A New Song

I waited patiently for the Lord...

He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit...

He set my feet on a rock

He put a new song in my mouth...

A hymn of praise to our God.

Psalm 40. I have read it many times but something hit me this time. The words that are coming out of the mouth have changed. Who knows what they used to sing in the past. Does it matter? Do i need to recall it anyway? Regardless, the words that ring out are NEW and awesome, full of awe for a hearing, saving God who heard me and saved me. He didn't just stop me from sliding backwards down some dirty pit but completely took me out and onto a different ground, one that doesn't slide or pull me down but becomes the perfect platform from which i can stand and stretch and touch the face of God.

But this new song? What hit me is i am reminded of Jesus' words, 

"from out of the heart the mouth speaks". - Luke 6:45

In putting a new song in my mouth he has not only changed the way i sing but the way my heart sings. 

The transformation happened internally FIRST, where in stinking sinking i cried out and waited patiently and God heard me, reached down, pulled me up and set me on the strongest rock possible.

I remember in primary school having a mouth that spouted such nonsense and dirt that in hindsight i can barely imagine it was me. And i remember one very significant day when through the un-knowing words of a friend my heart was transformed and the pollution stopped. In complementing me on my most excellent, polluted vocabulary, my friend said with a smile, "you swear too much :)". In an instance God showed me myself, almost like a birds eye view of this shocked primary kid. "I do swear an awful lot! =S"
Sick to the stomach, not because i was terrified of an awesome God, nor because i thought i had to be good enough, but because my heart was hurting the heart of my best friend (Jesus), my heart was transformed and from that point on, somehow (it doesn't always happen like this) any words of that sort refused to be uttered or even thought. 

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God!