Sing a new
song to the Lord, for he has done wonderful deeds. His right hand has won a mighty victory; his
holy arm has shown his saving power! The
Lord has announced his victory and has revealed his righteousness to every
nation! He has remembered his promise to
love and be faithful to Israel. The ends
of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Shout to the Lord,
all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy! Sing
your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious
song, with trumpets
and the sound of the ram’s horn. Make a
joyful symphony before the Lord, the King! Let the sea and
everything in it shout his praise! Let
the earth and all living things join in. Let the rivers clap
their hands in glee! Let the hills sing
out their songs of joy before
the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice, and the
nations with fairness. Psalm 98:1-9
I attended a meeting Sunday evening of leadership teams
from four local churches. The
facilitator took time introducing each pastor, as some of us were in a first
year of appointment. One of each church’s
team mentioned how the pastor sang, or played piano. My group was noticeably (and appropriately)
silent on the matter. I can play the
piano, but no one would listen, because I just bang on the keys with no
discernable musical ability! As for
singing, I can make a joyful racket with my voice, but couldn’t find the key
with a search warrant.
So, what am I doing writing about all these musical
instruments, including the human instruments that are supposed to create a joyful symphony? So glad you
asked…I’m doing what the preacher is supposed to do, take a close look at the
Word of God, and share what I see. In
this case the Word’s words tell the story.
Joyful is a
word that is somehow confused with giddy laughter. While often there is laughter associated with
joy, laughter is more an adjective to describe one facet of joy. Joy is a deep-down, in-the-pit-of-your-soul assurance of well-being. It is knowing God’s got your back (and front,
middle, sides, bottom, and top)! It’s
the understanding that when all else in the universe may melt-away, family or
friends desert, and all you counted-on turns to dust, God will be there,
smiling at you, ready to embrace.
Symphony is a
word that can encompass many applications beside music. Anything that takes a bunch, rather than an
individual, could be described as a symphony.
In an orchestra there are many instruments, percussion, strings, wind;
you never find them alone for the big sounds.
But what musician in his right mind would try to pucker-up to a tuba and
saxophone at the same time, while playing the violin with his feet for good
measure? It just doesn’t work. Each instrument needs someone who knows that tool,
and who will follow the musical score, designed to get the best contribution
for the sound of the whole group.
Even with my limited knowledge of music, it is a
no-brainer that a symphony orchestra cannot produce the finest music, if the instrumentmentalists
don’t follow the score, listen to each other, practice together, and have their
whole heart in presenting the piece, all the while keeping their attention on
the conductor. Now, that sounds like a
perfect description of the church, Christ’s body…all different, all wonderful,
all needed. And all created, and gifted,
and called to be the symphony of God’s praise.
For You Today
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
Sometimes It's Hard to Sing a
New Song and Go Git Y'r Bucket
Images: Title
image Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal
property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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