Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry came to his ears.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, April 12, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This has me remembering an old camp song. We sang it at Camp Koinonia in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The words were:
I will call upon the Lord,
who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
The Lord liveth, and blessed be the rock
And may the God of my salvation be exalted.
We sang it with great enthusiasm (it had hand motions) over and over again, and it was way fun.
It’s only now, as an adult, that I can look back and see how this beloved song kind of misses the depth of the original text. For one thing, a good chunk of it is missing—the waves of death that encompassed, the torrents of perdition that assailed, the enemies who did violence. Without that kind of context, the praising of God is shallow. And how could a bunch of suburban, middle-class, white teenagers grasp that kind of adversity anyway? So it wound up just being a song of empty praise—a feel-good anthem without understanding.
I’m not just trying to rag on my teenaged self or this super-fun praise ditty. It was what it was. I’m just grateful, having experienced a fair amount of adversity in my life since then, to know that God hears me in my distress, and responds in grace and mercy. That is worthy of praise.
What are my favorite camp songs and why? Has my understanding of them changed with my age?
