Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.” (Psalm 96:1)

2021 November blog by Ginny Douglas ~ I love the concept that everything “sings.” All cultures produce expressions of music, and so does nature. Crickets sing, spring peepers form choirs, brooks babble and fir trees sway with the music of the wind. In Isaiah 55:12 we read that “the mountains and hills will burst into song…and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Music helps us recognize where we are now and where we’re going. Some songs are so traditional to the occasion that without them we feel short-changed. Or least that’s true for me. A graduation without Pomp & Circumstance is no graduation at all. We use song at ritual and celebration points in life – weddings, funerals, proms, sporting events, church services, and so on. Song grounds and carries us at the same time. And, who doesn’t love the “oldies, but goodies”? So what’s this the Psalmist says, in Psalm 96, about “Sing to the Lord a new song”? Can’t I just sing the old one? But music styles change over time, and the new songs become the old songs. So I don’t think the Psalmist is being literal here. There’s nothing wrong with the old songs, but we could use a fresh way of taking their messages into our hearts. There are probably as many forms of music as there are people, and that’s OK, because that’s not the point. The goal is to have an open heart that can really listen and absorb the new songs and rhythms that God sends us. Maybe it’s in the bird song; maybe it’s in songs of children; maybe it’s the song of chants or poems or drums. What message are we hearing? Can we listen more deeply to one another, to what we read, or to what we hear in the falling leaves? This November can we listen for songs of true Thanksgiving? Can the real homecoming be the one in our hearts? Can we tune our hearts to truly hear when our time of joy may be another’s time of sorrow?

This Thanksgiving may our lives be open and ready to make a home for the new songs that Divinity gives, ready to learn them and sing them back to the Lord. And before you know it, we’ll be turning a page on the calendar, and giving way to December. Then with renewed hearts, we can join in on the old lines “let Heaven and Nature Sing.”