Notes of Joy and Power

“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life” (Ps. 42:8)

“…God my Maker, who gives songs in the night…” (Job 35:10).

He has put song into creation. The Singer and Giver of Songs spoke, and it was. Wisdom delighted, rejoiced at the founding. Joy broke forth in song by the morning stars and angels.  Can your hear the threads of the universe woven together in sonatas? The fissures and peaks molded in harmony? The DNA knit in accompaniment of choruses of wonder? The Triune God creating, overflowing joy and love? Song!

“…when the morning stars sang together  and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7).

Creation was woven in song, in word. Our Song-Giver does not cease to sing, but sings redemption as well. From his heavenly throne, he sings over us with delight (Zeph. 3:17). At night, his song is with us (Ps. 42:8). His Word is powerful; it does not go forth empty. Think of him—singing over us with delight, sending forth his words of power, sending forth is words to guard us during the night. Croonings of his love; notes of his finding us pleasing in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). And the Beloved himself pilgrimaged to Jerusalem, singing the Hallel Psalms of ascents, the pilgrimage songs (Ps. 120-134).

Because our God sings, because he sings of redemption, we sing. His song overflows, he fills us with notes of praise to him. We merely echo his divine strains of delight (Zeph. 3:17). We merely echo (and foreshadow), the cantatas of holy, holy, holy that thunder continuously. And all creation joins in on this song of redemption; all stand in awe at the great song he is weaving in history:

“Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel” (Isa. 44:23).

“Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted” (Isa. 49:13).

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isa. 55:12).

“Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them” (Ps. 69:34).

Listen, listen—the song of the trees may be muted, the rocks’ voices may be unheard right now; they may be muffled in the longing groaning for redemption (Rom. 8:22). But our Singer sends forth his strains and sustains. Our Singer will speak, and one day their song will be released again. The mountains will shiver with joy and sing with unrestrained delight. The trees will blaze forth with notes more blazing than the fall colors. Rocks will praise with the children. Sing, sing! Sing to our Song-Giver! We are part of his song, his sustaining words, his music. 

There may be days, there may be times, seasons, in which our notes stick in our throats. But his song ever goes forth--one grand symphony whose individual movements will all be swept up in this grand, joyous song. Whose individual notes, no matter how sharp or flight, minor or major, will be composed beautifully as part of the whole. Because he is the Master Orchestrator, the Master Composer. So, sing with feeble voice. Sing in the dark, because his song still goes forth in joy, still goes forth in power. His song will not return empty.

Someday, we will join in song in person, in presence, singing the song of Moses (Rev. 15:3), singing with a renewed creation with unhindered voice, singing with angels and the living beings, singing with people from every tribe and language in a harmony unequaled, singing with our Song-Giver.

And may you know today that the Lord your God is singing over you with delight (Zeph. 3:17). And each word of delight, each note of joy, will not come back empty, but is powerful, and powerful in his delight and love and care for you. So you sally forth, covered by the notes of his song. For by night his song is with you, by day he commands his love over you (Ps. 42:8). And may we all sing! Sing! We add our voice to the angels’, to the stars’, to the mountains’, to the voice of God himself! Sing!