“The Lord is…my song…”

Isaiah, the prince of the prophets, wrote the longest prophetic book of any Old Testament writer.  Most of his writing deals with the southern kingdom of Judah.  He also provides more information on Israel’s future kingdom on earth and many details of that kingdom found nowhere else in Scripture.  At the same time he reveals much about the coming Savior.

It is in the context of that future kingdom that we find our description of the Lord.  Chapter 12, verse 2b says, “The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”  This kingdom will be a wonderful period of time where the abnormalities caused by sin will be no more:  “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them…the lion will eat straw like the ox…the young child [will] put his hand into the viper’s nest.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  In that day the Root of Jesse [Jesus] will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him…” (11:6-10).  What an incredible sight!  Peace among the animals, harmony among the nations of the earth, Christ ruling the world!  Amazing what God has in store for us!

Of course, in that beautiful scene of the kingdom it is easy to understand how the Lord will be our song.  Why not?  All sin is past, pain is gone, relationships are healed, bodies are new and healthy, and all our needs and wants are more than adequately supplied by our God.  Of course we’ll sing, and he will be our song, flowing through us in glorious praise.  That is how it will be, and that is how it should be.

But what about the here and now?  Is the Lord our song for today – in a fallen, sinful world full of evil?  Let’s check.  The only other place in Scripture describing the Lord as “my song” is in Psalm 118.  The first four verses repeatedly say, “His love endures forever.”  Verse 5 mentions “anguish,” verse 7 mentions “enemies,” certainly not elements of the pristine kingdom!  In verses 10-11 the writer mentions a conflict when “all the nations surrounded [him]…on every side.”  They did not come to reward him or help him, but to destroy him.  In verse 13 he says, “I was pushed back and about to fall.”  Being completely surrounded by the nations that are determined to make you fall is certainly no kingdom experience!  No, this is real life in today’s ugly, sin-bent hell-bound world.

The rest of the verse and the next answer our question about God being our song:  “[B]ut the Lord helped me.  The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”  Again and again we see the Lord coming through just in time, helping, saving, rescuing, restoring, renewing.  Day by day we see little signs of his salvation, dewdrops of deliverance.  Daily he demonstrates his faithfulness to his own people; daily the Lord is to be our song, even in a fallen, evil world.  And this is no lifeless or boring music:  “Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous; The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! … I will give you thanks, for you answered me…This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (vs. 15, 21, 24).

In the end, God gives us a choice — always a choice.  We can have the Lord as our song, or we can have the music of our own making.  I have lived long enough to know that music of our own making is no music at all.  It is nothing but noise, especially in the ears of God.  Our Father gave us his best — his Son — and held nothing back.  “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).  One result of his salvation is for each one of us to “make music in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).  This is real music indeed!

What’s in your heart today, music or noise?  If you know the Lord, the words and the notes are already in your heart.  Does the Lord hear the melodies of music or something less flowing from your heart?  Is he that dear to you that you sing to him?  Is he your song today?