My Life Flows On in Endless Song, ELW 763
Devotion
My life flows on in endless song;
above earth's lamentation,
I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Refrain
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I'm clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing? (Refrain)
What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth. (Refrain)
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing? (Refrain)
This hymn is an amazing confession of faith in its announcement that we cannot keep from singing when we remember the promises of our baptism into Christ!
The first time I heard this hymn was at a concert by one of my favorite American folk singers. Although he played many instruments in the course of that concert—guitar, violin, piano, banjo, hammered dulcimer, drums, harmonica, (and more!)—he used none of them to accompany this hymn. He simply walked to the center of the stage, and in a rich baritone voice, started to sing. It was a confession of faith as surely as is the Apostles' Creed that we stand to say—accompanied only by one another—on Sunday morning. This is what it means to be a child of God: neither tumult nor strife; neither storm nor darkness; not even death itself can silence the sweet hymn of God's ever-creating, ever-renewing love being sung into this world. Truly, how can any of us "keep from singing?" Thanks be to God!
Prayer
God of Promise, in baptism you have claimed us as your own and promised to be with us in all the storms of life. When we ponder the reaches of your ever present love and faithfulness, how can we keep from singing? Amen.