The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
Psalm 28:7 (NIV)
The Reasons for the Song
Arlene is seventy-one, and her name was on the second list both times the new people posted one. She knows what the second list is for. Her sister moved in with her in June and doesn’t know the lists exist. The girl who started in the spring asked her how she can sing along to the radio in a week like this one, and Arlene said she’s always done it and went back to the phones.
David calls on God not to go deaf to him, and tells him plainly what the silence would do. He asks not to be dragged off with people who speak cordially to their neighbors and mean something else by it. Then his cry gets heard, and he says this: Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. He trusts and he is helped, and David says both of them about the same God. Then the body gets into it. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
He was heard, and he was covered. He was heard when he cried out, and he was covered when he had nothing of his own to get behind, and none of that turned on how well he had been doing lately.
He prays for everybody else too. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. He has been helped, and he asks the same for the whole nation.
At midday the office empties out and Arlene turns the radio up. The third list goes up Friday, and she sings until the song is over.
A Prayer to Remember
Lord, we don’t know how this ends, and we’re going to go on saying you’re good while we don’t know. We’ve got nothing of our own to put under that. We’re standing on you, and some weeks that’s the whole of what we can honestly say.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
