Sometimes a passage can captivate my thoughts for an extended period of time. And at times so much where my mind races to connect the meaning of what something is.  This afternoon, finding myself quiet before the Lord, I opened His Truth and began to read in the psalms, coming across a verse that penetrated my mind, heart, and soul:

“The Lord is my strength and my song; He has given me victory” - Psalm 119:14.

Now at first glance, this verse, possibly even familiar, may not be striking. So often in our time of reading the Bible we glaze past passages, thinking the general, and moving on. Please understand, that is not necessarily a bad thing, for the general, when it comes to God’s Word, it revolutionary and life changing. But today, this passage required more thought.

We can fairly easily explain the Lord being our strength. The Bible says clearly that He is our defense, that as we wait on Him we are renewed with His strength.  He is Almighty God, ruler of the all, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As we trust in Him, and rest in His presence, we ca be sure that God is going before us, and that He has and will equip us with absolutely everything we need (see Philippians 4:19).

So we can grasp that. But the Lord is our song?

This phrase made me sit and think. I’ve read this multiple times, but truly, how is God our song? What are the characteristics of song?

Starting there, what is a song? It is a melody, harmonious, a poetic composition.  We all know this - we find ourselves singing songs all the time.  But is God our song? I feel this has two applications:

First, we have categories of songs. We have love songs, we have sad songs, happy songs, rock songs, and on and on.  What are our God songs? And to follow that, WHERE are our God songs?  These are the songs about and directed to God. Declarations of His love, faithfulness, might, power, and glory. Shouts of joy and jubilation. We know these songs. Some are even familiar. But where are they? Are they our song just on Sunday’s when we are worshipping, or is God our daily song, and fruit of our lips, lifting Him high? And what about those new songs? I’m not talking about the “hot-off-the-press” songs on the radio, not at all. I’m talking about the spiritual new songs of the day. David admonished us in the psalms to “sing a new song to the Lord.” What is this new song? It’s the song of our heart, led by the Holy Spirit, where we offer praise to God from ourselves to Him, not following a written song, but expressing our love and devotion to Him.  And not only love and devotion, but these melodies can be songs of distress, loss, sadness, pointed to the Giver of Life Himself. Look at the psalms for a moment. If all of them start with “praise to the Lord for I am always filled with joy and nothing is wrong” then you have a different Bible than me! David poured out his song of God from the place he was in - real, authentic songs. And isn’t that what a song about God should be? Real, authentic, and true, for God alone is real, an the one true God!

Secondly, a song is also a soundtrack, setting the mood, atmospere, and tone of an entire environement.  If movies were made without music, it would be amazing at how much would be lacking. So this lends to the challenge again of God being our song.  Does the song of our life reflect Jesus. Do people pick up on the atmosphere that something is different in our lives? And where do we take that song? Can people here it? Or is it muffled - or even a different subject matter?

What an amazing phrase penned: The Lord is my strength and song. Just as we ask God to give us His strength, ask God to give you a song of Himself. Let it ring loud and be the soundtrack of your life.