Today
I began wondering about the connection between the representatives of creation
and the church singing a new song,[4]
and God as the creative, expressive source of all thought, creativity, and music.
How much is our response to God a reflection of God’s expressions of love,
grace, and mercy towards us? Or, to be more specific, if there is something so
central to mankind’s makeup that everywhere people know God through Jesus
Christ they need to sing about it, is there any indication that God does any
singing in relation to us?
A
beautiful answer to this question is expressed like this: “The Lord
your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will
exult over you with loud singing”.[5]It
seems like one of the threads of harmony throughout the symphony of the book of
Revelation is that the Lord our God is in our midst even when it looks like
antichrists, beasts, and red dragons are winning the day. He is a mighty one to
save even when the armies of the earth gather together against God and his
anointed.[6] He
does quiet our hearts with his love as we get to know him better every day.
And, because he does not change, he must surely be rejoicing over his children
with gladness, and exulting over us with loud singing.
Hmmm…
is there any reason that the presence of the Holy Spirit of the Living God in
the church causes us to “address one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to
the Lord with our hearts”?[7]
Is it only because the Holy Spirit stirs up songs of joy within us? Or is
it because the Holy Spirit is the personal presence of the One who loudly,
joyfully, and gladly sings over us?
I
say all this because, if we think that the Bible teaches us to sing to God and
that’s the whole story, or we are to exult in God and that’s all he wrote,
we’re missing something that is as encouraging, uplifting and inviting as
encouraging, uplifting and inviting can be. God calls us to sing new songs to
him as we hear new dimensions of his singing over us. God calls us to exult in
him because the joy of exulting in someone originates in him. He exults over us
with singing, and awakens our hearts to the joy that exults in him with our
singing.
In
fact, I can almost hear the musical lyric in Jesus’ words when he says, “These things I have spoken
to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[8] This applies to what Jesus taught his disciples about his
resurrection, and the coming gift of the Holy Spirit. It also applies to the
whole of Scripture that is aimed at our joy in Christ rising up to the full.
And it has to apply to the specific picture of God rejoicing over his children
with singing.
From here on in, I plan to picture my singing as a response
to God’s singing. When I find myself singing a new song, or entering into the
new song of the representatives of creation and the church, I will remind
myself that such joyful singing originates in the God to whom we sing. I will
also look forward to the day that all God’s children will sing together with
joy, fully immersed in the sound of God jubilantly singing over his people.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~
in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] “For
those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)
[2] “20 No
unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in
his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he
had promised. 22 That
is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was
counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will
be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
25 who was delivered up
for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4)
[3] II Corinthians 3:18
[4] Revelation 5
[5] Zechariah 3:17
[6] Psalm 2
[7] “18 And do not get drunk with
wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to
the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out
of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5)
[8] John 15:11
No comments:
Post a Comment