The Song of Your Salvation
Well, I have great news, friends! I didn’t miss a month of blogging due to writer’s block this time! Just due to a busy schedule. But, it seems that God deemed it that I should get COVID well after everyone else. So, here I am right before Easter 2022, hanging out at home with COVID. But, at least I’m telling you about a song!
So, about 10 months ago, in the midst of quite a bit of writer’s block, I started trying to mess around and learn some piano. I feel pretty comfortable to move my way around the piano in the key of C now – which is pretty fun to see that 10 months can do that! Maybe in another 10, I’ll have mastered one sharp ;). However, in that time, I started composing a melody in 6/8 that didn’t have any words yet. Come January, I actually had an entire song written on the piano, but with no words yet – that rarely happens to me. Usually ideas come first with a hint of a melody or a lyric line, but then a lot of it gets written together. So, here I was with a song just waiting for words.
The prior summer (when I was composing the melody), I had memorized Psalm 40, and thought it was a great candidate for a song (aren’t all Psalms though?!). In particular, a great candidate for the album I’d love to write where every song will be a Psalm but focused on Jesus as the fulfillment of the Psalm. Because Psalm 40 even gets referenced in Hebrews 10! “First [Jesus] said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’ — though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Wow.
But, this Psalm was very confusing to me at first. It opens with all of this talk of God rescuing the Psalmist, who is David. The beautiful line “He put a new song in me” caught my attention :). He praises God for all His wonderful works. Then, David launches into this quote that gets pulled into Hebrews about how the Lord doesn’t desire sacrifice, so David comes to do God’s will. Then, shortly thereafter, David describes being in great distress again, from enemies, from His own sin, and that he is in a position of waiting again for rescue. So, I’m left wondering: Is this David’s Psalm that gets hijacked in the middle where God’s Spirit gives him a revelation about Jesus…or does this part of the Psalm actually fit in with the Psalm too? I have a pastor friend who encouraged me to see it as a part of the Psalm first, then a revelation about Jesus second. He read this Psalm through the lease that David has made an important discovery. A discovery that many other Old Testament characters would make: God is much more about having a relationship with a person, a person who delight’s in Him and desires to do His will (and perhaps fails and needs rescue in the process) than someone fulfills their sacrificial duties but doesn’t care for Him. And, the truth that we know on this side of the cross is that we could never sacrifice what we need to please God. The other hard truth is that we actually could never delight in Him and desire to do what He wills either. But Jesus.
What a great two words. But Jesus. He is the fulfillment of this Psalm because He is the one who can rightfully show up and say “I have come to do Your will.” He does this perfectly instead of offering meaningless sacrifices…but actually God’s will for Him is to become the sacrifice that can allow us to experience the same relationship with God that He has! Mind. Blown. So, God was so good to give a bridge to this song that highlights all of those ideas.
The rest of the song is tailored after David’s words in beginning and end of the Psalm. Praising God for His rescue and merciful acts, acknowledging that he will need them again. The idea that God put a new song in David struck such a chord in me (haha…all of that was intended) that it became a focal point of the song. The Song of Your Salvation became the title because when left to ourselves, we can’t please God. Any song that I write for my life can never actually right my wrongs or make me who I want myself to be. Only His song can do that. He has to write a song and put it in me. And, super fun, another of the other Old Testament writers that talk about obedience and a right heart being better that sacrifice make it into the bridge!
One last cool moment before I give the lyrics here: I often wondered how David could wait patiently in the pit of mire at the beginning of the song. Whenever I’m in dire straights, I pretty much want to get out of it immediately and complain a lot until I do. But, I think what he meant was: I know that any effort of my own to get out of this will sink me further, so I will wait for the One who can save me. I really think God put some meaningful words together to convey David’s thoughts. Here’s, The Song of Your Salvation
The Song of Your Salvation
I waited patiently/You heart my cry/All struggle is vanity/When you’re deep in the mire/You lifted me from the pit/Set my feet on the rock/Long before I had fallen in/I was known by my God
You put a new song in me at just the right time/Now Your Word within my being unveils my design
Many, Oh Lord, my God, are the wonders that You have done/Great is the song of Your salvation/Within it I find Your desire for my heart’s reply/So, I say, “Here am I”
I offer this invitation/Though it houses a plea/I cannot outrun my sin/Oh, God come and save me
And put a new song inside my soul that I cannot write/For it is You alone who holds the words of life
Many, Oh Lord, my God, are the wonders that You have done/Great is the song of Your salvation/Within it I find Your desire for my heart’s reply/So, I say, “Here am I”
You have opened my ears/You’ve caused me to know/Nothing I give can atone for the sin of my soul/But there is One in whom Your will was done/And by His blood, You bid me to come/How great is Your love/How great is the song/Of Your Salvation
Many, Oh Lord, my God, are the wonders that You have done/Great is the song of Your salvation/Within Him I find Your desire for my heart’s reply/So, I say, “Here am I”