The Morning Marcus Found His Voice

On a Tuesday in March 2023, seven-year-old Marcus Rivera of San Antonio stood in front of his second-grade class and read a full sentence out loud for the first time. He had been born with a severe speech impediment that left him virtually nonverbal for years. His mother, Elena, had driven him to speech therapy three times a week for four years straight, through two jobs and a broken-down Civic, never missing an appointment.

When Marcus read the words "The cat sat on the mat," his teacher Mrs. Hadley pressed both hands to her mouth. Then one child started clapping. Then the whole room erupted. Twenty-three kids on their feet, cheering like it was the World Series, because they had watched Marcus struggle in silence all year and now sound was pouring out of him like water from a cracked-open dam.

Elena, watching from the hallway through the door's narrow window, slid down the wall and wept.

That is Psalm 98. The psalmist is not offering polite worship. He is calling for the kind of joy that makes rivers clap their hands, the kind that erupts when God does what everyone thought was impossible. "Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things." The Almighty's faithfulness does not produce mild applause. It produces second-graders on their feet, a mother on the floor, and a boy who finally has a song to sing.