sing a song of hope in troubled times

“Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains.” Isaiah 42:10-11

Walter Brueggemann comments on this prophetic word:
Can you imagine writing this poem and singing this song in exile?
Can you imagine defying the empire by sketching out this daring alternative?
Can you dare to sing this song under the nose of Babylonian soldiers, about a new reality that counters the empire?
Think of it, new reality conjured in worship, by the choir, inviting to new courage, new faith, new energy, new obedience, new joy.

The new song is a protest.
The new song is also a bold assertion, innocently declaring that the God of the gospel has plans and purposes and a will to reorder the world, to bring wholeness and health to the blind, the poor, the needy, to the nations to the fearful and to the entire creation now so under killing assault.
The song asserts God’s future against our present tense. 

It is no wonder, once the singing begins, that all creation sings and dances and claps with us.
The whole creation sings about God’s new world.
Heaven and nature sing and earth repeats a loud amen.
We sing the song, even in exile, then we live the new reality.
The Babylonians (or anyone else) cannot stop us, because the song is true and more powerful than the tearfulness of the world. 
The exiles are indeed on their way— rejoicing.”