One of the greatest songs sang is not heard here on earth. But oh, the sound made in heaven over each new soul written down in the Lamb’s book of Life. We recently celebrated the ink of the pen that writes such names, the shedding of our Saviors’ blood for our sins.
I have a few moments in my life that I can remember running back home to the embrace of my Heavenly Father after making a mess of my life. And each time heaven echoed the song sang, and though it wasn’t a new convert, I was a repentant daughter. And the celebrations that happen when a lost lamb or a prodigal child comes home is sheer jubilation.
We are given songs to sing in our changing seasons too. Songs sang on earth for heavens ears. Jesus puts a new song in our hearts when feeling a spirit of heaviness. He gives us psalms as an anthem to carry us through the hard times, the lonely times, the healing seasons, and the empty seasons. A new song that prophesies His ways, will, and wondrous works.
Sometimes those songs are written while we are sucking carpet and weeping before the Lord as Hannah did. She sang a new song in her new season, with a new life. She belted out a ballad of praise and sacrifice from the same place she was broken. 1 Samuel 2:1-10
I think one of my most challenging and best lessons was learning to sing a new song in the same place I was broken and shattered. Singing praises from a new perspective, when nothing had changed but my heart. When surrounded by ruins, singing a new song is not a natural instinct but a supernatural gift from heaven. When a song can rise up out of us in our devastation and destruction and make a sound so harmonious that it moves the heart of God to tears. Yes, I said tears. (If you have ever heard your child sing in their pain, then you can picture Father’s eyes brimming with tears as well)
Oh, the delight he takes in us when we find our song in our pain. Jails cells shake when we sing in our ruins. Prophets are born when we sing in our emptiness. Seas are spit, giants fall, and lions purr when we learn to sing a new song in our unchanging circumstance. Miracles begin to unfold because of our melody.
One particular lesson the Lord taught me when learning to sing a new song in my ruins was this passage of scripture from Jerimiah 30:18-19
“This is what the Lord says: “ ‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained.”
Singing a new song in our ashes and rubble and being rebuilt in view of those we failed in front of is God’s way of displaying His glory. After I had made a mess of my life for all to see, the Lord said to me, “I will rebuild you on your ruins, and though the land may be the same, your view will be different.” He then gave me a picture of a home burnt to the ground, but the foundation was still good. The builders took what was once a one-story home with no view and constructed a two-story home that rose up above all the other homes and had a view of the mountains.
This is what it means to be rebuilt on ruins and for us to find a new song in the same place and with that new song, a new promise, and a new perspective. Today, as you look around and see ashes of an old life, ruble of past mistakes, or the crumble of your health, marriage, family, ask King Jesus if there are new lyrics to sing in an old pain. He has given us a new song of LIFE to declare over the dry bones. I can hear the rattling now; LIVE!
“…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”
Isaiah 61:3-4 NIV
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