“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” (Ps 40:2-3) The Holy Spirit spoke marvelously through David, causing him to record his own experiences and yet express truths that were beyond his experience. Psalm 40 is, in a sense, our Lord’s own autobiography. He Himself tells us why He came to earth, what was accomplished, and what His experiences were. This is a description of resurrection.

Life is often filled with death. Every experience that is opposite to what God has designed for us is an experience of death. Bitterness and shame and sorrow, hate and greed and loneliness, are all forms of death that come into our lives right now. That is what our Lord was experiencing. He understands these things because He has been through them Himself. Ultimately they led Him, as they will lead us, to that final moment when life ends and death is before us–the deep, dark desolation of death. But, He says, the Lord drew me out of that. He lifted me up from a slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, and set my feet upon a rock and made my steps secure.

That is a beautiful description of the experience of resurrection. None of us has ever been resurrected. There is a great difference between what happened to Lazarus and what happened to Jesus. Lazarus was really resuscitated; he was restored to this life almost as though he had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But Jesus was resurrected. He was the firstborn from the dead. He stepped into a whole new experience of life that God had designed from the beginning for humanity. That is what the Messiah is describing here. The result is, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God”.

A new song describes a new experience. When God does something great for you, you do not sit down and recite a proverb or compose a paragraph or devise a recipe. You write a song, because singing is one of the best ways we have of expressing what is happening to us. And so He has a new song to celebrate a new kind of living, resurrected life. The effect of that resurrection life, He tells us, is going to be widespread. “Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD”. The effect of the resurrection of Jesus was that the story of Christianity, the message of the Christian gospel, exploded in the Roman world as the church literally thrust out in every direction and shook the world of that day. Bitterness, shame, hate, sorrow, and loneliness are all forms of death. Do we believe and act on His indwelling Presence to dispel every form of death we experience?

Lord, You have the power to bring life from death. Thank You that through the resurrection of Jesus You have given me new life. Lord, today, keep my eyes on You in gratitude for all that You have done for me. Thank You for the reminder that we are to share the gospel with others. It’s not about me and what You have done for me, but what You want to do through me. Thank You for the reminder this morning to get out of Your way, and be a willing vessel. In the precious name of Jesus, amen!

Source: A Song of Resurrection