Psalm 40:6-10
When I was twenty-nine years old, I went through a season of deep grief following an untimely loss. I wondered in those dark days when and how I would know that I was getting better. What exactly would new joy look like? What would God’s hope feel like? Any semblance of light seemed mostly distant. Then one day, several months later, I was walking through my house and caught myself whistling a hymn. I stopped in my tracks. I hadn’t whistled in months. It was such a small act, but its light-heartedness felt like an enormous victory. A breakthrough even.
Earlier the psalmist describes God putting “a new song” on our lips (v. 3). In this particular section the writer proclaims you have given me an open ear (v. 6). The Hebrew literally reads, “ears you have dug for me.” God opens our ears to vibrantly receive God’s presence. I do not know why the silence I experienced gave way to God’s song on that particular day. But in the growing number of simple moments like this that followed, I began to understand God in a new way. The One who gave me an open ear continued to do so and gifted me with joy.
Today, 20 years later, I find that people are still hesitant to ask me about that season of my life, as if that might open some gaping wound or unearth a great sadness. But to avoid that experience is to miss out on sharing my greatest witness about who God is. I don’t want to ignore the moment that God was closer to me than God had ever been. When all was dark and silent, God gave me light and a song. That is a story worth sharing.
Consider
Reflect on a time in your life when God opened your ears to a truth worth sharing. Tell that story to someone else.
Pray
Ever Present God, free us from our darkness and silence. Open our ears and eyes to hear your song and see your light that we may share it with the world. Amen.