“God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.”

Hymn: “God Leads Us Along” – Words and music by G. A. Young
Tune: GOD LEADS US

Although this hymn is about how God leads his dear children along through life’s struggles, this is how the refrain ends, completing each stanza with the God-provided gift of song! This is the kind of hymn with which we retired ministers of music resonate!

I wish I could calculate the number of times a song has pulled me through a “night season.” For me, it has most often been a line from a hymn; that’s basically why I started this blog in the first place!

Several years ago, I realized that the contemporary scene in church music had invaded my traditional space. It happened when in the midst of confusion and seeming helplessness I caught myself singing, “Nothing is too difficult for Thee,” (from the chorus “Ah, Lord God”). At that dark, pivotal moment, God gave me a new song… new to me at the time.

I am thankful for the Word of God and its ability to minister to me in times of difficulty. I am also grateful to those who write the hymns and songs that come to me in shady green pastures and in the valley in the darkest of night. Through waters, flood, fire, great sorrow – I am often led out by a song, sung to me by the Inventor of sound. And with a God-breathed song in my heart I can face whatever the long day might bring my way.

From the Gaither Homecoming

“My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside (his powerful blood).”

“My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside (his powerful blood).”

Hymn: “Join All the Glorious Names” – Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Typical Tune: DARWALL

In my education process, we learned that Isaac Watts is the “Father of English Hymnody.” While this hymn is not nearly as popular as his “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” there are some similarities, especially with THIS line. Here is the full stanza:

Jesus, my great High Priest, offered his blood and died;
My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside.
His powerful blood did once atone,
And now it pleads before the throne.

Many of us have a tendency to carry our guilty conscience with us everywhere we go. We seem to drag it behind us as if we need something else to free us from the weight of our past. It’s almost as if we are not sure that the cross-sacrifice is adequate “for such a worm as I.” We know better; we verbalize the fact that “nothing but the blood of Jesus” can for sin atone. But we can’t seem to erase the guilt from our consciousness… to release it.

I’m sure you’re about as tired of the FROZEN song “Let It Go” as I am. It is a great song… at least it was the first forty-three times I heard children singing it on YouTube! However, it might do us well to make it our theme song when it comes to dealing with our past indiscretions… our sins. Couldn’t we just stand and sing those first two phrases after we speak our confessions in public worship? Makes sense to me. I’m sure the lawyers at Disney would be all over THAT!

The forgiveness process needs no further sacrifice than the one already made. So let’s stop going through life looking for a supplement. To quote another of my favorite hymns, “It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.”  Enough is enough. Period.

An Organ Postlude on This Tune

“He for conflict fits and arms us.”

“He for conflict fits and arms us.”
Hymn – “Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him” – Thomas Ken (1637-1711)
Common Tune: ACCLAIM

“He for conflict fits and arms us,
Nothing moves and nothing harms us
While we trust in him.”

This is not a line from “Onward, Christian Soldiers” or one of the more militant hymn texts. While it may have had some battle implications when Thomas Ken penned these words, their application works for us in our everyday lives which, like it or not, are filled with conflict – some great, some miniscule… but often at the moment seeming insurmountable.

We have put on the whole armor of God from Ephesians 6, haven’t we? Aren’t we dressed head-to-toe with the belt of truth, vest of righteousness, shoes of readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer? According to Paul’s letter, these will make it possible for us to stand firm in the midst of all kinds of evil.

We have been well-suited to our environment. We are tailor-made to be God’s people – fearfully and wonderfully constructed. We need to look to our strengths (above) and not hide behind our weaknesses. Nothing can move us entirely off-balance because we are planted firmly in our relationship with our Designer. We may get roughed up a bit – even injured in the conflict – but no spiritual harm will come to us while we trust in him.

When I got up this morning, I didn’t go looking for conflict; but it always seems to find me! You probably feel the same way. Well, let’s agree not to let it defeat us. Let’s hold up under the struggle, believing that the Tailor has clothed us well. His armor is a perfect fit.


This Hymn Karaoke-Style!

“Earth has forsaken meekness and mercy, and slighted thy Word.”

“God the Omnipotent” – Henry F. Chorley (1808-1872)
Tune: RUSSIAN HYMN

Chorley was an English art and music critic (among other things) who had strong conservative views and was consistently opposed to anything innovative. That might give us some background to this hymnline.

There are, however, days when I wonder if “earth has forsaken meekness and mercy”; I’m more likely to ask, “Whatever happened to common courtesy?” or “Does everybody feel entitled to say and do whatever they please?”

Meek (humble, servant-minded, not all-about-me) and merciful (showing empathy and forgiveness, being non-judgmental and accepting of all) – these are two traits to which most of us Christ-followers aspire. Because these are important to us, we are sometimes frustrated that everyone else doesn’t feel the same way… which makes us less meek and less mercy-filled. It’s a vicious cycle!

The world around us may indeed have set aside the Word of God, lowering or erasing its significance. However, it is our reliance upon that same Word which enables us to avoid forsaking meekness and mercy – allows us to maintain those consistently even when we may feel like the Lone Stranger. We are, of course, not alone; we are surrounded by fellow strugglers on the path to pleasing the Model of gentleness and compassion.

[ In case you don’t know this hymn, the stanzas end with the refrain: “Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.”]

Diane Bish’s Organ Setting of the RUSSIAN HYMN

“Love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong… shall evermore endure.”

“Love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong… shall evermore endure.”
“The Love of God” – Words and Music Frederick Lehman (1868-1953)
Tune: LOVE OF GOD

This warhorse among gospel songs has some great metaphors about oceans being inkwells incapable of holding enough ink to write the magnitude of God’s love… even on parchment as wide as the skies.

However, before we become overwhelmed by the flowery descriptive language, we need to notice this recurring line in each refrain which describes so well the simple truth about the love of God as revealed in his ever-loving Son:
•    Rich - having or supplying a large amount of something that is wanted or needed
•    Pure – undefiled, without ulterior motive, unmixed with anything inconsistent with itself
•    Measureless – without edges, boundless, can’t be limited by width, depth or height
•    Strong – exhibiting no weakness, able to support great weight, able to withstand, indestructible
•    Enduring – absolutely continuous, persistent, long-lasting… in this case, everlasting.

These are powerful expressions of this so often talked about attribute of God… worth noticing, worth examining, worth replicating.

from Ephesians 3:16-20
I pray that you may have power  to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and that you may know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

From the Gaither Homecoming

(I’ve never really figured out how “the guilty pair” got included in the first stanza of this hymn, but I do know this hymn doesn’t work well as a wedding song!)