17th February 2025

I highly appreciate those with musical talent, those who can play with nimble fingers, who compose from the love growing in their heart, and who sing with great passion. Animals also appreciate music. I remember my ducks pausing to listen to Pavarotti with their heads cocked as if they were being lulled in stillness and peace by his voice.

I have been singing for as long as I can remember. When our family went on long trips for the summer, I sang the whole way there and back. I am not saying that I have talent, but that song was and still is a great part of who I am. I wake up with a song in my mind and I burst out a line or two at any moment of the day. A song is said to be a set of words to a poem or music. Can a song also be the way we live our lives? I am at least thinking that yes, it is this too.

Isaiah suggests that we sing a new song to the Lord wherever we are, and I suppose in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. So, what is this new song? May I suggest that it is the joy of Jesus living in our hearts. It is a new way that we are called to live, forsaking the old fallen way we struggled with, and following Jesus’ lead into the melody of God’s love. Jesus pleases the Father (Matthew 3:17, Isaiah 42:1). He brings justice and freedom to all, all over the world (Isaiah 42:3-4). He pleases me as well, and so I have a lot to sing about. How about you?

As we are reminded in verse 5 of Isaiah 42, that God is the great creator of all things, and so we can sing about all he has done for us, the love he has put in all the details of how we were made, of how he has blessed us and provides for us. He is generous beyond measure, and gifts us all whether we recognise his presence or not, and whether we recognise that he is the giver. As we begin to recognise God for who he is, we cannot help but sing a new song; one of appreciation, one of praise, one of love for our Maker.

Verse 22 of this chapter suggests that we have been enslaved by the sin in our lives; that we have been taken captive by it, but Jesus has set us free to live the lives that he has intended us to live. I like the way the NLT puts it: ‘…his own people have been robbed and plundered, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped. They are fair game for anyone and have no one to protect them, no one to take them back home.’ And so, because of this the Lord has responded mightily and set us free! Is this not something to sing about? 

May God bless you with his song of love!

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