Daily Devotion - Thursday - December 17

​The Song You’re Singing
 
But I will sing of your strength,  in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress,  my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I sing praise to you;  you, God, are my fortress,  my God on whom I can rely. —Psalm 59:16–17
 
On Thanksgiving Day, the turkey is barely digested when the Christmas music arrives. Some people welcome the seasonal soundtrack warmly, while others begin counting the days until the calendar is flipped and they can be free from the yearly sonic assault. I usually identify with the former, though my playlists vary greatly. Some days I gravitate toward bittersweet ballads, other times I revel in the exuberant children’s songs. I sometimes feel perfectly at home in the carols of my faith tradition; other times I run from them. The book of Psalms has always been a place of comfort for me because of the expansive space the psalms provide. Some are congregational songs written about God to people in a community; others are private journals about the faith journey; still others are solitary prayers composed and delivered directly to God. At times the writer gives praise or offers expressions of gratitude. Other times the psalmist questions whether God is listening or even there at all. The author is all over the map: faithful, doubting, grateful, angry, joyful, depressed. This makes sense to me. I understand the vacillation and inconsistency and those erratic mood swings. The sprawling nature of the Psalm songbook frees us from the lie that there is a singular expression of faith or a proper way to be on this spiritual journey. We don’t have to be happy or have it all figured out or be confident. In fact we can be pretty angry, and if God is God, then God can handle it. We are invited into a complex, paradoxical, contradictory spirituality—into the messiness and the tension between belief and doubt, between joy and despair, between celebration and grief. How do you come to this season? What song are you singing?  John Pavlovitz, Low, An Honest Advent Devotional.  Printed with permission of author