Some Songs for Sabbath, July 11, 1998
The theme for these songs is the church--what it should be, its current problems, and
looking forward to the correction of those problems.
- Let's begin by singing about what the church should be, it's beauty, nobility and
mission. Zion is frequently used to represent the church in prophecy::
- Mt. Zion Stands Most Beautiful
How Filled With Honor is the Place
But the church today is having its problems, isn't it? What is our current
condition? There's only one song in our hymnals that seems to talk about our current
state, a Dwight Armstrong's song based on Psalm 60 from the Scottish Psalter.
Unfortunately, we don't have a MIDI file for Dwight's tune, so we've provided one of our
own:- Return Again O God
Here's another song based on Psalm 60, this time
from the "New Version" psalms of Brady and Tate.
The words don't track as close to the actual psalm
as the Scottish version, but they capture another
aspect of what is happening today:
O God, Who Has Our Troops Dispersed
What is behind all these problems? Why, it is our own fault, of course. God is not
the author of this confusion. What kind of faults? God hasn't revealed that to us yet, but
here are some songs that seem to address at least a portion of the problem. - The first is dedicated to our leadership --
Against Divisions in the Church
But the problems are not by any means all due to our leaders,
we all need to learn some lessons. Here is one we should
have learned as children, but seem to have forgotten:
Against
Scoffing and Calling Names
So, what can we do? What should we be doing? The rest of these songs address
some things we could think about and work on.- The words to this song were inspired by 1 Corinthians 13. The original words were by
Charles Wesley, but they have been slightly modified.
See How These Christians Love
- By now you've probably thought of this one:
By This Shall All Men Know
- And finally, let's try to bring this to pass:
Blest Be the Tie that Binds
These are by no means all of the songs we could use on this subject. Let us know if you
would like to see another selection like this one, or if there are any other
"themes" you'd like to see addressed.
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