A New Year's Wish: U2's "40"

Happy New Year, everyone. I think this music video is most appropriate for this time of year, U2's "40." This song came out on their 2nd or 3rd album, New Year's Day, and it isn't recognized as one of their hits, but they have a tradition of ending every concert with it. The chorus is haunting: "How long to sing this song? How long to sing a new song?" If you make it to about minute 5 of the video, you will see how the crowd picks up the chorus. A friend of mine told me about a U2 concert he attended in Los Angeles where the crowd had continued singing this chorus for about 20 minutes after the band left the stage. They simply couldn't get enough of the wishes expressed in this song. You can see what an event it is to be at a U2 concert--almost a religious experience.

"40" is based on the 40th Psalm:
You set my feet upon a rock,
you make my footsteps firm,
You lifted me out of the pit
out of the muddy clay.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in You.
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing a new song?

This song is transcendant. And for your new year of 2007, I look forward to new songs of faith and victory, despair and redemption, comfort and happiness that will be sung in your household, even as we look forward to a singing a new song in a new heaven and a new earth.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!