Director’s Letter
‘At the Works of Your Hands I Sing for Joy’
“A sweet symphony of movement and speech, compassion and joy.” That’s a phrase I used in the prior issue of Lutherans Engage the World as I tried to describe our life together in the church as the Body of Christ, ever proceeding forward in these latter days, steadfastly carrying out the work to which we’ve been called: making disciples for life.
Beautiful music again appears, literally and figuratively, in this issue. You already know, dear reader, how powerfully the Gospel shines forth in the song of a human voice accompanied by instruments — prayerfully ascending heavenward, transcending cultures and generations. Music is the gracious gift of God.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
(Ps. 92:1–4)
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
His hands! Only in the merciful Word and work of God — in the sending of His Son to save us from our sin and eternal death — do we find cause to lift our voices with such fervent exultation and thanksgiving, accompanied by words and actions that confess the certainty of faith and hope in Christ alone. We bring our every need to the Lord Almighty in confidence, unflinchingly secure as children who “ask Him as dear children ask their dear father” (Small Catechism). It is a chorus that resounds from pulpit, altar and font, a refrain repeated through salvation history: We must decrease and Jesus must increase as He continues the work of His hands — His ministry of forgiveness, love and mercy toward us, and then through us toward the neighbor who suffers too.
The song goes on. Do you hear it?
In Christ,
Rev. Kevin D. Robson
Chief Mission Officer, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
