Daily Lesson for August 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 105 verse 2:

"Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!"

This summer I went to the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights museum in Atlanta. I was reading instructions given at a civil rights training for demonstrators in the early 1960s and was struck by how explicit the organizers were about the power of singing. Instructions for a particular demonstration said the following about singing:

"Singing. Creating unity, easing fear, establishing moral superiority, forcing attackers to deal with demonstrators as a group rather than focus on an individual, communicating political message, setting rhythm (pickets & marches). Performance singing versus protest singing. Everyone sings, no exceptions. If you can't sing, — sing louder."

To sing is to drive away darkness -- to cast out fear and doubt and give hope. As Maya Angelou said, even a caged bird can sing. When we've lost our song, we've lost our hope; but so long as we can sing we can demonstrate, we can protest, and we can witness to another world on it's way.

Some years ago a parishioner in one of my churches had a brother who was dying of Pix disease, an Altzheimer's-like dementia that slowly robs the mind of thought. In the last week of her brother's life, as death was near, the family was called in. They gathered around his bedside when suddenly the man looked up at his family and though he had not been able to speak for months, he began to sing:

"When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!"

There is a power in song which words alone cannot capture. Theology literally means "words about God". Theology is in our head; but a song or hymn or spiritual song can take those words and put them into our hearts -- forever. And we can shout our victory no matter the circumstances.