The Soundings of God

This is Rob Mathes next to Pavarotti. Rob is a musician about whom I know very little, but I heard of him from a sermon I got a hold of from my father (the consummate blog surfer) titled The Soundings of God.

The subject is the Soundings of God. Rob asks "Does the love of God have a sound? Is it like a song?" Then Rob begins by recounting a group of moving experiences on a trip to London and to Dublin where he was going to work with a poet on some writing. On the trip he takes in a Shakespearean play, King Lear, a London Symphony performance of Mahler's 8th symphony (a piece he describes as a personal desert-island piece) and most profoundly, the poet and his wife that he met and stayed with for a time.

In the play, King Lear finds himself in the middle of a cold, stormy night in the company of noone but his fool. The wind is howling, the king's fool is freezing and the King is meeting suffering face to face and for the first time he notices someone else's need. They find a small shelter and the King says to the fool, "How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. In, boy. You go first, nay get thee in and I'll pray." Then the King says, "Poor naked wretches, where so e'er you are that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm. How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, your looped and windowed raggedness defend you from seasons such as these?" Rob's favorite part of the play.



Rob describes the London Symphony's performance...the theme of notes that run through the hour and a half. Rob sings the trumpet like call of Mahler's 8th symphony when the words are sung, "Veni! Veni Creator Spiritus!" meaning "Come! Come Holy Spirit!

It is a deep subject, asking where is my God. Yearning to behold His face, to hear His voice. Rob is not saying here is how you find Him, nor does he say this is what He will do for you in life to show that He loves you. Rob is listening and seeing and hearing Jesus in beautiful things that speak in the mysterious ways of song about the love and beauty of Jesus. In the people he meets, Rob sees Jesus in the fallible, frailness of human relationship, tinged with tragedy but soaked with love.

Rob uses part of Psalm 42 to frame this whole experience.

When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night
while people say to me continually, Where is your God?
Deep calls to deep at the thunder of His waterfalls
All His waves and billows have gone over me
By day the Lord commands His steadfast love
and at night His song is with me.


For me, the beauty, selflessness and love Rob shows us from his story, is the voice of the gospel, singing the soundings of Jesus, the One who is selfless, who is love and who has overcome the ultimate tragedy. I have thought a lot about knowing God loves me and I do believe we can see that truly through the cross. I do yearn to hear His song, played clearly, played loudly in experiences that echo the sacrificial love of Jesus. Rob describes it as the ringing of the bells, the chimes of God's soundings, and I think of the psalm, the thunder of His waterfalls, His waves and billows have gone over me.


I have the sermon, but have not been able to find it online any longer. It is deep and beautiful, I want to explore more of it, maybe I can get it posted on here.