“What are the things that inspire me the most?” This is a question I have asked myself many times this past summer, as I have spent most of it conserving my resources, making sure that my expenses stay below my means; it has been very strenuous as I spent many days at home trying not wasting money on gas, and not being able to spend much time with my friends. This summer, through it all, I found that one of the things which inspires me the most is music.
Presently I’m reading through 1 Samuel in my daily Bible readings, and one day this week, the desire to thoroughly read through the book of Psalms suddenly entered into my heart. Psalms is a book of wisdom and history, a collection of prayers and songs that are written by known and unknown (unverifiable) authors, who all lived in different time periods. So, the book of Psalms is not a book that flows chronologically, which makes it a little more difficult to read. I have probably memorized some chapters in Psalms, and even though I have read through Psalms, I still feel unfamiliar and ignorant to a majority of its text. Psalms is one of the most well-known books in the Old Testament of the Bible, and it holds verses and songs which are widely recognized throughout the Christian community, yet I believe it still is a book that is not well studied.
David is the main author of the book of Psalms. David was called “a man after God’s own heart”. I would say that most Christians see David as a man of worship more so, than a man of war. Any reader of David’s writing has to see that his songs of praise and his prayers to God, had to have come out of a heart of love and passion; for he passionately writes with transparency and clarity his feelings, emotions and thoughts inside his heart. Whenever I read David’s psalms, the word usage is so personal, I feel like I’m reading one of his entries in his diary (if, by chance, he had one). David’s life was filled with war, he was a man of war, however he was also a man of love. In his writings (his songs/ his music) the condition of his heart changes due to circumstances, but his love for God always remained the same, from his humble life as a sheep herder to his position as King of Israel.
Do you know that it is almost impossible to play or sing a song the exact same way twice? There is usually always something that makes a song unique every time it is played. I feel that each day of my life, I should have a new song in my heart that corresponds to my feelings and experiences of that day. Everyday of our lives is unique, and is unlike any other. I try and life life to its fullest, knowing that everyday has its own specific limited threshold amount (some days you can do a lot, some days you can only do so much), and I continually desire and seek to have joy inside my spirit, though the condition of my heart changes each and every day. Maturing in life, I see how everyday of my life has it’s own tune, and each day is a new song.