Psalm Reflection: The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

“For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.” - Psalms 89

I remember when Kenny G set the world record for the longest continuous note played on a wind instrument. He played a note on the saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds without stopping. He was able to this by using a technique called circular breathing, where you store extra air in your cheeks while breathing through your nose simultaneously in order to continue playing without a break in the sound. His record has since been beat by Femi Kuti, who played a note for 46 minutes and 38 seconds straight. That is longer than it would take to stream an episode of almost any TV show. 

Next time you stream an episode of Law and Order, imagine Kenny G holding an E-flat the entire time without stopping.

But what about singing?

The longest continuous note sung by the human voice was for 2 minutes and 1.07 seconds by Richard Fink IV in 2019. No circular breathing or pauses, just one long note from a single breath. Two minutes is an incredibly long time to maintain a single note, but it is nothing in comparison to forever. Even if you did breathe, the world record for the longest time singing while being able to breathe is 138 hours, 41 minutes and 2 seconds: incredibly long, but also nothing in comparison to forever. What does it mean, then, in the Psalmist’s words, to sing forever? 

Saint Augustine said that when we sing we pray twice. He said this because when we sing our physical body is in harmony with our spiritual self and both are actively praying and praising God. The external body is mirroring or reflecting the internal reality. So, we sing to God whenever we physically and visually express our internal prayer. In essence, we sing the goodness of God forever when we allow our relationship with Him to embody our every word and action. 

What song are you singing with your words and actions?

Does your life sign a song of praise to God or to something else?

Does every word you speak and every action you take direct attention to the Lord?

Or, do your words and actions reveal the earthly things you are attached to? Do they manifest in selfishness and pride?

We are all writing a song with our lives. Is yours a joyful noise to the Lord, or a cacophony of meaningless sounds? 

Are you too busy trying to sound like everyone else, or trying to sound how you think others want you to sound, that you are burying the unique melody God has given you to sing?

As a musician, I know that every musical sound is a complex collaboration of different actions and senses coming together to create an intended sound: the reading of music on a page, the air in our lungs, the shape of our mouth and lips, our posture, the adjustment of pitch based on what we hear, and the playing of a physical instrument with our fingers, hands and/or feet. So many components need to come together to accurately produce a single note.

Our lives are the same way. 

We must sing of the goodness of God in every part of our lives and recognize that we cannot compartmentalize our faith, because, when we do, we confine and suppress our relationship with God in such a way that we can never experience the abundant fruitfulness God desires for us.

I think, if we are willing to be honest with ourselves, most of us are singing a song not God, but to ourselves. We are pursuing our own pleasures, desires, and plans, usually motivated by a desire to be seen as successful, to earn a certain amount of money, or to have a lifestyle that we think will fulfill us and make us happy. 

The problem with these songs is that they all end. We do not have enough money, time or control to sustain them. Eventually the money will be spent, the experience will be over, the pleasure will have been felt, and we are right back where we started. The only song we can truly sing forever is the song our soul was designed to sing. We are all wired for God, and, to quote Saint Augustine again, our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

Every hunger or desire we experience is fundamentally a desire for God. We try to satisfy these desires by singing easier, more comfortable songs with our lives. Eventually, the record will scratch to a halt. We will never be satisfied until we listen to the melody deep within us that is crying out for our Creator, the Master conductor of the universe. When we begin to tune our ears to His voice and discern the directions of his baton, we will find ourselves joining a song of praise and glory, one that is sung eternally by the Saints and Angels in Heaven.

If we hope to one day join the Heavenly host in this beautiful song of praise, we must begin today by allowing everything we say and do to glorify God and to sing of His goodness now and forever.

I am praying for you, please pray for me, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt

This reflection is based on the Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday, July 2nd, 2023, which is The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A: Psalms 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19.