether we (or our nation) are marching along with it or not…..
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.
We should be swift in not looking at the DOW’s performance and concluding this as evidence that our God is marching on. We should be swift in not looking at our armies and their overwhelming strength and thinking proudly how secure we are. If this is where our hearts are are we not the idolaters who will be sifted? Will it not be our unassailable walls that He is forced to bring low?
Here is a very practical and important question. Is steadfastness of mind and heart a gift given only to some or is it a trait of character that can be acquired and cultivated by those who will hear the word and heed it? Aren’t we to renew our minds as a prerequisite to transformation? My proposal is that we own the responsibility we have for our minds and humbly acknowledge every way in which we are trusting in this world (and this nation) for our ultimate security and provision. We must volunteer our hearts to be sifted before that Great Day of ultimate sifting. Only He can expose our deluded and entrapped hearts. A sign that a work of significance by God is underway and that we are escaping the gravity of sin’s deluding influence is the longings of our hearts.
Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You eagerly; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls. At night my soul longs for You, indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; for when the earth experiences Your judgments the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
We all want peace but we don’t want to acquire it by making peace with a world that is accumulating the wrath of God and is slated for judgement. If God graciously shakes our lives (or our nation) we must be swift to recognize that it is only kindnesses such as this that He uses to brings us to repentance. He knows that it is better to be shaken now enabling us to let go of every sinful attitude and act which has encumbered our hearts. The martyred missionary Jim Elliott may have said it best….
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot loose.
I think of 1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ….
Father, teach us to abide in you and to swiftly recognize all the sovereign ways you work, including the work you accomplish through trials and suffering that might liberate us from our entanglements with this world. May we live here in the abundance of your Spirit to the extent that we exposes the poverty of trusting in material prosperity. Establish our trust in You Lord. Teach us how to steward a steadfastness of heart and mind. May our jubilant and dutiful feet bring you much honor and glory now and forever more. Amen.
I pray you might be swift to slow down and that your feet would lead you to a quiet place where you can take the time to read of the restored fortunes of God’s people which is the glorious flip side to the song in this portion of Isaiah’s dynamic prophecy.
by RobertCummins | Aug 13, 2014 | 33. The Song
Zephaniah 3:14-20
In the early part of this book the prophet speaks of the day of the Lord’s wrath; “And on that day all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.” Then…..
At the conclusion of the book the prophet speaks of the Lord’s mercy, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy….I will bring you in, gather you together and give you renown and praise. I will restore your fortunes before your eyes.”
If we are trying to compose a song from Zephaniah alone our lyrics may not make sense. It would seem God is at cross purposes with Himself. God is committed to gathering His people together to lavish His affection on them from a spot on the earth where He has just brought a terrifying end to all its inhabitants. See what I mean? How will He bring something glorious out of nothing?
To us it is impossible to comprehend how the same God can go from wrath to mercy; from judgement to restoration in 3 chapters. Our comprehension suffers because it really has no choice. One day, it is true; “we will know as we have been known (by God)”, but until then, our grasp of an eternal God is filtered through the lens of our finite understandings.
Finite interpretations lend themselves to the black and white, the “either- or” as opposed to the more complex, “both-and” kind of understanding. Because we (as humans) cannot simultaneously hold onto wrath and mercy, we assume God can’t either. For many it is hard to worship a God they cannot fully understand, who is so unlike them; who, in His dealings with nations and people, does things, that violate their sense of justice and civility. To them God seems cruel or barbaric.
I confess that I too am challenged to get my mind around God’s ways in the OT but I am not going to quit reading it or cower in fear before Him because of what may be confusing to me in the earlier part of the Bible. With the latter part of the Bible, He gave us the New Testament as a lens to better comprehend the deep deep mystery of who He is. I mentioned recently a friend who is so offended by God in the OT that He seems to be boycotting everything except what He prefers to think about Him. I want to take him by the hand (or heart) and say, “Let it go. Read this. Here is the good news”;
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways , in these last days has spoken to us in the Son, whom He appointed as heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
If our songs are composed strictly of OT understandings of a righteous yet angry God our music may have the sound like a dirge in a minor key. But… after we see in the NT children being welcomed up onto His lap and realize that He has become our righteousness and that we too are now invited onto His lap, our songs should change. The songs of sons are different than the songs of servants! Exclamation points replace periods; rejoicing replaces weeping; dirges become anthems and crying turns into laughter.
Nor is God limited emotionally toward us. While “He will be quiet in His love” He can also “rejoice over us with shouts of joy“. Zeph 3:12 says that God’s people will be a humble people and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. Humility includes laying down our protests where we do not understand Him and accepting the tremendously good news that; regardless of men’s posture before God in the OT, we (as His children) can now be kept from stumbling and we can stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy!!
Almighty God and King, that I have been adopted and am able to call You Father is utterly amazing! How good You are! Thank You that exclamation points are replacing the old question marks! Father, for Your Name’s sake, please gather Your family together and restore the fortunes of Your grace right before our eyes and before the eyes of an unbelieving world! Teach us to compose the songs in our hearts out of the clear simple truths You gave us and may we sing of Your goodness as we pay the bills, buy the groceries, deliver the product or whatever high calling You have entrusted to us this day. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Aug 12, 2014 | 33. The Song
Isaiah 12:1-6
For although Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou dost comfort me. Isaiah 12:1-6
When you read the Old Testament are you ever puzzled or does God and His ways all just neatly fit together? I have one friend who will not even read the OT because the strain between it and the NT is just too much for Him. I am not so jaded but I do understand the temptation. Here is one of my question-shaped puzzle pieces (in prayer form); “Father, If Christ died for me while I was yet a sinner (which I assume was out of love for me) when was it that….
“Thou wast angry with me?”
This was just one of the puzzle pieces that the Bible and life’s circumstances had seemed to scatter intentionally all over my game table. For example, there were myriad puzzle pieces related to God’s sovereignty and my powers of choice. Then, there were just as many related to the interplay between good and evil; “Father, You may not be directly responsible but, as the sovereign Creator and Lord over all things, it seems you must be at least a passive accessory to tragic outcomes.”
I wanted so desperately to complete this puzzle so that I could assemble a composite of God (so that he looked the way I needed him to look). My prayer was, in essence, please give me a cohesive theology so that I can better understand Your ways and therefore better follow You”. The problem was that new (and definitely unwanted) puzzle pieces seemed to regularly appear. Even more problematic was that when I would try and envision how they fit in, they seemed to form dark and misshapen images of God’s sovereignty and His goodness. “Lord, If You can do all things. How is it that (insert your own nightmare) happened!?” How can this be! I was unwittingly building a case against God in my own heart! I suspect if you have followed the Lord any time at all you have discovered that the accumulation of unanswered questions can contribute to our “songlessness”.
Many in this place, like my friend boycotting the OT, have given up finding God in the scriptures or in life. For them the strain on the mind and soul is too much. For them there is an unworkable deal-breaking tension between His so-called goodness and the badness of life. There have been vows made to turn our backs on a God that feels so unsafe. If you are in this place may I make a suggestion as one whose song is being restored? Be totally honest with yourself and God about Your anger; your heartbreak; your disappointment, even your unbelief. Speak to Him (scream if necessary) with all the emotional honesty you can rally. I promise You, He can handle it. It will in fact be the music He has been waiting to hear from you – a song filled with honest lyrics.
This is really His specialty anyway. Recall; He is the Man of Sorrows who was misunderstood, rejected and abused, who ultimately hurled our question and His at God from the cross; “Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?”. And then there was King David. Listen to the tenor of His song when His puzzle wasn’t coming together….
Lord, You have forgotten me. How long until I see Thy redemption?!
All fallen men have a puzzle to assemble. Some find teachers who help them take half the actual pieces and assemble them into a picture of what they would like God to look like. Others, in anger kick over the game table and say to hell with this puzzle. Then, there are those like king David, (with his commendable heart), who, after venting their heartbreak and anger with God, did what Isaiah did. He chooses to sing…..
I will give thanks to Thee, Oh Lord……I will trust…..I will not be afraid…..I will joyously draw near……I will call upon His name…I will cry aloud.
It may be that for a time our sacrifice of praise is made out of our will even while filled with emotional pain. But every saint who has carried their cross and worked out this aspect of their salvation will testify “there is joy in the morning“. Emotions will wain and wounds will heal if they are attended to in His presence. Then…… eventually we can sing with Isaiah before the world and the great cloud of witnesses….
“God You are MY strength and MY song and You have become MY salvation. I have learned to joyously draw water from the springs of MY salvation. You have done excellent things in Me and I will tell my story. I will sing My song.”
One last thing and I pray it will be an incentive for you to begin singing. In the great mysterious economy of God He somehow uses those places of our greatest pain to compose the most significant parts of our songs. It is in the process of rewriting the music in our hearts that we truly can come to know Him. It is in the daily crucible of life where the personal relationship with God blossoms; where He becomes our’s and we discover we have always been His.
Father, It is our destiny to sing. Teach us to reclaim our songs from what we have viewed as the ash heaps of our life. Help us to create a new file we label “Mysteries” where we can store our unanswered questions until such a time (if ever) we need to know. Even though our minds cannot catalogue and organize You, Thank You that You have given our hearts the capacity to behold You by faith and to sing of Your goodness. May our hearts return to innocence where we not only hold You harmless but esteem you as good. Amen.
