I’m sure glad I like worship music. For that matter, Christian music in general, and the more upbeat and encouraging the better.
And I love waking up with that encouragement running through my heart, mind and spirit. What a way to start the day! That’s what happened again this morning. It happens with such frequency that I’m beginning to realize my spiritually faithful mother must have imprinted my soul with gospel music all during my first nine months of growth.
We always had a spinet piano. No matter where we lived, that little piano came with us. It was our chief instrument of music, for my early years predated the aural 24/7 brutalizing of 2014. I don’t recall an LP turntable until as a college freshman I found one in a garage sale. There probably was, since we went to every gospel quartet sing within driving distance. I just don’t remember it.
Mother awakened the entire household each morning playing Reveille, followed by whatever rousing campmeeting song got in line in her mind first. That was her habit all during my growing-up years. It was thus during those first 9 months, I’m sure.
Captive audience of one? But of course–right this way, please. Mm-hmph. Right. Like I had a choice? Mom, you better pay as special attention what you put into your mind and heart as you do about what you put in your body during the gestation period of your baby. Your son or daughter will never outlive it.
I’m surprised I wasn’t singing as I was born. At least humming.
Ready? Think Brooklyn Tab. “THOU, OH LORD”.
Thou, Oh Lord
Many are they increased that troubled me
Many are they that rise up against me
Many there be which say of my soul
There is no help for him in God
But Thou, oh Lord are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head
Thou, oh Lord are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head
Repeat
I cried unto the Lord with my voice
And he heard me out of His holy hill
I laid me down and slept and awaked
For the Lord sustained, for he sustained me
Thou, oh Lord are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head
Thou, oh Lord are shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head
Get over it. There’s a beautiful flow to Elizabethan English about which our slangy, ebonically-challenged speech patterns are woefully bereft.
“Wait. What did you just say?” The prosecution rests.
I’ve had reason to hang my head in this life. Exhaustion. Heartache. Loneliness. Fear. During my almost-62 years of living I’ve watched as those aligned against God, His Word and His people have become more strident and aggressive in their desire to topple Him and them.
I’ve watched as those of my personal acquaintance who started out Christ-strong gradually were worn down until they’re now sometimes hard to distinguish from non-believing companions. Nothing new; Peter and Paul had words over that very thing. It seems so much more prevalent now, accompanied with an oversensitivity: “I am free in Christ!”
Free to choose, yes. Never free from the consequences, and not just to you. What of those following your lead, trusting you to guide them Home?
It calls for careful, caring discernment, doesn’t it? And it does indeed get lonely as the battles caused by Evil’s constant assault against Good swirl around you.
“. . . Many there be which say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God . . .”
“Okay, you miserable excuse for a Christian. Where’s all your precious support now? I’m lookin’ around and I don’t see ’em! We’ve got you surrounded, you pathetic pious punk! Oh, lookie here, guys; it’s—it’s PRAYING. OOoooh, dere’s even tearss. Idnat dist PRESHUSS? Come on, you disgusting pile of—–where’s your amazing god with all ‘is super help NOW, HUNH? WELL?”
Um, that would be Him right there. And there. And there. And (sweeping one dirty, bloody, bruised arm in a spinning 360) there . . . ” . . . I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me…. I laid me down and slept and awaked, for the Lord sustained, for he sustained me . . .”
So, do you think I might be in the mood to worship this morning? I woke up with this running through my being, and it still is.
“Thou, oh Lord are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head!”
It still gets lonely. Exhausting. Disappointing. There is, after all, a war going on. It’s for your soul, friend, and the Adversary makes ISIS and Hamas look like Sunday school classes. No, that is not hyperbole. It’s fact. He’s not just after your physical life, and he has plenty of ruthless, ruined help . . .
Suggestion: when God says in His Word that the I AM is the ultimate winner, along with His people?
Pay attention to it. Believe it. God has never been wrong, has never lied to you nor misled you.
Now, you go ahead and ponder, some. I want to experience being with brothers and sisters who’ve been out there all week on the front lines. I want to observe God being their glory – OUR glory together. I want to see weary, longing heads raised as God pours Himself into us all, individually and together, until none of us can hold it in.
Doubters often ask what, exactly, is the draw? What makes us go back every week to what looks and sounds like the same ol’ stuff?
We’ve been out there in battle all week. This is resupply. R & R. It’s reassurance and the joy of being with other spiritual warriors. Nobody needs to explain a thing.
Those who’ve been out there fighting in God’s strength don’t need no stinkin’ ‘splainin’!
Now, you’ll have to excuse me. I need to go get ready to meet my peeps for WORSHIP!
© D. Dean Boone, August 2014