Five Minute Friday: Sing

Kate Motaung's our FMF again this time; as days in the northern hemisphere get longer, what better FMF prompt could we have than sing? As days in the southern hemisphere grow shorter, "sing" also is the perfect prompt!

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the rock of Israel. Isaiah 30:29

Particularly the psalms and the books of Isaiah in the scriptures bring us a literal plethora of instances of God's people and all God's creation responding in song to God's grace and providence! I especially love that psalms 96. 98, and 148 the lectionary appoints for Christmas – Nativity, the sanctified solemnity of God's incarnation in a body made from earthly elements – feature singing hills, mountains, rivers, and streams. In the passage that eventually became chapter 30, we receive God's promise of a song for us through Isaiah of Jerusalem who had more than an inkling another threat from the north soon would overtake Israel. This is not random incidental singing, but voices that well up and sing from inner joy – "gladness of heart" – so immense it requires accompaniment by flutes, horns, wind instruments that magnify and glorify the breath of the divine in each of us. For sure Mountain of the Lord refers to Mount Zion and the Jerusalem temple, but this kind of exuberance is the shalom, the fullness, and completeness we experience in the presence of God whenever God's people assemble. Isaiah's words may refer to a passover celebration, possibly to any encounter with God in the Jerusalem temple...

...less than a week ago the church celebrated Easter, the festival of the holy solemnity of the resurrection of our Lord. Just as passover observes Israel's exodus from Egypt and trek out of bondage and slavery, easter's the freedom feast of the new covenant children of God. We call the week after easter Bright Week and celebrate it as the eighth day / the first day of the new creation. What a reason to sing! Sing hallelujah as we did last Sunday in church with brass quintet? Amen! Amen!

# # # Postscript: Some versions of Isaiah 30:29 add "the rock that shelters Israel" to the end of the verse. My header image is my interpretation of a psalm verse that also refers God's shelter and protection that lead to joy-filled song. In the end I didn't write about it at all, but the singing colors, energy and optimism fit this prompt to perfection.