Something to sing about!

In his study last night on the Book of Hosea, Jordan observed, “I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but if you listen to the songs that people sing, you find out what’s in their heart. Nobody has songs like Christians do. Have you ever noticed that?”

He went on, “There’s not another religion on the face of the planet that has songs like we have because they don’t have a Savior like we have to sing about. And you don’t have the grace of God like we have to sing about. But you learn a lot about that.”

*****

Among my books, I have two that simply give the stories behind famous hymns. They are incredible!

In one book, written by Helen Salem Rizk in 1964, she notes in her foreword, “No one really knows how many hymns have been written in the history of the Christian church. Some authorities say over three million; some say over five million; and some say more. Isaac Watts alone wrote over two hundred in less than two years; sixty-five hundred are attributed to Charles Wesley the “sweet bard of Methodism”; and Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn-poetess, completed at least eight thousand singable hymns.”

The first entry Rizk's gives in her alphabetical list is “A Charge to Keep I Have,” written in the 18^th Century by Wesley. She writes, “Sung to the tune of ‘Old Kentucky,’ by Jeremiah Ingalls, this revival hymn could be heard swelling from tent and camp ground all over America.”

(In my other book on hymns it says of Wesley’s song, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” “A hymn of this quality doesn’t need any popular account of its origin to give it added greatness. The meaningful simplicity of the text is sufficient. It should be added that 156 simple one-syllable words appear among the 188 words of the text. Christ is presented as a ‘lover,’ ‘healer,’ refuge,’ ‘fountain,’ ‘wing,’ and ‘pilot’—the all-sufficient One. Truly each Believer can say with Wesley, ‘Thou, O, Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find . . .’ This is a hymn that never loses its appeal for it speaks to the basic need of every human heart, a personal dependence upon the infinite God.”)

The second entry in Rizk’s book was Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” written in the summer of 1529. The summary states, “The famed theologian, after a long period of deep depression, had found spiritual comfort in the strength of Psalm 46. He repeated over and over the words, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ With this thought in mind, he hurled his defiance at all his foes, physical and spiritual, the struggles of mind and body, the opposition of pope and people, and penned these words never to be forgotten by mortal men.”

The third entry was Henry Francis Lyte’s “Abide with Me,” written in 1847, only months before Lyte’s death. The book says “the ravages of tuberculosis left him weak and exhausted. After the service he strolled by the sea until sunset thinking of the abiding presence of God and working on a hymn poem started many years  before in the early days of his ministry. He was really too tired to complete the poem and thought of putting it aside until his return from Italy. However, some inner compulsion pressed him to finish the last line. That evening he placed the completed line ‘Abide with Me’ in the hands of his family. He never returned from Italy, dying two months later on November 20. If he had waited until he returned, one of the world’s most famous hymns would not have been written.”

The fourth entry is “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed” by Watts, who wrote over 600 hymns and is considered one of the greatest hymn writers of all time. The passage summarizes, “A very unusual man, Watts served as minister of the English Congregational Church, preaching his first sermon at 24. History says that though he was a charming man, his stature was small and his physical appearance hard to believe. Only five feet in height, his face was sallow with a hooked nose, small beady eyes and a deathlike pallor. One lady, a Miss Elizabeth Singer, who had fallen in love with his poetry and thought she had met her soul-mate at last, refused his hand in marriage when she finally saw him, with the remark, ‘I admired the jewel but not the casket!’ However, his hymns have been jewels admired by all generations of Christians.”

*****

Jordan, in his study last night, recalled at 19 years old preaching on a street in Pensacola, Fla., where there was a big naval air station and many Navy officers could be found walking down the street.

He recalled, “On the Navy base is a sign that says, ‘Think Proud.’ I used to think, ‘It’d be better to think humble.’

“One of the guys we were preaching with was maybe 45 years old and he didn’t get saved until he was about 40. He got saved out of a drunkard’s life and he’d been in prison for robbery and stuff and he’d had a rathskellian life.

“This Navy officer came along and he started mocking my friend and I got to confess, the guy preaching wasn’t really polished in his vocabulary but he was preaching truth and that’s what matters.

“The guy took the mocking as long as he could and then he just stood back, right up in that officer’s face, and I can still remember, he said, ‘Oh how well do I remember how I doubted day by day. I did not know for certain that my sins were taken away.’

“You know that song? The chorus is, ‘It’s real, it’s real, thank God the doubts are settled. I know it’s real.’

“And when he got through with that, he said, ‘Now, you sing me a song about what you love. And that Navy boy, he didn’t have a word to say. You know why? He didn’t have a song to sing about what he loved.’

“I mean, he might be a country singer and sing about ‘beer-drinking, wife-swapping music.’ He might have been a hippy, singing some rock music about ‘rock. riot and revolution.’ But there’s no love in that stuff. It’s just rebellion and sorry living.

“I learned something that day about what you sing. It does have an effect. Israel’s going to come out of that wilderness and they’re going to sing. They come out of the ‘we can’t sing the songs of Zion in a strange land,’ and they’re going to be put in a place where they’re going to be able to sing unto the Lord.

“You go back through the Old Testament and you’ll find singing constantly associated with redemption in Israel. Notice verse Hosea 2:15: ‘And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.’

“By that verse you ought to write down Exodus 15. The song of Moses that Israel sang. Revelation 15 says they’re going to sing it again.

*****

“You know, somebody told D.L. Moody one time, ‘I don’t like the way you slay the King’s English; you don’t speak proper grammar.’ Moody replied, ‘Yeah, I like the way I’m using it better than the way you’re using yours. You see my tongue. I like it the way I’m using it for God’s glory better than the way you’re using yours,’

“There’s that great famous verse ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land?’ Psalm 137 says, ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
[2] We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
[3] For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
[4] How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land? rivers of Babylon there we sat down, we wept zion captive wasted .’

“When they were down there with their sin catching up to them, they didn’t have much of a song. But when the Lord brings them out, He says, ‘You’re going to sing.’

“Isaiah 12. When He brings them out and saves them, it says, ‘And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
[5] Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
[6] Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.’

“There are a whole bunch of songs back here that are identified as the NEW song psalms where He puts these songs into their heart. Psalm 95. Psalm 96, 98, 99.

“What are they singing? Psalm 97:1 says, ‘The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.’

“You see what they’re singing about when it comes to Psalm 100 it says , ‘Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.’

“What He’s talking about in that joyful noise is the Lord reigning in His kingdom! The victory that He’s going to win. He says, ‘You’re down in that wilderness, in the valley of Achor, and you’re mumbling and you’re stumbling, but I’m going to bring you out and when you get there, you’re going to sing!’"