|
"Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning" (Ps. 119:54, ESV).
"Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge" (Ps. 119:54, NIV).
"The call to daily Bible reading is less about acquiring information than it is about burying His truth deep in our heart. We do not need a quick pick-me-up to start the day. We need to change the background music that animates our life." Mike Woodruff 1
Singing (as long as it's not coming from me) is a beautiful form of expression and worship. There is a reason our staff is remarkably intentional about the music at St. Paul's. Sometimes our ears experience the soft and soothing chords of a piano or the peaceful vibration of the violin. Often our attention is grabbed by the warning blast of a trumpet, simultaneously signaling both the Justice and Grace of God. In any form — instrument or voice — a vital purpose of these songs is the sublime connection to the life-giving story of God's redemption for His creation, His Word.
There is a contemporary song with relevant lyrics — "We got dust on our Bibles, brand-new iPhones; no wonder why we feel this way." 2 The point is hard to dismiss. It's not a call to throw out our technology, but it would do all of us enormous good to reflect on our balance. More of us are allowing ourselves to be shaped by an algorithm rather than God's instructive and productive Word. When so many options compete for our limited time, there is always a choice involved. And we need to accept the simple, but rarely easy, link between disciple and discipline.
So what is hindering your spiritual growth? Hearing the liturgical verses and hymns twice a month, or even 52 out of 52 weeks a year, doesn't qualify for the discipline that leads to vitality. If we are to bear fruit, our instruction is to remain in the vine, Jesus, the heavenly vine of God's own planting (John 15). Besides reading the Bible, please tell me what else Jesus could be referring to in these verses? He isn't talking in the abstract here; He knows the way to stay in a connected relationship with us is through the Word. While our daily time alone with God is solitary with respect to other humans, the irony of this investment is that it actually places us firmly into a community.
Please tell me how you can be transformed, how you can discern anything God wills for you and your neighbor if you aren't regularly communicating with Him (Rom. 12:2)? For most, it is true to say that God does not speak to us in visions and dreams anymore. He speaks with us, in the present tense, through His Word. We do not need to read the red letters of the Bible vicariously through the lives of the 12 disciples. We do not need to sing the statutes of our Lord, pretending to be the ancient hymn writers in our ancestry. The Bible is the living Word for us — right now, and always.
Because the words of the Bible are spirit and life, the way that we interpret the stories, and the experience of God that we have through them, may change with our particular condition. We believe that God doesn't change, but our lives do — and the vital words of the Bible are the best way to be reminded that the Creator of the universe, the giver of all your possessions, the divine author and editor of your story, cares about you (1 Pet. 5:6-9).
And we do not have to wait until the Second Coming of Christ to be His friend; we do not have to wait to be an adopted son of God. We do not have to wait until the hardness of life and its struggles are gone. We can start now. Each of us can choose to live in a relationship with God that is above our circumstances now. His Word is our song, and we can choose to receive that gift today.
1 Mike Woodruff, Lakelight Institute, The Friday Update
2 Josiah Queen, "Dusty Bibles," Capitol Christian Music Group, F&L Music Group, and Josiah Queen Music, 2025.
| 
