Singing In Stead of Sorrow

“I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” (Ps 13:6 AV)

It is easy to forget this.  In our text, the wonderful psalmist, David, is pouring out his complaint regarding the trouble he is facing.  In particular, the trouble from his enemies.  We don’t know exactly when he wrote this.  David had more than his fair share of enemies.  The vast majority were at the beginning and end of his ministry.  His father-in-law wanted him dead.  The two pagan kings to the west of him wanted him dead.  His wife left him for his best friend.  There was Doeg, Nabal, and Shemei, to name a few more.  There was Goliath who mocked him.  Then toward the end of his life, his own sons arose against him.  His grandfather-in-law who was also his closest friend and counselor turned on him.  David had a life of problems.  Yet he makes this vow above.  Amid all the problems he had to face, he still saw God as benevolent and good.  Even when he had to bury his sons, he saw God and bestowing bounty on him.  That which we wish to see and dwell upon will determine just how grateful and full of joy we are.

It is easy to get caught up in the negative of life rather than the blessings of life.  Our culture trains us to be so.  If we do not have the best of everything or if life seems a bit difficult, then we think we have been victimized.  Somehow, we got it into our heads that because of who we are, we are entitled to paradise.  My wife and I have this response to how things are different today than they were a few short years ago.  Before COVID, life was vastly different.  There were no shortages.  There was no run on toilet paper.  Whatever it was you felt you needed, it could be found.  Gas was relatively cheap.  Unemployment was very low and if you needed to be waited on, there was someone behind the counter who cared about their jobs.  Today is vastly different.  We have all but stopped going to fast food restaurants because they are no longer fast and what they serve you struggles to be called food.  We used to eat out a lot.  Now that it is just the two of us, it is cheaper (or it was) to get a meal than to come home and fix it.  Quality, no matter where you go, is not nearly what it was pre-pandemic.  It is not out of the ordinary to go the to supermarket and find your ingredient is out of stock.  Online shopping is no different.  Everything is out of stock.  So, my wife and I say something like, “This is America!  What is the problem?”  Our point is, that we had gotten accustomed to a certain standard of living and when that got disrupted, we felt cheated.  Now we say it tongue in cheek because we know we have a lot to be grateful for.

God is good!  No matter what our lives might be like, God is still good.  We do not deserve anything.  We are not entitled to anything.  We are not privileged.  We are not special.  We are not God’s special people who the blessings of God only come to us.  Even if all we had was the breath in our lungs and nothing else, we are still blessed.  David promised to sing and praise God for His grace to him in the context of a less-than-perfect life.  He decided to look at how God blessed him rather than the trouble he was facing.  This was not merely going through life with rose-colored glasses.  This was a conscious choice on his part.  He was not going to allow the troubles of life to blind him to God’s goodness.  He went even further than that.  He would not allow the troubles of life to rob him of the song that should be in his heart.  He chose this.  He made it a purpose of life.  He made it the overriding attitude in life.  To praise God regardless of circumstances, or despite them, is a choice we make.