23. My Song

Names & Characteristics of God Meditations No.23:  My Song

Psa 118:14  “The Lord is my strength and my song.”

A new name? This present study came as a bit of a surprise, and I confess I have never thought about this idea before. God my song? Now admittedly an alternative appears ‘God my defence’’ (although most versions use ‘song’) but it has set me thinking about God being my song. So yes, I’m going to do a study based on one verse which even apparently has question marks over it. Why? Because when I look into the scriptures, songs feature very largely and they mostly flow out of the being, the life, and the works of God. Without Him these songs would not be. So sorry NIV and one or two others, I go with the majority for the Lord IS my song!

Today: Music and songs feature a lot in modern life. They always have in some measure but with the advent of radio and TV, music has been publicized and spread. In my teenage years, yes, I dare to confess I sometimes listened to Radio Luxemburg (really showing my age) and then Radio Caroline etc. and eventually Radio 1, hearing again and again the pop songs of the day. Courtesy of a boxset of Readers Digest 12” LPs I imbibed large amounts of classical music. Somewhere along the line I found the Modern Jazz Quartet and became an avid fan first with EP’s then CD’s. (This is history!!!)

Singing? But singing songs? Not so much – until I became a Christian and found that hymns, songs, and whatever, were the wallpaper of a spiritual life in church. So I have watched the evolution of songs in the Christian world for well over fifty years, remembering the golden oldies that meant so much (seemingly being revived today), right through to some of the excellent heart-moving worship songs today.

Preprogrammed or Spontaneity: Of course our problem is that we use songs as the fodder to pad out the Sunday ‘morning worship’ service so we sing them because some worship leader has chosen them for us, not that they are the spontaneous outflow of our hearts.

Now I make this point because as I suggested above, most scriptural songs flow out of the being, the life, and the works of God – and in me! Yes, I am thankful for modern song writers and worship leaders, for so often when my heart is bursting with praise or thanksgiving to God, I can use modern songs to express it. But it’s this thing about spontaneously singing as a response to God that stirs me, that He is my song, the author within me of song, the cause of song, the reason for song.

Song writers: Sometimes in the Old Testament it was spontaneous and sometimes somebody got the song and wrote it down so everyone else could sing it. Check out Moses and Miriam in Ex 15:1- “Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted,” or the song Israel sang in the wilderness when water was found (Num 21:17), or the song that Deborah and Barak sang (Judg 5:1-). Many of the psalms are clearly songs and when David wrote them, so often they came with a reason for him writing them, e.g. “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” (2 Sam 22:1-) Not only was David the writer of many songs, but he was often also considered the subject or hero of them (2 Sam 23:1). If David was a prolific song writer (remember, writing in response to who God was and what He had done), Solomon was apparently even greater: “He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five.” (1 Kings 4:32)

In Israel’s history: Songs were part of the cultural life of Israel, in prophecy (see Isa 5:1-), and while they were still in exile they wrote and sang, even though it was a struggle, e.g. “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Psa 137:3,4) Yet they did.

After the Exile they ensured formal singing was part of their restored national life (Neh 12:8) and in the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27).

Spontaneity again: But I want us to come back to this idea of praise for what God had done, which is at the heart of so many psalms, for example,

• What appears spontaneous: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him,” (Psa 28:7),
• singing in the awareness of the Lord’s good provision: “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psa 32:7),
• more often than not, a natural, spontaneous outpouring: “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God,” (Psa 43:3)
• especially when we are conscious of what He has done: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psa 98:1),
• spontaneous joy: “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music,” (Psa 98:4 or Psa 100:2),
• often focusing on what He has done: “Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.” (Psa 107:22).

Mind and/or Spirit: And there are more and more. What is sad is how little spontaneity we seem to find in the church today. Paul spoke about singing with his spirit and with his mind. (1 Cor 14:15). We mostly do the mind stuff, but then how often is the Spirit given freedom so that our songs of the mind flow on into songs of the Spirit? When we have known the experience of the congregation singing in the Spirit, it is usually a beautiful harmony or melody that brings heaven down to fill the room, and we are never the same again. The Lord gave me a word several years ago about His desire to break through our wall of habit with the sounds of music from heaven. When it happens, we will know a new sense of the wonder of the Lord and His heaven.

Meanwhile? He IS my song, the one who releases this wonder in me when I am filled with His Spirit. May we have more so that He may thus be more glorified through us.