Psalm 32:7 “You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
My emotions ebb and flow with the circumstances of my life, after all, I am human and I cannot help but be affected by situations that are difficult. This grief journey that I have been on this past year has been like being on train that is going across the country and stops at every station. Even though I am moving forward and creating a normal, there are many stops on the way that I just choose to get off and linger for awhile. Each and every time I take a break from moving forward, I look back at the memories that have been created, the love and the life I had before I got on the train. Some of the stops are incredibly painful and there are times I just need to cry deeply from the depths of my soul. In order for me to re-engage with life, I must let go and get back on the train. I cannot relive every moment of my life, wishing things were different. If I only look in the rearview mirror of my life, I’m not going to be able to move forward. Sometimes I get anxious about what lies ahead on this train of life, but the Lord is teaching me not to look too far into the future, but to stay in the moment, and to enjoy the day. God wants me to trust Him because He will give me the resources I need to begin my new normal. Fear takes stock in the inadequacies of my life and God wants me to focus on His abundant provision for me. One of the things He is teaching me to do is to sing praises to Him when I become overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow.
Growing up I learned so many songs that were actually scriptures. Charles Spurgeon said, “Any fool can sing in the day… It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by… Songs in the night come only from God; they are not the power of man.” When there is praise and worship in the heart of a broken person, there is never any room for anything but gratitude and thanksgiving. God inhabits the praises of His people. Worship is not ignoring or dismissing the pain; it’s acknowledging that God is greater than the pain. Paul and Silas were imprisoned for preaching the gospel in Philippi. Prisons back then were far more primitive than today; they were dark and there was no ventilation, but instead of questioning God as to why they were in the situation they were in, the Bible tells us, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25.) Singing songs and praising God? No wonder the other prisoners were listening, because their songs must have been like a bright ray of light shining hope into that dark, dingy prison.
I have come to the realization that I can hold a worship service for myself at any time of the day or night, and it can just be me and the audience of One. I can sing to my God and He is always delighted by my voice (unfortunately, not many others are!). But something magical happens when I sing praises to my Lord, something supernatural that I cannot explain. It’s almost as if I am finally doing what I was created to do, worship. It is in that moment when I find my peace, when I begin singing, “You are my hiding place; You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance whenever I am afraid; I will trust in You, I will trust in You. Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of the Lord.”
-- Melody
