Category: Music

She Will Sing to Me

On By Charis PsalloIn Fields, Music, Photography, Sky, Uncategorized13 Comments

‘Anah Adonai

Troubles
Troubles

 There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling]

to be for her a door of hope and expectation.

And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth

and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

(Hosea 2: 15 Amplified)

When God speaks about the metaphorical woman in the book of Hosea, the one who has been running to everyone but the one who can save her from a self-destructive lifestyle, he says there will come a time when she will sing to him as in the days of her youth.

The word translated “sing” in the New American Standard Bible is written as “respond” in others. The Amplified uses both terms. It is the Hebrew word ‘anah.

This same word is used 38 times in the Psalms alone, usually as a cry to God to save us from some sort of trouble –or even ourselves. ‘Anah Adonai! Hoshi a na! Hear and answer, Lord! Save us!

Sometimes, when it is translated answer, it describes God’s response:

I cried. He answered.

I called. He answered

I sought. He answered

I prayed. He answered

I pleaded. He answered.

Near the end of the book of Psalms (147: 7) one phrase directs the answering/responding/singing to God. Sing [‘anah] to the Lord with thanksgiving. (NASB)

I’ve been thinking about singing as our response to God –and about him singing to us. He also cries, calls, seeks, and pleads to us to answer him, not to rescue, but to recognize who he is, that he might be able to lavish his love on us. Is it possible that God’s call is like a prayer to those with ears to hear?

I have learned, the hard way, that sometimes the Lord didn’t answer my prayers and left me in a very uncomfortable place (called the Valley of Achor or Valley of Trouble in Hosea), not because he didn’t want to give me good things, but because he wanted me to be desperate enough to pursue him and find out who he really was. I needed to let go of the image I had of him and move toward deeper relationship. My image of him was made up of a compilation of authority figures I had known -and he was none of these.

He’s not a father who created us and then moved out, or a cruel task master, or even Santa Claus. God is not a lot of things we project onto him. God is holy, which means completely set apart, totally unique and different from anyone or anything we have ever known -but definitely worth getting to know.

I’m still learning as each new lesson and accompanying practical exam reveals more of his character.

A relationship with God can start with a cry for help, but it can move on to something much more mature.

After years of “saying my prayers” and giving him my daily laundry list of requests, I am learning prayer is more about finding out what he wants than telling him what I want.

When we pray and agree with his plans we see answers, but first we have to find out who is really is and what is on his heart. Prayer is about spending time with him, listening, studying His plans, examining them, being inspired by them and receiving a vision for the future that includes our participation.

What he desires to do is greater and so much better than anything we have ever imagined -but we need to respond to him and move toward him to be part of it. When we ask according to what is on his heart we see answers, but first we have to find out what is on his heart.

And that requires turning around from our own self-designed blue prints and responding to him. He delights in his beloved bride and responds to the things on her heart as well.

There is something about Armenian/Canadian soprano, Isabel Bayrakdarian’s voice in this video, recognizing who God is that carries my own heart’s song. Holy, holy, holy are you, Lord!

Father Holy

Son Holy

Spirit Holy

I bless you now and forever.

Pull on the Strings of My Heart

On By Charis PsalloIn MusicLeave a comment

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

(James 4:8)

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,

that we may receive mercy

and find grace to help in time of need.

(Hebrews 4:15-16)

Don’t Look to the Right or to the Left

On By Charis PsalloIn Music6 Comments

In the dream I was walking through a parting of the earth like the parting of the sea. It looked like the Hollywood telling of the story of the crossing of the sea, with Charlton Heston presenting a younger and more confident Moses than the hesitant, speech-impaired fellow the Bible describes. In my dream the walls on either side of the path were not made of water but of flying rocks and dirt blown about by some amazing force.

I heard, “Don’t look around. Keep you eyes on the path. Keep going.”

“What’s happening?” I asked.

I heard, “I’m moving heaven and earth for you.”

These past few months have felt like we are walking a narrow path with crises flinging boulders and sandstorms all around our heads. It’s so easy to be distracted by circumstances that could make us panic. I have found that God usually does not answer “why” -especially as that question often comes with a whine that demands He explain Himself. He does answer “what” though, as in “What do you want me to see? What are you trying to show me about Yourself that I haven’t known before?”

He is showing me levels of love and faithfulness deeper than I had imagined.

So today as we walk through another crisis in our family and see aerial photos of our son and daughter-in-love and grandchildrens’ home and workplace and school and entire community under water, and we are cut off from each other because of broken infrastructure in this part of the world, we praise the God who is faithful, who walks through every trial with us, the loving Father who is moving heaven and earth to get His church to the place where he wants us to be. We are learning to trust  Him no matter what, to walk by faith and not by sight, and to rest in his love whether waiting for waters to go down or shovelling mud –because he is still good.

This song by Jenn Johnson has meant so much to me lately. It reminds me not to look to the left or to the right, but to keep my eyes and ears focused on my Saviour, my good Shepherd who says, “This is the way.”

Keep your eyes on the path. This is going to be good.

The Power of Gentleness

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Music, Photography13 Comments

IMG_1785 rosebuds 3 ch

You have given me the shield of your salvation,     

and your right hand supported me,     

and your gentleness made me great.

(Psalm 18:35)

He could have blasted us right out of our seats if he wanted to. Instead he sang with the most exquisitely sensitive pianissimo. He made us want to lean forward and be willing to strain to hear every note. I was privileged to hear a recital given in our small local theatre by one of the world’s greatest tenors. These guys have  powerful voices that can easily carry over a large orchestra with significant brass sections. I have heard that the easiest way to obtain tickets to hear him in Bayreuth in Europe is to inherit them, but he often does concerts in the type of small remote Canadian town he grew up in, in town halls with less than perfect acoustics and accompanied by pianos usually banged upon by reluctant nine-year old recitalists. God bless Ben Heppner for honouring his roots. Every once in a while that voice would totally fill the room and ring with the power and beauty that made him famous, but it was the still small perfectly controlled sound that impressed me. Such musicality. Power under control. Gentleness.

Somehow gentleness becomes greatness only when it is connected to power.

I once watched a young singer walk away from a music competition looking very discouraged. I knew he didn’t understand the reason for the judge’s harsh critique so I spoke to him, hoping to encourage his pursuit of developing a considerable talent. (Alas, I have witnessed far too many judges who seem to feel their role is to cut down the field to the very best of the very best, rather than encourage all young musicians to enjoy music and to aspire to be the best they can be.) The baritone had a powerful voice that could shake the rafters, and like many young singers who discover they have a range and a power that is the envy of the less endowed, he was tempted to sing “blastissimo” to show it off, even though the song he sang was about wooing a young maiden.

After chatting and telling him I admired his voice he asked me what I thought of his performance. I told him I was indeed impressed with his obvious strength and then winked and said, “A woman may be very impressed by your muscles, but you will win her  heart more thoroughly with gentleness and self-control than with your fists. ”

I guess I spoke his language, because he then went on to give me entirely too much information about his love life, which essentially can be boiled down to, “My girlfriend admires my body-builder physique and that I can protect her from any guy in the bar, but she says it is my gentleness in bed that pleases her most.”

He understood the advice instantly -and went home to work on his dynamic range. A comment about the spirit of gentleness on an earlier blog reminded me of this conversation (and set me to blushing again) but there is a strong connection between power and gentleness.

Power is task oriented and gentleness is relationship oriented. Power gets the job done, but gentleness demonstrates love and uses no more power or strength or authority than is necessary. Gentleness includes consideration of another person’s sensitivities and weaknesses as well as their strengths. A good daddy applies a different level of gentleness when cuddling his baby boy than he does play-wrestling with his four-year old or teaching his adolescent self-defence skills, but all of them require a restraint of the kind of power that would show up should an evil person threaten his child.

We all long to be protected, but we also need to know we are safe. Gentleness is not wimpiness. The juxtaposition of the symbolic language of violence in Psalm 18 gives all the more strength to the phrase, “Your gentleness has made me great.” The Creator of the universe could blast us right out of our seats with a whisper, but he knows that we are as frail as a woodland rosebud. He cradles us, provokes us, and trains us with no more power than is essential to help us develop every talent he has given us to be the people he intended us to be. He sets the example for how leaders in the church are to teach, encourage and correct, with a spirit of gentleness based on relationship -and backed by authority and power in Christ Jesus.

His gentleness makes us great.

Bring Me a Musician

On By Charis PsalloIn Just folks, Music, Photography9 Comments

IMG_9762

 

 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
 Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.
 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.

 Your procession, God, has come into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
 In front are the singers, after them the musicians. (Psalm 68:19-21, 24-25)

(Elisha said) But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him.  And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry stream bed full of pools.’ (2 Kings 3:15-16)

Who would place musicians at the front of an army? Who would react to a national threat with the command, “Bring me a musician?”

We were walking from the Mount of Olives, past the Garden of Gethsemane, down through the valley of tombs and back up the hill toward the other side where Caiaphas’ house has been recently excavated and inside the walls where the Roman pavement of the soldiers quarters still exists below a convent. It was very hot -at least to a Canadian who had been driving through a snow storm only a week before.

At the bottom, in the shade of an ancient tomb surrounded by hundreds of graves, literally in the valley of the shadow of death, this young man sat and played his instrument. The others in our group went on to explore more tombs, but I stopped and sat on a low stool by his feet and listened. The music was foreign to my ears. I didn’t understand the structure or the harmony, but it soothed my soul.

I had a dream in which a hotel we were preparing was inundated with new guests. At the front of the crowd, looking for a place to stay, were musicians of every sort. Some of them brought guitars and we put the instruments in gun cabinets while they rested. To me this spoke of the power of music in fighting the evil one.

When our son-in-love was walking through his own valley of the shadow of death on Good Friday, when doctors doubted he would survive, his faithful friends brought their guitars and sat in the waiting room quietly strumming and singing songs of praise to the great healer. Singing seems like an odd activity at such a time, but  they understood the importance of warring with their instruments and with their songs.

There is something about music that by-passes our personal defence systems. It can get by the heart/brain barrier.

I had a singing student whose relationship had just broken up. She assured me, quite calmly, that she was fine, that it was a logical time to end it and she was ready to move on. We happened to be working on the song, “On My Own” from Les Miserables. She didn’t make it two lines into the song before the floodgates of tears opened. Music therapy works on the theory that words delivered via music can get past our intellectual defences and help us heal.

There is something about music that allows us to hear more than just the music. On that day in Jerusalem I felt  jostled by crowds, harassed by vendors, impatiently tolerated by folk in religious garbs of many types, rushed by tour guides, dismayed by the lack of respect warring factions showed for each other and my feet and sun-burned neck hurt. Although our tour director carefully planned our itinerary to avoid the worst crowds there was no getting around this one if we wanted to see where Jesus spent so many critical hours. It was in the shade of a tomb, in the valley of the shadow of death, away from the crowds as I listened to a simple instrument played by a nameless man, that I heard my heavenly Father. He said simply, “Cease striving and know that I am God. It is finished. Rest in my love.”

The psalmist, David, understood. We war from a position of rest, in the valley of the shadow of death. That is where the feast is kept.

A Kiss to Build a Dream On

On By Charis PsalloIn Music5 Comments


Our son-in-love, who has been unconscious, but for a few moments, for nineteen days woke long enough to communicate with nods, smiles and grimaces for a short time yesterday. Our daughter’s heart was encouraged when he made a kissing gesture toward her.

His faithful friend, on the other side of the bed asked if he could have one too. “John” made a kissy face and rolled his eyes toward him.

We go on. We continue to pray for complete healing after flesh-eating disease and sepsis ravaged his body. Some of the medical staff have encouraged his day-and-night companions to continue to pray as they say it is only by the miracles they have seen so far that he is alive. At least one of them is not an atheist anymore.

We go on praying and trusting. We have a kiss -no, two kisses, to build a dream on.

Come Awake

On By Charis PsalloIn Music3 Comments

This morning, on Resurrection Sunday, our son-in-love, who has been unconscious and in critical condition for over a week, opened his eyes.

He went back to sleep again and there is still much to pray for towards his recovery, but we thank you, Heavenly Father that you have overcome death by death and you have already won the victory.

Nothing is impossible for You

On By Charis PsalloIn Music3 Comments

For the past two weeks my four-year old granddaughter has asked for the same song, “Strings” by Misty Edwards to be played over and over again. Today as I took all three little ones to a friend’s so I could rush to the hospital after learning her daddy’s condition had deteriorated, I asked if she wanted to hear “Strings”. I thought it might calm my soul as well.

She said, “No. Play the next song.”

It was, “I believe that you’re my healer.”

“That’s the one!” she said.

I didn’t tell her what was happening with Daddy, but she sang so sweetly and innocently and confidently in the back seat:
Nothing is impossible for you
Nothing is impossible
Nothing is impossible for you...

Daddy was so unstable this morning they didn’t dare move him across the hallway into the O.R., but rather did further surgery on him in the ICU.

He lives.

We cling to hope.

He Loves Us

On By Charis PsalloIn Music1 Comment

One night as I was praying I heard, “Those who are afraid to pray, ‘Thy will be done,’ do not comprehend My love.”

 

Abba, I pray we might know your love more and more so we would fearlessly say yes to everything you have for us.