The following is not a political endorsement of any candidate; I don’t think so any way.  The race for the Whitehouse is in full swing and regardless of what side you are on I think it is interesting to note how this election is different from any other.  For instance the U-Tube debates where questions were selected from a pool of video questions submitted by pretty well anyone who felt like asking about pretty well whatever they wanted to know.  It is also interesting to note that while stands on the Iraq war, and issues such as education and health care are important to voters there are other bits of information being asked of candidates this time around that to my knowledge have never been asked before such as what was the latest addition to your I-pod?  Hillary Clinton Carly Simon’s “Into White”.  Rudy Giulaiani Verdi’s “Macbeth”.  Barack Obama the soundtrack to “Ray”.  John Edwards was partial to U2.  For Dennis Kucinich it was Willie Nelson and for John McCain it was “Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys.  Voters want to know: “What are the songs to which you are listening?  What is the soundtrack to your life?”  Frankly I am surprised to learn some of these candidates have I-Pods but I am not surprised they have a life soundtrack, certain songs that speak to them, songs that take them back to another time in their life, songs that reflect or affect their mood and demeanor.  I know such songs exist in my life as I am sure they do in yours.

            There is however a soundtrack for life we have in common and that is the soundtrack of the church known otherwise as the Psalms.  The book of Psalms is the hymn book of the Hebrew faith; 150 songs for the people of God written by the people of God. It is the soundtrack of the life of faith, the soundtrack of people living in the world in relationship to God.  The soundtrack of the psalms is not always up-tempo. It reflects both the hills and the valleys of life; there are songs of praise, but there are also songs we might categorize as blues.  There are songs that have deep meaning for the people of God and there are songs that take the people back to a particular time and place like the exodus from Egypt.  There are teaching songs written for instructing people in the faith, kind of like the ABC’s or Jesus Loves Me of the Hebrew world, and no soundtrack for life would be complete without a few love songs and those are in the psalms also.  The psalms are a soundtrack for all of our days — including our time of active living, our final days, and our time beyond time in the great beyond.           

           Psalm 40 contains several of these elements all balled into one song.  Right off the bat there is some intimacy in this song.  The singer has past experience with God, he or she has been in relationship with God because in the past God has “drawn her or him out of the desolate pit, out of the miry bog and set his or her feet on the rock.”  Like a lot of songs the scene is probably not literal, I doubt the person was actually stuck in a miry bog but anyone who has every set foot in wet mucky ground and been held fast, struggling to get free, pulling for all you are worth, only to have you shoe come off, and struggling to keep from falling over, your shoeless foot hits muck, soaking your sock.  Unless you are really lucky that shoe is likely gone for ever.  I doubt that is what the song is literally about but anyone who has had this happen can identify with how the singer must have felt, helpless, and stuck. 

           We are told that had it not been for God he or she might still be there, but God delivered him or her so there is an element of praise and thanksgiving in this song.  There are hints at a love song as the singer goes on the say the wondrous deeds of God can not be counted and nothing can compare to God.  There are elements of teaching in this song as the singer is lifting up this experience so that others can learn from it.  Above all there is urgency in this song; God forbid it not be sung because news like the singer conveys is too good to keep quiet, it must be proclaimed in the congregation for God’s glory and for the benefit of others. 

           That good news the singer must tell is this: we are always in need of God’s help and God is always there to hear our cry. Our standing soon gives way to falling and we cry again for rescue. The singer who at the beginning of the song says you delivered me from the miry bog says in vs. 13 “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me”.  Once delivered, the singer is in the pits again and needs God’s help.  I don’t know about you but that fits the soundtrack of my life.  There are very clear moments I can recall when I was stuck and I believe God rescued me but some how that didn’t keep me from getting stuck again.  It is not a very flattering view of our condition, but it is a truthful one. There is an anonymous saying, attributed to a Hassidic rabbi, “I walk, I fall, I get up. I walk, I fall, I get up. I walk, I fall, I get up. All the while, I keep dancing.”

           The most remarkable lesson of this psalm is that the joyful testimony of the Lord’s saving gift comes in part from the remembrance of past deliverance. What has been done in the past has not been forgotten. In fact, it becomes the ground of all praise and thanksgiving and the sure confidence that God will indeed continue to deliver in the future. Here we have a model for how faithful believers can live boldly in the present by recalling the past with hope for the future.  When we recall past experiences of God’s goodness, it is not merely an exercise in nostalgia.  Because we know God accompanied us in the past, we are more confident that God is with us now and will be with us in the future.  This song is a part of the soundtrack of faith that is worth all of us having in our spiritual I-Pod.  This song helps us remember as the people of God we must be willing to step out in faith, not because we are confident in ourselves, but because of God’s steadfast presence with us.  We have an ongoing relationship with God, we have a history with God that points to God’s faithfulness to us, we know that God is near and that God hears us when we call for help from the miry bog in which we all too often find ourselves.  There is value in that history.  There is value in our relationship with God and it is worth passing on; no it must be passed on to others.  The soundtrack to our faith is too good to keep to ourselves and unlike NAPSTER there is no fear of copyright infringement.  It is not only ok but it is good to share this song, our song of faith, with others.  We are encouraged to let them download it for free.  That is part of the deal with God.  The fruit of our faithful remembrance and joyful praise is in sharing it with others.  The psalmist declares God is not interested in sacrifice or in religious ritual in response to salvation instead God is interested in the whole self living obediently in grateful praise. Echoing Jeremiah and Isaiah, the psalmist declares, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart”.  Singing a new song, telling others the glad news of deliverance, bearing witness to God’s faithfulness by word and deed — all these acts the psalmist describes are a response to God’s saving help.

When the psalmist says “God put a new song in my mouth” it is not likely the psalmist means to say God let me download another song from I-tunes for free.  It is more likely the psalmist means God helped me, enabled me, and lifted me to interpret life differently.  The singer says with God there is always a change of tune, we might be singing the blues but even when life is the pits we are assured that God is with us and at some point our song has to become praise.  Granted the psalmist wrote this song well before the time of Jesus but for me the singer’s line about getting a new song, a new soundtrack for life is what Christianity is all about.  Our relationship with Christ, our relationship with the Triune God dictates how we interpret life and as we live life in this relationship we receive a soundtrack for living that if not always upbeat at least has a joyous and hopeful undertone.  This soundtrack is ours to keep and any time we are feeling down it is there to lift us up even as God is there to lift us up.  This soundtrack is also ours to share not just if we want to but that is kind of the point; to share it. 

In the passage we read first this morning from the Gospel according to John, John the Baptist encounters Christ and has this amazing experience where he sees the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus.  John can’t keep this news to himself, it is too good, he simply must tell others so he reports it to others and exclaims to others “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” the one I was telling you about.  Also there is this man named Andrew and after he encounters Jesus he goes and gets his brother Simon Peter so that he may tell him about Jesus and invite Simon to come along. Part of getting the good news is passing it on.

            There is a soundtrack to our faith and whatever part of that soundtrack speaks to you be it “Amazing Grace”  “Jesus Loves Me” or Here I Am Lord” put it in your spiritual I-pod so that it is handy to keep with you.  Remember however the soundtrack to our faith also includes “This Little Light of Mine” and all of us are called to let it shine.  We are called to share the soundtrack of our faith with others “So let it begin with me”.  Amen.