What Song Are You Singing? Sermon by Scott Berry, Psalms 40:1-3

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What Song Are You Singing?

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What Song Are You Singing? Series

Contributed by Scott Berry on Jul 21, 2011 (message contributor)

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Scripture: Psalms 40:1-3

Denomination: Baptist

Summary: A reflection with modern music on one of Davids most timeless psalms. Consider what is your pit, who is your rock and what song are you singing?

To stay true to a psalm – you should hear it sung, so hear is a modern intepration – don’t try and understand everything, but get the gist – lots of rich imagery from psalms and beyond.

The Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 Lyrics (the song can be found on itunes or online)

Pulled off the highway in Missouri and low our hearts were heavy laid

Made for the chapel with some spray paint for all the things we'd held in secret

Lord lift up these lifeless bones

Light cascading through the windows

All the rainbow's heavy tones

He has fixed his sign in the sky

He has raised me from the pit and set me high

Left that place in ruin, drunk on the Spirit and high on fumes

Checked into a Red Roof in stayed up for several hours and then slept like infants

In the burning fuselage of my days

Let me mouth be ever fresh with praise

He has fixed his sign in the sky

He has raised me from the pit and set me high

Each morning new

Each day shot through

With all the sharps small shards of shrapnel

that seem to burst of me and you

Head down towards kansas We will get there when we get there don't you worry

Feel bad about the things we do along the way

But not really that bad

We inhaled the frozen air

Lord send me a mechanic if I'm not beyond repair

He has fixed his sign in the sky

He has raised from the pit and he will set me high

In this psalm there is 3 key images used

1) pit

This is a psalm of David – follower of God, flawed follower but a follower nonetheless, certainly got back in slimy pits more than once

What pit do you sometime find yourself in? Habit, sin, circumstance (not own fault), stale r/ship, lifeless routine, health, $

Often we try and climb ourselves out of the pit, all we do is wear ourselves out – feel guilty that despite all our effort we are back there

like star wars and that the sarlacc (show pic) is a crucial part of return of the jedi. Its a multi-tentacled alien beast on the planet tatooine from whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth.

So when he lifts us from the pit, its not just to an edge but a place of genuine safety – the rock, himself

2) rock

not just lifted out of the pit, hope we don’t fall back in

rock is him – other options are people or things

two real options in life – trust in creator or the created things, he’s the only real rock, everything else is moving around – like things in the sea – some seem bigger but they still get whipped around in the storm of life, only thing that doesn’t move is the rock. – pic of light house

3) song (vs 3)

what are you singing when you are in the pit? Woe is me, nobody loves me, my life sucks, why me

selfish, self-focussed songs

perhaps its radiohead Creep ‘i’m a creep, i’m a weirdo’, self pity

Rage against the machine– killing in the name of – song of defiance

Keisha – forget my troubles

Elton john – sad songs say so much

Mountain Goats - ‘Feel bad about the things we do along the way

But not really that bad’ content in your pit, like a pig in mud

instead– 'let my mouth be ever fresh with praise.'

God gives us a new song to sing – one of praise to him

When we struggle to even want to praise him – turn to him and ask