"Marching To Zion"
Should we sing psalms or hymns in our church services? This was the controversy stirring many congregations during the seventeenth an eighteenth centauries.
Isaac Watts was a lifelong champion of the “humanly composed hymn while the majority of the English-speaking churches insisted on traditional psalm settings. Tempers flared frequently and some churches actually split in the heat of this decidedly inharmonious musical conflict. In some churches a compromise was reached. The psalm setting would be sung in the first part of the service with a hymn used at the close of the service, during which parishioners could leave or simply refuse to sing. The second verse of “We’re marching to Zion” was no doubt written to refute Watt’s critics.
It seems today we are still facing the same issues.
Come, we that love the Lord, and let our
joys be known,
Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.
Let those refuse to sing who never knew our
God,
But children of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly King,
May speak their joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad.
The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred
sweets
Before we reach the heavenly fields, before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound, and every tear be
dry,
We're marching thro' Immanuel's ground, we're marching thro' Immanuel's ground,
To fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high.
We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful
Zion;
We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
Excerpt taken from “Kenneth Osbeck’s” Hymn stories.
"Day's Of Elijah"
(though this is a lengthy article it is worth reading)(taking from Robin Marks website)
I have had quite a few people asking me for an explanation of the
roots and meaning of the words and themes contained in ‘Days of Elijah’
since I wrote the song back in 1994.
The song is generally and principally a song of 'hope'. The themes it
explores are to do with the fact that, although raised a Methodist, I
attended a lot of Brethren or Gospel Hall meetings as a small boy and
somehow the theology of Old Testament stories and characters being,
either as themselves or by their actions, 'types' or 'examples' of
Christ and the Church got stuck in my head. That is, even though they
were historical factual people, living in the old covenant days, their
actions and characters can be used to teach and represent the character
of God under the new covenant and they continually and repeatedly point
to Christ. People call this ‘Typology’ or ‘Typical’ analysis of the
scriptures.
Firstly the song came from watching a television ‘Review of the Year’ at
the end of 1994. This was the year of the Rwandan civil war tragedy
which claimed 1 million peoples lives, and also when the first
ceasefires in N.I. were declared. On this TV review were a lot of daft
stories, happy stories, serious stories, and then absolutely devastating
stories like the Rwandan situation. As I watched the review unfold I
found myself despairing about the state of the world and, in prayer,
began asking God if He was really in control and what sort of days were
we living in.
I felt in my spirit that He replied to my prayer by saying that indeed
He was very much in control and that the days we were living in were
special times when He would require Christians to be filled with
integrity and to stand up for Him just like Elijah did, particularly
with the prophets of Baal. ‘These are 'Elijah' days’. Elijah's story is
in the book of Kings and you can read how he felt isolated and alone in
the culture in which he lived. But God told him to stand up and speak
for Him.
We also needed to be a holy and just people and hence the reference to
the ‘days of your servant Moses’, meaning that righteousness and right
living was important in all our attitudes and works. Now we are under
grace and not under law, but the righteousness that comes by faith can
be no less than the moral law that Moses brought direct from God. It has
not been superseded. In fact Jesus told us that our ‘righteousness must
exceed that of the Pharisees’, who were the most ardent followers of
Gods laws as presented by Moses. Jesus was after righteous, servant
hearts, of course, that desired to live holy lives for Him.
‘Days of great trial, of famine, darkness and sword’ is a reflection of
the apparent times in which we live when still thousands of people die
every day from starvation, malnutrition and war. In the midst of it all
we are called to make a declaration of what and who we believe in.
The second verse refers to the restoration of unity of the body, what
Jesus prayed for - ‘that they may be one even as I and the Father are
one...’ by reference to Ezekiel's prophetic vision of the valley of the
dry bones becoming flesh and being knit together. There are lots of
interpretations of this picture, but one of a united church rising up in
unity and purpose, is a powerful call on us in these days.
The restoration of praise and worship to the Church is represented by
‘the days of your servant David’. Some folks use the term ‘Restoration
Theology’ to describe this restoring of attributes to the church. But in
the song it's mainly a picture of worship.
Of course David didn't get to build the structural temple (that's why
the word in the song line is ‘rebuild’), that was left to Solomon his
son, but David was used by God to introduce a revised form of worship,
praise and thanksgiving into, firstly, his little tent which he pitched
around the Ark of the covenant (the presence of God) and then the temple
that Solomon his son built.
This worship, unlike the Mosaic Tabernacle, involved many people being
able to come into Gods presence and worship him openly. (In Moses time
only one man, the high priest, could enter the Holy of Holies, once a
year. David's tent was a picture of how Christ would enable us to come
right into Gods presence, through his sacrifice, and worship openly
there).
If you search carefully through the Book of Amos (chapter 9) you will
find reference to this ‘Restoration of David's Tabernacle’. In Acts this
prophecy was used to explain, at the council of Jerusalem, why the
‘gentiles’ should be allowed to become Christians and worship their
saviour without all the legal requirements of the Jewish law. It is also
accepted among restoration theologians that this refers to restored
Praise and Worship. The physical temple was ‘Solomon's’, Davids ‘temple’
was a little tent but you and I are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. It
sounds complex, doesn't it, but if you just understand that the line in
the song refers to Praise and Worship before the presence of God just
like David enjoyed, then that's all there needs to be to it!
Finally the ‘days of the Harvest’ point towards what is the purpose of
the Christian to go into all the world and make disciples of all
nations. By the way, ‘The fields are as white in the world’ is from the
old King James version and means, their ripe for harvest.
These are the themes of the verses - Declaration, Righteousness, Unity
and Worship. I chose to express these thoughts by reference to the
characters that represented these virtues in the Old Testament. It is in
essence a song of hope for the Church and the world in times of great
trial.
The chorus is the ultimate declaration of hope - Christ's return. It is
paraphrased from the books of Revelation and Daniel and the vision that
was seen of the coming King and refers to the return of Christ and the
year of Jubilee. Theologians and Bible commentators believe that Israel
never properly celebrated this particular 50th year jubilee, and that it
will only be properly celebrated when Christ returns. That might be
true but I reckon that a Jubilee is an apt description of what happens
when Christ comes into anyone’s life at any time; debts are cancelled
and a captive is set free.
These thoughts were in my head when I came to church early one Sunday in
1995. We have two services and the Pastor spoke during the first
service on the ‘valley of dry bones’ from Eziekel. I took a prompt from
this and, in the 30 minutes between the services, wrote down the words
and chords in the kitchen of our church building and we sang it, as a
body, at the end of the second service.
How do you express the sense that these might be days, not of failure
and submission, but of the sort of resilient, declaring, even arrogant
trust and hope that Elijah had in his God? That these are not days of
God stepping back and allowing the world and the church to roll
uncontrolled towards eternity, but rather days when he is calling on his
body to make a stand, to offer right praises and to declare that He is
totally in control. Well, I reckon you may write the words ‘These are
the days of Elijah’ and ‘These are the days of David’. I've used word
pictures and Biblical characters to make that expression, but this is no
different from many of the great hymnwriters and even David himself.
I presented the song to the church that day with a short word of
explanation, and we sang it as our worship.
Now the rest, I suppose, is history. There is no mechanism (conspiracy
theorists take note!) within the church for making people sing a
particular song, or for increasing it's use in the national or
international church body. As far as I was concerned the song was for
our congregation, on that day and at that time. God obviously had other
ideas and it is now sung almost world-wide. Grammatically, there may
even be the odd aberration, but thankfully the church has forgiven me
that particular shortcoming.
I must make it clear that I did not set out to write an overly complex
or ‘secret’ song, and I hope the testimony above bears that out.
There is a post script to this story for those who (by letters to me!)
believe the song means something entirely different. A few years ago I
was privileged to be in Israel at Yom Kippur for a celebration with
hundreds of Messianic Jews. A very kind, gentle and humorous messianic
brother had a bit of fun arguing with me that I, as an Irish Christian,
could never have written a song which explores some of the themes that
many (non-replacement theology here!) Jewish believers believe are the
themes and indications of Christ's return. The Spirit and Power of
Elijah in the Church, The restoration of Israel to righteousness in
Christ (David's fallen tent), The restoration of praise and worship
(David's tent also!) and the unity of the body particularly with a
renewed and redeemed Israel under Christ.
For me, I only know what I wrote. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps it was His desire to say something more than I personally
intended and to do more with this song than I first considered.
It is an unusual song, for sure. All of these restored things like
Justice, Righteousness, Integrity, Unity, Praise and Worship and Revival
are considered by many to be a herald of the last days and Christ's
return. Personally I don't know - I believe I wrote what God was telling
me to write and He seems to have used the song in many ways for many
people.
I hope the explanation is clear. The song is, perhaps, a little complex -
but I can assure you that this was not deliberate. I have written lots
of simple, straightforward hymns and songs covering lots of themes. This
song seems to have been used particularly by God in the ministry of
Praise and Worship and the themes and pictures it uses seem to have been
grasped by God's people all over the world."
Taken from Robin Marks Website www.robinmark.com
"Your Name". Based on Psalm 65:8
