"LISTEN TO THE LYRICS"

"Mm - well, fine little girl
She waiting for me.
Me catch the ship for cross the sea.
Me sail the ship now all alone.
Me never think me make it home."

The song goes on to tell how, for 3 days and nights, the sailor travels, thinking only of this wonderful girl. Then the song reaches its romantic peak when the sailor sings:

"Let me tell you
Me see Jamaica, the moon above
And it won't be long, me see my love.
Me take her in my arms and then
Me tell her I will never leave again."

You may not recognize the song from those lyrics. That's because back in the '60s, when The Kingsmen recorded it, you could barely make out the lyrics at all. And yet it's a song almost everyone has heard...and perhaps even sung (at least the chorus), possibly accompanied by a keg of beer: "Louie, Louie, oh, oh. Me gotta go now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I saida Louie, Louie...."

The ability to understand the lyrics clearly goes a long way toward making a song more meaningful. Of course, that's not always true. There's a song called "One Week" by the group Bare Naked Ladies, the chorus of which, vaguely, describes the process of a couple having an argument and then making up. You may have heard it when it first came out on the radio or currently in a car commercial. One of the verses in the song - the most discernable verse, actually
- is (and I am not making this up!):

"Chickety China, the Chinese chicken
Have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'.
Watching X-Files with no lights on.
We're dans la maison
I hope the smoking man's in this one.
Like Harrison Ford I'm getting frantic,
Like Sting I'm tantric,
like Snickers guaranteed to satisy.
Like Kurasawa I make mad films,
Okay I don't make films
but if I did they'd have a Samurai."

Now in that case, clearly hearing the lyrics does little to bring more meaning to the song!

Many people have a tendency to mostly pay attention to the music, the tune and rhythm of a song (you know: "It has a good beat...you can dance to it...I give it an 85"). But song lyrics often have wonderful meaning...even without the musical accompaniment. That's the case with Psalm 46 that we heard today. In fact, that's the case with most of the Psalms. The Book of Psalms in the Bible is a collection of prayers, poems, and hymns that focus the worshiper's thoughts on God. Parts of the Book were used as a kind of hymnal in the worship services of ancient Israel. The musical heritage of the "Psalms" is demonstrated by its title. The word we know - "Psalm" - comes from a Greek word that means "a song sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument."

Psalm 46 was definitely a worship song. In Scripture it's preceeded by the directive "For the director of music. Of the sons of Korah. A song." The sons of Korah were most likely a family of temple singers...sort of like an ancient Israelite praise band! Now we don't know what the tune was like or how it was played...but the lyrics survive to tell us what the song writer had experienced of God.

As the Psalm begins, it reminds me of another song: "When you're down and troubled...and you need a helping hand...and nothing, oh nothing is going right." That's the time, Carol King wrote, to remember that "You've Got a Friend."

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." That word we've translated "trouble" means distressed...a constricted feeling. When the world is "closing in" on us, God is like a shelter for us...a place of security when it feels like everything is caving in.

"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea...." Kind of reminds me of another Carol King lyric: "I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky tumblin' down."

Of course, we speak naively of "terra firma" - of being on "solid ground" anyway. We aren't. Geologists know that the continents are actually afloat, continuing to be built and changed by moving plates. Volcanoes are the earth's "heat vents" lying near the plate perimeters, which are also earthquake prone. What we have is a dynamic, living, changing planet set in an exploding, expanding universe. The idea that creation is like a an old-fashioned clock that was wound up and then left to tick along on its own is wrong. In fact, creation is a great natural drama that seethes with the unexpected. So is life - "solid ground" is an illusion.

But -- the psalmist sang, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God....God is within....God will help...." Iwitness sang "Shall we gather at the river of forgiveness? Come together at the waters of love!" For us this is a figurative river of life and rejuvenation. Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me...streams of living water will flow from within them."

That "living water" within us is the source of our solace and indeed our survival when, as the Psalm says, "Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall." We don't have to look very far or very long ago to know the reality of what kinds of things can and do happen in this world. After September 11th, Bruce Springsteen penned these lyrics:

"There's a blood red circle
on the cold dark ground
and the rain is falling down.
The church doors blown open,
I can hear the organ's song
but the congregation's gone.
My city of ruins,
My city of ruins."

Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 9, says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Quite obviously, the psalmist shows us that nations in uproar and kingdoms falling is nothing new. The weapons and methods may have changed -- human nature has not.

But neither has God's nature changed. "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Around 1529, the great Church Reformer, Martin Luther, was moved by the words of this psalm to write a hymn that has survived for all these hundreds of years: "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." And from around 50 years ago, many people still love to sing these words, "O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art!"

Yet even as we recognize God's immense, cosmic greatness, we read also of "The God of Jacob" -- a God for the individual...who knows us each and loves us each. Think of the little song we sometimes sing during Communion: "In Your eyes, I am a child that You are proud to call Your own. In Your eyes, You have created us Your daughters and Your sons. And no matter what we have been told, in Your eyes we all belong."

Still how can we - small as we are in the universal scheme of things, insignificant as we may feel in a world of great chaos - how can we possibly make contact with the Most High God, that Fortress, that Almighty One? The sons of Korah sang it for us long, long ago: "Be still, and know that I am God."

The need for us to be still before God is at the root of almost all of our troubles and concerns. Our inability to quiet ourselves, our hearts, our minds, to BE silently in God's presence is the thing that may most prevent our rising above the torments of this world to that promised state of peace that is possible if we will "be still" and "know God."

From 1752: "Be still, my soul: for God is on your side; bear patiently the cross of grief and pain; Leave to your God to order and provide; in every change God faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: your best eternal friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

Being still in our souls and trusting God. Developing a personal relationship with God that leads us to sing great praises as the psalmist did. Offering thanks in the midst of troubles. Giving control of our lives over to God. These were the things the psalmists sang about.

And these are the things we still sing about. But do we only hear the lovely tunes...or do we truly listen to - and act upon - the lyrics? We sing things like:

"Have I told You lately that I love You?
Have I told You there's no one else above You?
You fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness,
Ease my troubles, that's what you do."

"Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
You are the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after your will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still."

"Lead me and I will follow, every step of the way.
Lead me and I will follow, every step, without regret,
Every step of the way."

"Thanks, thanks, I give You thanks, for all You've done.
I am so blessed, my soul is at rest, O Lord, I give You thanks."

All written by the psalmists of our time. "Songs. For the congregation of Christ, of Metropolitan Community Church."

We need to LISTEN to the lyrics of the songs we sing. May they glorify God and may they give us reassurance...for "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is STILL our fortress." Amen.

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