all of creation cries out -- he is faithful
“I will sing of the steadfast love of the lord for ever.
With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 89:1
As I begin the daily, even hourly plod toward shoulder health after this fifth shoulder surgery, I am trying out a dictation app that magically transforms spoken words into written ones. To familiarize myself with the app, I decided to read certain Psalms aloud. (This practice comes with the lovely side effect of soul-calm). I confess that when I began this process, I initially turned to Psalm 88, because it felt like the unyielding and somewhat angry content best suited my heart’s mood. However, when I opened my Bible, the Spirit steered me toward Psalm 89, a lament admitting slightly more hope than the Psalmist of 88 is ready to acknowledge.
Now for the really cool part…
This morning, as I read the first couple of verses of Psalm 89, I began to realize the sweet irony of the words my lips were forming:
“With my MOUTH I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.”
With the ongoing struggles, I’ve been fearful about the functional loss of shoulder, arm, hand and fingers to write out of my innards this fire within my bones. And now, partly through 21st century cyberscience, and completely because of the Lord’s unfailing faithfulness, the antidote to my fear has appeared onscreen.
The Word breaks down my poison-fear with its fundamental deconstructing truth: capacity to type words may diminish, and next week my voice could falter, but as Jesus once said, nothing can silence the insistent cosmological cry of praise (Luke 19:40). His love is unshakeable, his redemption irreversible, and his faithfulness immovable. Nothing new here – what the labor of my hands has never been able to accomplish, the zeal of the Lord has already done and continues to do until the day of Christ’s return (Isaiah 9:6). Shout it with me now,
“With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.”
What about you? Do you struggle with fears of limitation or inability to carry out your calling? How do you hear God’s faithfulness shouting (or whispering) from – words or The Word; a rock or a rock-climber; trial or triumph?
(This post was composed over several hours time using the free app for old Ipad, Dagon Dictate, and lots of one-handed typing:-)
