Singin' In The Rain

“When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  Mark 14:26

“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands,” says a favorite children’s tune which invites the singer to demonstrate glad emotion by also stomping feet, saying “Amen!” and doing all three in syncopated sequence.  If the circumstances of life are pleasant and positive, singing this song is easy, but when we’re facing trials and tribulations, a chippy melody doesn’t make much sense. There are songs for times like these.  “If you’re struggling and you know it, nod your head,” is a verse we could add to the former, and the list goes on.  As Elton John aptly intoned, “Sad songs they say so much.” Such is the wonder of music. No matter the emotion, words set to melodies give voice to our feelings.  And to our faith. 

The Israelites sang when God swept the Egyptians away in the Red Sea.  They sang when He provided water in the wilderness at the well of Beer. (I see you smiling!) Soon before his death, Moses serenaded the entire nation with a ballad about God’s faithfulness, justice, and vengeance.  Deborah and Barak crooned about God’s rescue from Canaanite oppression.  David lifted up a song of praise when God delivered him from all his enemies.  Zechariah belted out a “Spirited” tune when John the Baptist was finally born. Mary glorified the Lord with song when she grasped His grace in her overflowing heart and her ever-growing belly. And Jesus led His eleven apostles in a hymn as they ended the Last Supper and headed to Gethsemane.  “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives”(Mk 14:26).

In Greek, what we translate as “sung a hymn” is really only one word—humneo, which simply means “to hymn, sing praise, celebrate or worship with hymns.”  In other words, the verse really says, “When they had hymned, they went out to the Mount.”  

“To hymn” is more than mixing lyrics with melody; it is intentionally, deliberately, and emphatically declaring truth and praise about and toward the only One who is both worthy and wonderful. Jewish tradition ended the Passover meal with the songs of Psalm 115-118 whose verses are filled with poignant references to the very scene in which Jesus and His disciples stood. The ones who would desert and deny but then return with unyielding devotion and the One who would willingly lay down His life to make us alive opened their mouths and worshiped with the words, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name on the Lord”(Ps 116:13).  “Praise the Lord, all nations!  Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord!”(Ps 117:1-2). “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  Save us, we pray, O Lord.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”(Ps 118:14,22,25-26).

With the struggle of Gethsemane staring Jesus in the face and the shadow of the cross looming larger by the moment, Jesus sang—not because a tune made things better but because the truth made Him stronger.

When we’re facing the difficult, we can’t go wrong declaring Who’s right.

“Hymn” to Him.  

More Than Mostly Dead

“You were dead in your trespasses and sins.”  Ephesians 2:1

One day, way back in college, my car battery died, so I purchased a new one, popped the hood, and started the swap.  About halfway through the exchange, a young man drove down the street, saw what he perceived to be a maiden in distress, and whipped over to save the day.  Though his chivalry was appreciated, let’s just say engines weren’t his expertise, so I spent the next half hour asking carefully crafted questions to guide him through the process and make him think he knew what he was doing.  (“Do you think if we possibly connected this cable to maybe this post, it might sort of work?)  Since batteries have some weight to them, the helpful guy was handy for the heavy lifting, and before long, our combined brains and brawn had the car cranking again.

As we settle into this season of preparing our hearts for Easter, we must begin by realizing that when it comes to our souls, the above story does not apply.  We are not merely stuck on the side of life’s road with minor issues we pretty much know how to fix.  We have not started the repair ourselves and reached a place in the process where some heavy lifting from the Lord is now helpful, and we cannot offer advice which would ever assist the Almighty.  In other words, our salvation is not a combined effort of God’s good ideas and our good intentions.  As my pastor so aptly proclaimed several Sundays ago, salvation is not mostly God and partly us.  It is 100% God and 100% grace. 

If my tale of automotive woe holds any application, it is that we are like the battery—dead.  We have nothing in us that can affect change—not even the desire to do so. We are powerless to transform our lifeless state, and we are completely dependent on outside intervention.  However, we don’t just need a mechanic; we need a miracle—and a miracle is what we got.  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins—it is by grace you have been saved”(Eph 2:4-5).

Our celebration of this grace should start with an accurate assessment of our need because the more we realize our desperation, the more we appreciate our salvation. “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”