A New Song

I read Psalm 40 this week. Here's what it says:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, Who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

I've kinda felt some of what David experienced when he wrote these words (But not everything of course. Never been chased by my own son with a sword in his hand.) Those days of waiting on God to lift you out of a slimy pit with mud can be very challenging. "Waiting patiently" is much more than sitting at the DMV office listening for your number to be called.

Waiting patiently on the Lord is about endurance. It's about running & finishing a race. It's about silence from heaven when you have prayed your last prayer & hoped your last hope. It's about feeling stuck in a situation with no apparent answers (or hidden answers either) .
However when God listened to David & answered his prayer, the result was simply awesome:

He put a new song in my mouth

Waiting . . . a new song. He started with waiting & he ended with a new song. David was able to sing something at that moment that he could have never sung before had God got him out of the pit earlier. In the waiting, God was creating in this awesome musician new words, new notes, and a new heart with which to sing. And all of it was because God did not rescue him. He left him in the muddy pit for a much longer than David had ever anticipated. Waiting on God is much more than waiting. God is re-creating something internally.

It's a word of hope for people like me - people who are waiting on God. In the season of waiting, listening, & anticipating, it is a wonderful reminder that God is doing something deep & significant in my life that will result in a song. I really enjoy music like most people. Something deep often happens in my soul when I hear a song. Music has the ability to go past the brain & get to the soul, which is where healing & restoration happen. And so I know that in this moment God is at work in me creating a new song that I will sing. The result?

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.