The Touch of the Master's Hand- A COMPELLING SONG

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I know many of you feel the closest thing you can come to being a musician is to play your radio.   You think you have nothing to offer when the music starts up and people sing around you, and as a result you allow a little mumble to escape you to keep up with the people around, but not really join in.  I know that feeling, for I come from a very musical family.  When they were motivated about being around the piano to sing hymns and other songs, I was putting together some kind of game outside the house.  I had the voice but little interest.  They had me singing in a college opera as a boy soprano when I was eleven years old.  But I had no desire to pursue it and my "song" died within me.  There was an obvious reason.  I learned early that it is not about what or where or how we sing but why we sing.  I had no compelling reason to sing.  But, when I began to have something to sing about, then the words in a song became an opportunity to express something deeper going on in me.  It is for that reason I love so many of the Psalms of David, for he was a musician who knew why he wrote and sung songs.  They were to bring glory to the Lord, and music was a vehicle to deliver his message.  As I grow in my walk with Christ He reveals more of Himself to me and I find that singing now comes easily for me.  It starts deep within me with a grateful spirit that rejoices because of the great things I have seen of the Lord.  That is where the music begins.  The why is now present.

In the passage above we can read the personal testimony of David as he sojourned through life with God.  It was not an easy level ride for David.  It was full of challenges.  If you will read the whole of Psalms 40 you will read that David reveals in this song that he was once in the pits of life ... he cried out to the Lord ... he waited on the Lord ...the Lord delivered him ... and the Lord gave David a new song.  What was this song that David was referring to?  Here's what David said:

I believe the "song" David was speaking of was his joyful personal testimony about the way God had treated him and how this would help other people who saw David's life.  I believe David was telling us that he was in the worst of circumstances with his life with armies on all sides hunting him down to kill him.  He was hiding out in caves, feigning insanity to escape mistreatment, being hunted, harassed, being misunderstood, lied to, lied about, but all the while never seeking his own glory or kingship.  But God was there for him, and this was his testimony.

God chose David.  David didn't decide his life's journey.  He never aspired to be king or even great.  He only wanted to be faithful to the Living God that his people pretended to serve.  He aspired to be faithful to his God and this won God's heart.  God declared of David that he was a man after His own heart. (Acts 13:22)  Wouldn't that put the why in the equation for you if God declared you to be His man?  This is reason enough to rejoice with a compelling song to our King's great faithfulness.  Here's the good news.  You are God's man.

I believe God has given us the reason and the why for having a new song in our heart.  Our testimony to God's faithfulness to our life actually helps others find encouragement and they are helped.  People need to see you and me singing about the faithfulness of our King to our life, and if we must, we use words in conveying the message.  You see the song David speaks of and what I am referring to is something deeper and grander than a musical score or lyrics of a song.  It is a purity of expression that begins deep within our soul and emerges to our world around us, and it is the most beautiful song that will ever escape our being.  It is our testimony of God's faithfulness.  It is the new song He puts in our heart.

The Master has touched you and given you this song.  So let it out my brothers.  It needs to get out.  It needs to be heard, and you need to sing it in your own way.