My heart sings

 

Psalm 28:7 

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

    in him my heart trusts;

so I am helped, and my heart exults,

    and with my song I give thanks to him.

“With my song I give thanks to him.”. Yes, very much this.  

At 10:30 on Sunday mornings I am sitting at home in front of my computer with my communion elements close by waiting for worship to begin.  It begins with gathering music, then praise music and during the rest of the service there will be prayer music, message and communion and offering and benediction music.  Most of the time I sing the hymns lustily and with feeling.

Sometimes the voices of the Quarantine Qrew enrapture me and move me to tears so that I cannot sing.  But that’s ok.  My heart sings along with them.

I have heard people say that “If I cannot sing, it does not feel like worship”.  And I agree.  Which is going to make going back to in-person worship services that much harder for us. 

When we return to worship in our beautiful sanctuary, we will not be able to sing.  

We will not be able to pray the Lord’s prayer in unison or respond to the Pastoral Prayer together.

Even though we will all be wearing masks. 

Even though everyone has had their temperature taken on the way in.  

Even though we will be sitting  far apart from everyone except our own family.  

Even though we will not be able to hug each other.  

Even with all those precautions, we still won’t be able to sing.

For the safety of everyone present, and their families and friends and co-workers we cannot sing. 

That’s going to be hard.  I cannot imagine what that will feel like.

So I will continue to sing at home for as long as we worship at home.  I will continue to let my heart sing with the Qrew, and know that I will be able to do that, at least, when we come back together.

God of singers and musicians, from the earliest days we have worshipped you with music and thanksgiving.  We have written psalms and hymns to praise you.  We love to sing together, but when we cannot, help us to remember that we still worship you with the song in our hearts.  Amen