Happy New Year 2010

 

Singing for Joy

Tom Barnard

 

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock

of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.”

Psalm 95:1, 2

 

“We will be glad and rejoice in You. We will not open the gates of the year

to the sorrowful notes of the organ, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy

and the high-sounding cymbals of gladness.”

Charles H. Spurgeon

 

In his opening devotional of Morning and Evening Spurgeon affirmed the sweet sound and good news of the gospel. He said, “We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies; let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem.” Anyone can repeat the unbelieving sounds of the irreligious. Being negative is an easy road to follow. Choose any headline hawked by the main-stream media and be depressed. Their notes are mostly sorrowful.

 

But that is not the song God wants us to sing. His song is joyful and hopeful. The lyrics of the gospel ring with optimism and gladness. He wants us to look up, not down. He wants us to advance, not retreat. He wants us to look ahead to what has not yet been written, not backward to the pain and failures of the past. He wants us to “shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation,” and be thankful.

 

Heavenly Father, we have just come through Advent and celebrated the birth of the Savior. The year that has just finished cannot be re-lived. The new year has begun. Help me to keep the pains of the past in the past, and remember them no more. Lift my sights to see for me what you see for me for 2010. Give me the voice to sing a song of joy to you, and give me the energy “to shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” I want to be “a minstrel of the skies” to everyone you send across my pathway. I dedicate this year to you. In the Name of the Lord Christ. Amen.