A Psalm for a Day of Waiting

Today’s the day we wait. Tucked in at the end of Holy Week, after that final meal together, after that scene in the garden, after betrayal and arrest, after trial and denial, after splinters and nails and thorns and death…we wait for something else. It’s the end of a bad week and we “just wanna feel reborn, you know?”* So we wait for the new day, for a chance to begin again.

And that’s what Easter is for. But here’s the important part. It’s not just about tomorrow. If we live for the new hope of Easter one day a year we have missed the point of everything. The hope of Easter is not just about Jesus rising from death, although that is where we begin. We begin outside of Jerusalem, huddled in a small room somewhere, hiding from and for our lives. We begin in absolute darkness, both waiting for the light of day and afraid that when it comes it might leave us exposed.

The power of Easter Saturday is that it teaches us to wait and watch, to sit quietly and contemplate what it all means and how it will change our lives. For in their utter ignorance of the future and in their disbelief of all they had experienced, what the disciples of Jesus knew for sure was that their lives had been changed forever. They would never be the same. They knew that each new day now brought with it the opportunity to change and be changed, the chance to remember all they had learned from him and share it with others, the obligation to take the unconflicted, unconditional, uncompromising love they had seen from him as he hung dying and somehow put that at the center of their lives. What if they could take all this and help make it mean something?

Each day is Easter morning. Each day a chance to wake up and look for the risen Christ.

Here’s a brand-new song that encourages us to do just that, I hope, written just a few weeks ago with my friends John Caravelli and Phil Cooper. John brought the song to us nearly complete and together we all made it into something new. That’s what happens when two or three gather together. God shows up and makes it something bigger.

God bless you all this Easter. Turn tomorrow into every day. May you wake up with hope, vision, promise and a psalm for your day.

Click here to listen: Psalm for a Day

Psalm for a Day

When the morning sun
Defeats the darkest night
I will hope in you, Lord
I will hope in you.
When the sparrow flies
And the flower blooms
I will hope in you, Lord
I will hope in you.

I will accept the peace beyond
All my understanding
And I will find you there
I will trust in you
I will trust in you.

When the evening calms
And the madness fades
I will look to you, Lord
I will look to you.
When the setting sun
Sheds its final light
I will look for you, Lord
I will look for you.

When the darkness falls
And I close my eyes
I will rest in you, Lord
I will rest in you.
I will rest in you, Lord
I will rest in you.

© 2018 Potter’s Mark Music.
Words and music by John Caravelli, Phil Cooper and Steve Givens.

The Players

John Caravelli, acoustic guitar and BGVs
Phil Cooper, piano and BGVs
Steve Givens, lead vocals

*the noted poet John Caravelli, via text message on March 31, 2018.