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.


Page Copyright 2001, Music for the Church of God
e-mail us at: webmaster@cgmusic.com
Page last modified on: 07/29/2004