This Is Your Song
One cold December 31st, I was awakened in the middle of the night with a thought that kept pounding through my mind, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.” I knew it was from Scripture, but I didn’t know chapter and verse off the top of my head. Deepest apologies to my Bible teachers from ages ago. I looked it up and found it in Psalm 127, which is—you guessed it—a Song of Ascent. I love Hillsong United as much as the next millennial, and I love their song of the same title. I remember a night the summer before when that song ministered to my soul like the balm of Gilead. It is precious to me. I remembered researching these Songs soon after that night, and this middle of the night wakeup call became a refresher course on them.
At 4:30 that sleepless morning, I read all 15 chapters aloud. They are so beautiful and encouraging. I wept as I read them. It was a soul-centering exercise. I called my mom later that day from the atrium of my office building and told her the Lord had awakened me in the middle of the night. I said, “I don’t know what all of this means, but I know that I’m excited about it.” Of course, I was hoping that Psalm 127:1 was confirmation that the cute guy at church liked me back and that the Lord would build our house…of love. Case closed. Book the venue. I am getting married! I realize now that it was a lot deeper than church crushes and a desire to be married. It was bigger than that. It was about my life, my pain, my struggles. It was about yours, too, sweet friend. It was about the lives of the saints who have gone before us, who have fought the good fight and kept the faith. It was about the goodness of the Lord above everything else.
These songs are for worshippers. Some were written by the ultimate worshipper in the Bible, the man after God’s own heart, David. They usher the reader into the sweetest and safest place of all: the presence of God. Historians write that Levite singers sang these songs as they climbed the stairs of the Temple on their way to minister, that they were sung by the people of God as they ascended into Jerusalem for feasts. These songs tell the story of people who have been through trials, uncertainty, and grief, but people who have also seen and known God as Deliverer. These are their memorial, their reminder, of the faithfulness of God. He is able to save and ready to deliver His people. He comes running to help His children.
The next night at my church’s New Year’s Eve service, I heard the Lord speak during a song we were singing; He said “This is your Song of Ascent.” If I had not being wearing fabulously uncomfortable high-heeled boots, I could have run laps that night. I ended one year and started the next with a pep in my spiritual step. I was so excited about what God was speaking to me about ascending. That’s a fancy word for going up. We weren’t meant to stay down. We are going up.
These Songs go hand-in-hand with overcoming by the word of our testimony. I didn’t come up with that on my own. That was all Jesus. I was so excited about this new life He was breathing into me. It flowed out of my belly like rivers of water that night. I was so thrilled to have this new insight into God’s Word.
I’m still so excited. This Word changed my life, but not in some big cosmic crash kind of way. It changed the way I see my life. It changed the way I see God’s hand in every part of my life. I hope you stick around because I have some cool things to show you in these fifteen songs in the middle of your Bible.
