"When at last I stand with the heav'nly choir... I shall never tire."

"When at last I stand with the heav'nly choir... I shall never tire."
Hymn: “There’s a Glad New Song” – Words & Music by Albert C. Fisher (1886-1946)

Tune: REDEEMING LOVE

For the first time in over forty years, I am singing in a church choir!* I’m experiencing the music ministry from the other side of the rail! I consider myself fortunate indeed to attend an evangelical church that still has a choir; the truth is that we’ve had several people join our church in recent months because they want to attend a service in which the music is choir-driven. It’s a very good choir: they sing well, read music better than most volunteer groups, and they are engaged in their leadership of worship.

But one of these days, I plan to stand with a massive number of singers who gather near the throne of God to offer up continual praise of the One who sits there! I have the feeling the music never ends – that it’ll be like an incessant medley, won’t it? When we finish one great hymn or anthem, we’ll modulate into the next. For us musicians, THAT would be heavenly!

Although it sounds like an old gospel song, the third stanza of this fairly new hymn (first published in 1956, ten years after the death of its writer) speaks to me with today’s hymn-line and following:

            When at last I stand with the heav’nly choir in the light of the throne above,

            On the golden strand I shall never tire of the song of redeeming love!

            Of his love I shall ever sing

            Till above I behold the King.

            Through eternity my glad song shall be of the Savior’s redeeming love.

Sometimes I fly into the choir room after Sunday School and throw on my robe, make certain I have the correct stole turned to the right side, grab my folder and race to my chair, trying my best to be situated before the pre-service rehearsal begins. I often audibly say “Whew” as my backside hits the chair. But once the singing begins, I am renewed. I hope I shall never tire of singing the praises of God… in this life or the next.

* - I wrote this Hymnline before I lost my ability to match pitch due to a hearing problem. All the talk about my participation is no longer relevant... in THIS life. I still plan to regain my hearing and be able to harmonize in the life that is yet to come. Therefore this is a more hopeful hymn than ever for me!

[I couldn’t find a recording of this hymn. I hate that, because I’d love for you to hear it! Sometimes those hymns whose phrases speak to us are not as popular with everyone else as they were with us. Take my word for it: it’s worth hearing… and singing. Google it if you want to sing or play through it.]

"He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing ev'ry day."

Hymn: “O Happy Day That Fixed My Choice” – Phillip Doddridge* (1702-1751)

Tune: HAPPY DAY

Let’s take on a Sacred Harp tune today, why don’t we? Get your fasola in gear, and start singing this text and tune familiar to most every evangelical denomination. For today, I’m using a line from the refrain… from the part we all know by heart:

          

           He taught me how to watch and pray,

            And live rejoicing ev’ry day.

            Happy day! Happy day

            When Jesus washed my sins away!

When I’m posting a birthday greeting on Facebook, I often simply put “Happy Day,” because the greater percentage of my Facebook friends are also believers… and would likely get the crossover meaning of my post… giving a nod to their second birth as well as their initial one. Okay, so nobody gets it, but it is after all the thought that counts!

In our pilgrimage of faith, we have each learned to be alert (to watch) and to speak with God on a regular basis (pray). He… and many humans along the way… have drilled those into us. However, we stumble a bit when it comes to the live rejoicing ev’ry day part. Not because we don’t want to, but because we just don’t do it!

The rejoicing life – the life lived in a state of joy – is one of our goals AND one of the promises of scripture. It’s an easy face to put on, but not a simple process to carry out.

Recently from the choir loft of my church, I looked out over the congregation as we sang, “There are sweet expressions on each face,” and realized we just sang a lie! Fortunately, I don’t have a mirror in my choir folder; perhaps I should!

People outside the faith will not be attracted to grumpy, negative, frowning, cranky people inside the faith. You may be sharing your faith with everyone you meet, but your attitude may be decrying every word that comes with your well-rehearsed witness.

I’m pretty convinced after sixty-plus years of observation that our joy is our most-attractive tool for witnessing. I’ve been forced to go through too many church-in-a-box programs from which I have emerged full of the right Bible verses, yet possibly devoid of the joy to back them up.

In a contemporary African American spiritual, we sing, “This joy that I have the world didn’t give it to me… and the world can’t take it away.” In other words, we may conjure up a positive attitude and smile-crossed face, but it is the deeper, sincere joy for which we long. That authenticated-by-the-Spirit great delight is what we are after – and too often, it is what we will not allow to happen. It is yet another way we have fallen short of the glory of God!

I have a few heroes for whom this is truly their operating system – for whom the joy of the Lord is the strength of their lives. A hero is one after whom I would like to model my own existence, and in this case, that definition applies.

Let’s stop grinning our way through life. Let’s instead live rejoicing ev’ry day - not as a trick we pull off to appear happy, but as an act of plumbing the depths of the Spirit of Christ.

Wouldn’t this be a good day to start?

A Joyful Band Setting

The Cathedrals (fasola-version at the end!)

* Note: For you hymn purists (It takes one to know one, by the way!), the refrain was added to the Doddridge hymn-text; therefore, today’s hymn-line is actually from an anonymous source.

[Originally Posted 10/01/2013]

Not a Musical Hobby

Instead of a Hymnline, Today I Am Posting This Great Quote from Hymn-writer Keith Getty: "Congregational singing should spring from lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, not people fulfilling a musical hobby or a family ecclesiological tradition or being swept up in some mindless contemporary fad." (from THE HYMN, Spring 2015)
I'm going to put that in my phylactery and keep it ever before me!

“Her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.”

“Her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.”

Hymn: “The Church’s One Foundation” – Samuel E. Stone (1839-1900)
Tune: AURELIA

The Beatles sang, “One is the loneliest number…”; however, this hymn’s second stanza negates that sentiment, reminding us that people from every nation are now one o’er all the earth, that the church blesses one holy name and partakes one holy food, and that we press forward in one united hope. The centerpiece statement about our one-ness is today’s hymnline: we share one Lord, one faith, and one birth… actually one re-birth!

Most every organization has a charter – a document which sets out its basic purpose. The charter declares “why” this group is being formed; from its very beginning, these people are associating themselves toward this end… or these commitments. According to Samuel Stone’s hymn which crosses all denominational lines, the charter of the church (made up of people who share in the salvation of Christ) is to share
•    only one Lord – that is Christ himself
•    one common faith – a reliance on that same Christ… an ultimate trust in him
•    a one-time, born-again experience.

Probably no other single stanza speaks more directly to the unity of the church. In thirty-nine words, our commonality is underscored; every time we sing those thirty-nine words, the One Word is highlighted as we recommit ourselves to the basic charter of our salvation – a charter which unites and does not divide.

So, one is NOT the loneliest number. In fact, we are never alone when we cast our lot with other believers, other pilgrims on the journey. And we are never looking out for “number one” (ourselves), because that would not be in keeping with the example modeled for us by our One Lord. Instead, we are looking out for the real “Number One,” in our worship, our fellowship, and our ministry.

The only foam finger we need is one that points to Christ, who is still our One Foundation.


King’s College Choir Sings This Hymn

"I cannot bear my burdens alone."

Hymn: “I Must Tell Jesus” – Words & Music by Elisha A. Hoffman (1839-1929)

Tune: ORWIGSBURG

Prelude: Some of you may wonder how various hymn tunes get their names. They are often named for a city or place of significance to the writer. That is the case here: Hoffman’s hometown is Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania.

We’re back to a good old gospel song today. Those of us who cut our musical/spiritual teeth on songs like this find ourselves singing them as prayers (aloud or silently), especially just when we need him most. That need may be to share some great, good news – and we run through the hallway joyfully saying, “Who can I tell? Who can I tell?” At other times the need may be just the opposite: we are so weighed down that we don’t know with whom we can share such a burden, and we whisper into our chest, “Who can I possibly tell?” That’s the kind of situation out of which this text emerges, emphasizing the trials, burdens, distress, troubles, temptation, and evil allurement. And each downcast stanza is followed by the closing words of the refrain: Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.

We’ve all been there, done that… and have found it to be one of the great truths of our hymnody.

Any time we congregate, we need to be reminded that those people we are about to meet down at the church house are also people who are (hopefully) willing to help us bear our burdens. They are there to be Christ for us… and we for them.

We meet together as a church family for many reasons – primarily worship of the Everliving One. But let’s not overlook this burden-bearing ministry. After all, anything considered a ministry in the church should be a place where we step in and do what Christ would do if he were still among us in the flesh. Since he is not, he has called us and empowered us by his Spirit to fill the gap.

When you start to do any renovation on a building, you have to be careful not to remove a load-bearing wall. Those around you in your church family serve as this load-bearing wall, giving you necessary support. Be careful not to remove them from your life by keeping those burdens to yourself without sharing the load. After all, it comes down to this: none of us can bear our burdens alone.

Mary McDonald’s Arrangement Sung by Choir at First Baptist Church, Richmond

Mom Winans Sings This Hymn

[Originally Posted 09/29/2013]