Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Sing a new song to
the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! (Psalm 96:1, New Living Translation)
This is the woefully inadequate
way to try to depict the bright, sweet song of a Song Sparrow. There are two of
them who grace my backyard and I enjoy just sitting and listening to their sprightly
warble.
Sometimes, I spot one of them.
There will be one sitting on a branch of the very top of a very tall pine tree
in our neighbour’s back yard. It is mostly silhouetted against the bright sky
but I can still see it well enough. It doesn’t have the vibrant colours of its avian
cousins, the flashy red of a Cardinal, the neon blue of a Blue Jay but it can
out-sing them any day.
This little brown bird, with a black spot in the middle of its breast,
lifts back its head, puffs out that breast, and sings for all its worth, for
all the earth to hear.
Not defiantly, not cheekily, not despite the world in which its lives.
It sings because the Lord made it for song. The Song Sparrow sings for the pure
joy and pleasure of singing.
Sing to the Lord a new song!
I am so tired of the cacophony and
clamour of the world right now. I am weary of the abrasive, shrill, unloving voices
of the conservative right but equally so of the smug, arrogant verbiage of
the progressive left.
Sing to the Lord a new song!
I feel swamped by the discordant voices of prejudice, judgement, ignorance,
selfishness that permeates the news. I languish at the noise of bombs and missiles.
Sing to the Lord a new song!
I want to plug my ears at the unloving racket the Church makes about issues that divorce it from
Jesus’ Love. I want to silence the unholy clatter that divides us, alienates
us, seduces us, drowns us in its wild war music, intolerant disharmony and the
sour notes of hatred.
Sing to the Lord a new song.
I am even tired of the sound of my own voice and words, sometimes.
So, sing to the Lord a new song.
Tweet. Tweet. Trill.
“If I could speak all the
languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1, NLT)
You and I are made for singing,
not clanging. God has given us this fresh, vibrant song of Love. It is new
every morning. We are made for sitting on proverbial pine trees and letting the
world know about the generous love of and beauty of God’s immense Love.
I long to hear the harmonious
chorus of God’s song of Love. “So then, let us aim for harmony in the church
and try to build each other up.” (Romans 14:19, NLT) But the same goes for
the whole world.
Sing to the Lord a New Song.
We need to drop the old, weary, minor keys of dissatisfaction, complaint,
argument, quarrels, criticism and sing a New Song of Love.
We need to find our voices of
hope, peace, love, joy and celebration of life
and sing for all we are worth, against the world, for the world.
“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as
clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them
and not against them.” (Philippians
4: 4, The Message Bible)
Tweet. Tweet. Trill.
Dale
Thankyou for the joy of praising & singing & closing our ears to all that noise. Ralph
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