I love the Psalms. They are wonderful accounts of praise, lament, celebration and anguish. They deal with the raw emotion going through their writers’ lives. They bring a human perspective on God and can be a great encouragement in times of trial – or when we want to praise God but don’t know where to start.

Psalm 40 is an amazing Psalm, one that I love. Here’s a piece of it:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,
And set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Happy are those who make the Lord their trust,
Who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multiplied, O my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;
None can compare with You.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.

Sacrifice and offering You do not desire, but You have given me an open ear.
Burnt-offering and sin-offering You have not required.
Then I said, ‘Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my heart.’

(Psalm 40:1-8, New Revised Standard Version, [NRSV])

I’ve been going through a bit of a hard time recently. There’s been substantial change in my life over the past year. I’ve been convinced of what I was going on to do, only to find myself 200 miles away from that place. I’m going to face even more uprooting over the coming year. I don’t know what much of that is going to look like. It’s an uncomfortable time. I’m struggling to hear God about these things – or I’m not recognising His voice. One or the other.

But I long to come out on the other side. I long to see a glimpse of my life as it will be in two years. I long to see where I will be, what I will be doing and how God has moved through my life. I long to praise God for bringing me out of my pit, my bog, my feelings of hopelessness, restlessness and insecurities about my worth. I wait patiently for my Lord to move me on in my journey with Him, on to the next step, safe in the knowledge that my steps are secure in the Rock of my saviour Jesus. I long for that new song of praise to flow from my lips, a song of praise to my God on high, telling all of His great hand over my life. I long to tell of how, though I didn’t understand what He was doing at the time, I can look back and say with confidence that He is good, that He is trustworthy, that He took me places I couldn’t imagine in my tiny mind.

I long to know His plans and His will, so I can follow His lead. I live in faith that this day of revelation in my life is near.

How long, to sing this song?