How Long?

I can’t believe the news today

Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away

How long, how long must we sing this song?

How long? How long?

Sunday, Bloody Sunday, U2

Perhaps Lent is a season of mourning.

Perhaps it’s the world today

Perhaps it’s my heart, lamenting and yearning, singing the first lines of Psalm 40, wondering how long.

How long, Oh Lord?

How can I sing this new song when much around us is fraught with division? When hate feels heavy in the air?

Bombs exploding in the Middle East

Too many in our own country living in fear

How can we separate truth from lies?

Families divided, separated,

How long, Oh Lord, can I sing this song of hope?

But, you hear our cry,

my cry.

You hear our hearts,

My heart

You hear.

You respond.

Not with the silence of bombs or ending of war but with hope.

Set my feet on solid ground

Out of the muck and mire of politics, hate, division……

Put a new song in my heart.

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.

2

He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.

3

He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord.

Palm 40, a psalm of David.