Sing What You Mean
| by Terri Pettyjohn |
When do we stop singing phrases and begin to offer praise? There is an old hymn that says, “I’ll go where you want me to go”. How many Christians would never think about stooping to lying, but by singing words without meaning them, have lied? Not only do we mean we won’t go to the mission field, but we sure won’t go anywhere that is not in our dayplanner. But, when we close our eyes and shut the world out something begins to happen to our hearts and minds and what we are singing becomes our praise to Him, it is no longer vague and impersonal, it is our conversation with God at this special moment. When we sing the words of adoration to our God, make them the prayer of your heart. Be careful not to sing what you wouldn’t speak with your mouth. The Bible says that someday we must give account for every word we’ve spoken, so make sure your mouth and your heart are in sync before you sing what you don’t mean.
Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”
WOW, just read these words of this old hymn. No one writes — or talks — this way. But we can grasp the powerful language and join the worship.
All Wise, All Good, Almighty Lord
Charles Wesley
All wise, all good, almighty Lord,
Jesus, by highest Heav’n adored,
Ere time its course began;
How did Thy glorious mercy stoop,
To take Thy fallen children up,
When Thou Thyself wert man?
Th’eternal God from Heav’n came down;
The King of glory dropped His crown
And veiled His majesty;
Emptied of all but love He came,
Jesus, I call Thee by the Name,
Thy pity bore for me.
O holy Child, still let Thy birth
Bring peace to us poor worms of earth,
And praise to God on high!
Come, Thou who didst my flesh assume;
Now to the abject sinner come,
And in a manger lie.
Didst Thou not in person join
The natures human and divine,
That God and man might be
Henceforth inseparably one?
Haste then and make Thy nature known
Incarnated in me.
In my weak, sinful flesh appear,
O God, be manifested here,
Peace, righteousness and joy;
Thy kingdom, Lord, set up within
My faithful heart; and all my sin,
The devil’s work, destroy.
I long Thy coming to confess,
The mystic power of godliness,
The life divine to prove:
The fulness of Thy life to know,
Redeemed from all my sins below,
And perfected in love.
O Christ, my Hope, make known to me
The great, the glorious mystery
The hidden life impart;
Come, Thou Desire of nations, come,
Formed in a spotless virgin’s womb,
A pure, believing heart.
Come quickly, dearest Lord, that I
May own, tho Antichrist deny,
Thy incarnation’s power:
May cry, a witness to my Lord,
Come in my flesh is Christ the Word,
And I can sin no more!
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Joachim Neander
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.
Praise to the Lord, Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
Praise to the Lord, Who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.
Praise to the Lord, Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
Praise to the Lord, Who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.
Praise to the Lord, Who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.
Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye* we adore Him.
* pronounced “I”, not “A”, as I have often heard it sung.
Here is the most famous hymn text of the great Reformer, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546). It is a loose poetic setting of Psalm 46 and has been called “The Battle Hymn of the Reformation.”
Included are two English translations from recent centuries. Read both for their meditative and teaching value.
It is hard to imagine that when Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his powerful cantata based on this same hymn (c.1730 in Leipzig), Luther’s chorale had already been around for two hundred years. Now that is blended worship. We don’t hear much music like this anymore.
God is a stronghold and a tower
Song, culture, divine bounty, and issues of harmonization.
Good read at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/006/9.14.html
Now Thank We All Our God
Martin Rinkart
I am most thankful for Jesus Christ and the salvation I have in Him because of His redeeming work on the Cross. My most serious problem has been solved because of the forgiveness of sins I have received through Him.
A hymn we often sing at Thanksgiving services is “Now We Thank We All our God.” This hymn was written in 1636 by Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor, at the close of the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.
Rinkart lived in Eilenburg, Saxony, a town that had been surrounded by the Swiss army. People were dying of starvation and disease. The town was in crisis. Rinkart was the only pastor in Eilenburg that survived this horrible experience. At one point he was conducting 50 funerals a day. The Swiss army was demanding a huge ransom to end the seige of the city. Rinkart left the walled city and met the commander of the army pleading for mercy on the people of the city. The commander lowered his demands and soon after the Thirty Years’ War ended.
Rinkart wrote this hymn for a celebration service to remember God’s faithfulness and mercy at this great time of sorrow and difficulty. It was translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth in 1856. Below you will fid the text of Rinkart’s hymn. Take a moment to reflect on the grace and mercy we all receive daily from our great Lord and be thankful.
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and bless’d peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
Music is Not Worship |
| by Roger Thoman
Dave Wainscott has put together some excellent quotes around the topic of “Worship is not Music.†“It would be true to say that during the last twenty-five years or so amongst those churches which would own the label ‘evangelical’, a significant change in understanding has taken place over the meaning of the word ‘worship’. If a few decades ago the person leading the service had said, ‘We are now going to have a time of worship’, most people would have looked on in utter bewilderment. Now everyone would know exactly what to expect: a lengthy time of contemporary Christian songs, maybe interspersed with a few prayers and exhortations, perhaps with hands held up in the air and a far-away look in the eyes.†We have, first of all, limited the concept of worship to an event that takes place for twenty minutes rather than a life that is devoted in love and surrender to a compelling God. Even worse, we have reduced corporate worship to times in which music must be present. Further, we have become so dependent on great-sounding music to drive the worship times that very little true heart-worship is needed. In fact, some would say, the result is a steep decline in actual corporate worship and an increase of music-moved emotion. I share this only because simple/organic churches have the opportunity to re-capture the heart of worship. We want to re-affirm that the Christian life of worship is one that is not segmented into times of worship and times of non-worship. Every day, and every gathering (whether at home, or with friends, or with non-Christians, or with community) is an opportunity for worship of many different kinds. AND, when we do gather together and find ourselves expressing love-sick worship toward God with our hands, lips, body, soul, and spirit — we can recover heart-driven worship. We can learn the wonder of a small group of believers who have developed the daily discipline of turning their hearts toward God in adoration coming together to do the same corporately. In that time, music can be good but it is not essential. Spoken praise works, psalms read works, silence works, spontaneous non-professional singing works, poetry works. When our hearts are driving worship the external forms become far less important than the inner longings that truly do usher in a deep conscious sense of God’s presence. I love worship. And I love music. But I long to see our gatherings re-capture the numinous awe of God simply around the fact that a group of Jesus-lovers have gathered who are in awe of Him. When the music fades All is stripped away And I simply come Longing just to bring Something that’s of worth That will bless Your heart I bring You more than a song For a song in itself Is not what You have required You search much deeper within Through the way things appear You’re looking into my heart I’m coming back to the heart of worship And it’s all about You It’s all about You, Jesus |
