“My Life Flows On in Endless Song,” ELW 763
1 My life flows on in endless song; above earth's lamentation,
I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
Refrain
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I'm clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
2 Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
Refrain
3 What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
Refrain
4 The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing?
Refrain
Devotion
With ferocious floods shaking the calm of communities as close as Iowa and as far as Myanmar, we’ve seen the rock-clinging – men, women, and children hanging on by their fingernails to keep their heads above water. But how do people sing in the midst of such devastation? Especially when there is loss of life that might have been prevented.
This summer, the deaths of 31 people in El Salvador brought renewed focus on the need for government bodies to act on infrastructure projects to reduce flooding and other risks. Members of a church drowned as their bus was swept into a raging river current.
As we learned with Katrina, it is the poor who die disproportionately in such disasters -- and that’s nothing to sing about. Still, as this old hymn reminds us, God keeps us safe even when there is no safety -- birthing new life to meet desolation, turning on the light when darkness falls with a thud.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to work for justice and to sing the song you give me. Halleluiah!