Psalms 118:13-14: “Thou pushed me hard and I nearly fell, But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation.”
Songs in the daytime, songs in the night
Songs of devotion, songs of delight.
In my heart singing, A melody ringing
Jesus sings me a song and
He gives me a song.
-Unknown-
Let me just say from the start that most Hebrew teachers would most likely disagree with my handling of the syntax here but that doesn’t mean I am wrong, it just means that I am not walking in lock step with conventional thinking. I would render Psalm 118:14 as: “The Lord is my strength and He is singing to me because He is my salvation.
Everything in nature has a certain rhythm or vibrations. I remember hearing an interview of Andre Crouch and he told how some woman came up to him and said she did not like his music because of the beat or rhythm he used. He said: “Oh, you mean a rhythm like this?” He began to play a certain rhythm on the piano and the woman said: “Yes, that’s it, that rhythm and beat, that’s of the devil.” Andre Crouch answered and said; “That’s strange, because that is the rhythm of your heart beat.”
In the context of Psalms 118, David is being tempted by the enemy to kill Nabal and Saul and he almost did, but the Lord helped him. The Lord delivered him giving him strength and a song. I discussed this word song or zamar in prior studies. I mentioned that this word is also used to describe pruning or cutting. But I have a Jewish friend who helped shed some new light on this for me which is why I bring in the previous Psalm. The sages teach that God sang a song to David to cut away his yetzer hara (evil inclinations). The word good in Hebrew is tov and means to be in harmony with God. As God sang to David and David sang to God, in harmony, the enemy could no longer overcome David with temptation.
What? You think God is just sitting up there in heaven with his arms crossed legs folded listening to us sing our praises to Him when we worship. I swear, in some worship services I feel like we are singing to God to entertain Him and He is sitting up there in heaven like some judge on American Idol.
Not so. I have a musical voice that can empty a room pretty quick. Even in my nursing home ministry there is a traffic jam of wheel chairs and walkers at the door when I start to sing. So I sing alone, well not so much alone God sings with me. He doesn’t mind that I have a voice that can make dogs howl, after all He created that voice so He better darn will not complain.
There is an old story I read in Jewish literature of a young girl who loved to sing and praise the name of God. Unfortnately, like me, she made an awful noise unto the Lord such that the people in the village complained and she was banned from singing in the town. Heart broken the young girl went out to the woods to sing her praises to God. Also in the village was a young girl with a beautiful voice and the village folk would gather around to listen to her sing her praises to God for which she was praised and honored. But one day the father of this girl with the beautiful voice died and the little girl was heartbroken because it was her father who trained her voice and encouraged her. In her grief she could no longer sing and would wander into the woods to cry her heart out.
One day in the midst of her tears she heard this truly awful voice singing a praise to God that his grieving girl used to sing. She recalled how her father would sing with her to bring her voice in tune. So unable to bear this awful noise which was supposed to be musical she began to sing this praise in her lovely voice. The girls awful voice began to match that of the beautiful voice and they kept singing until they ran into each other. They became quick friends. Here was a girl who longed to sing with all her heart but could not and her was a girl who could sing beautifully but was too grieved to sing. Yet together they made a beautiful noise unto the Lord and went into the town where the two singing together brought great blessing to all the villagers.
Like David we are just so out of harmony with God. But if you pause long enough you will hear Him singing to you out of a grieving heart for you heartbreak and suffering. He is inviting you to sing with Him and the more you sing with Him the more in tune you are with Him and soon your sorrow turns to a blessing for others when you follow the lead of your Saviors beautiful voice.
Most mornings I wake up not really feeling like I want to face the day. Then I hear God singing to me. It is usually some old hymn that I sang as a child and I find myself singing it over and over and the more I sing it the more joyful I become. I end up texting the song to a friend with the hopes that she might share in the blessing. Lately I have been waking up discouraged and I was not listening for God singing to me. My friend did not receive her morning song, I could be a blessing, such as is, because I would not listen to God singing to me. So tomorrow morning I am going to listen very closely for I know He will sing to me and I will share His song.
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