WISDOM IN THE SONGS OF ZION

Where can we go for wisdom?  What literature exists that readily expresses the fundamental truths of life with its joys and struggles, victories and defeats, mountaintop and valley encounters?  The obvious answer is the Bible.  But there is another source of wisdom and light.  It is the hymnal.  In The Salvation Army songbook (hymnal) we find a treasure trove of sacred poetry. It is filled with light.  Its songs and hymns are organized first around the Trinity (God the Father, The Lord Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit), the Gospel, and the Life of Holiness including the means of grace by which God blesses us and reveals Himself.  I often go there to take in the wisdom of the ages from poets and songwriters whose lives are testimonies to the grace and love of God, His provision of salvation, and His desire for fellowship and intimacy with us.

The poets and songwriters include saints down through the years including Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Martin Luther, Bernard of Clairvaux, William Cowper, Albert Orsborn, and Catherine Baird.  This morning it was the words of Mary Susan Edgar (1889-1973) that expressed my heart as prayer to God my Father:

God who touchest earth with beauty, make my heart anew.

With thy Spirit recreate me pure and strong and true.

Like thy springs and running waters, make me crystal pure.

Like they rock of towering grandeur, make me strong and sure.

Like thy dancing waves in sunlight, make me glad and free.

Like the straightness of the pine trees let me upright be.

Like the arching of the heavens, lift my thoughts above.

Turn my dreams to noble action, ministries of love.

Like the birds that soar while singing, give my heart a song.

May the music of thanksgiving echo clear and strong.

God who touchest earth with beauty, make my heart anew.

Keep me ever by thy Spirit pure and strong and true.

In the language of John Wesley, the hymnal is a “means of grace.”  It is filled with scripture crafted by the heart of the poet into song.  We need not wait to be in corporate worship.  We can sing the songs of Zion and the hymns of sacred consecration in the quiet of our personal time with God.  Any time and anywhere, we can give breath to a sacrifice of praise as encouraged by the old Salvation Army chorus –

We’ll sing in the morning the songs of salvation;

We’ll sing in the noontime the songs of His love.

And when we arrive at the end of our journey,

We’ll sing the songs of Zion in the courts above.