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Group coopts a sacred song of praise

Last Wednesday a friend texted me that she heard some folks outside singing psalms. She said she heard the Old 100th. That made me happy to hear — I love singing psalms, especially Psalm 100. In verse 2 of that psalm we are told to “serve the Lord with gladness.” (In the hymn it is phrased “Him serve with mirth.”)

But then she added that these folks are doing it at Moscow City Hall to protest the mask ordinance. They were saying with their mouths “serve the Lord with gladness,” but they meant something quite different: “Don’t make me wear a mask.” They were coopting this sacred song of praise in order to whine about the mild inconvenience of masks.

Such a message has nothing to do with the message of this psalm — my fellow Christians, you know this. We are not called to carefully, resentfully, keep track of all the ways we are being put upon. We are called to serve the Lord and to serve others.

I want to voice an alternative, Christian point of view about mask-wearing and psalms: We’ve known for months that roughly half of coronavirus transmissions come from people who have no symptoms (yet). It has been shown that, on the off chance that I’m one of them, wearing a mask significantly reduces the likelihood that I will get other people sick.

Knowing this, when I put on a mask before going out in public I actually feel like I’ve got a chance to serve the Lord with gladness. I have an opportunity to care for my neighbor, to reduce their chance of getting sick from me.

Masks don’t “muzzle” us. They actually give us a way to speak about serving the Lord and others. A truer way to sing the psalm.

Rob Ely
Moscow

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