Singing Faith

March 4th, 2012

Isaac was a sick boy. He was often attacked and beaten up by other children. His only refuge was the church. There he enjoyed the peace that came with the great music of the church. Perhaps because of his unhappiness he became one of the first students and teachers of the new discipline called psychology. But even in that he could not find happiness.

One day he heard the great evangelist, John Wesley, preach. Isaac suddenly realized his calling to serve Christ. He would reclaim the music of the faith. Over the years church music had become music of the state reserved for royalty and the highborn. Few poor people ever heard it.

Isaac was especially concerned about the children of the poor. He wanted to give them hope. He believed that they could find hope in the story of a Savior who was himself born poor. But there was a problem. Most of the poor could not read. Many would not listen to sermons.

Isaac had a plan. He could write the kind of music that people of all classes would enjoy. Even people who could not read or listen to sermons would have a means to memorize the stories of Christ. Isaac had a kind of genius about him. He could take a beer drinking song and set powerful words of faith to the music. He could lift the melodies from the great composers, place them in simple arrangements and set them to Christian poetry.

Isaac prepared such a piece. He used music by Handel and his own words as his audition for John Wesley. We know that audition piece today as “Joy to the World.” Isaac Watts became the song leader, choir director and composer of the greatest revival to ever hit Europe. He became that man because he believed singing the songs of faith could change the world.

I always liked Zephaniah. The prophet who encouraged song in the hearts of God’s people is the same prophet who had once been a prophet of doom for his people. If the records are correct, Zephaniah was a Judean, born of royal blood in the latter part of the seventh century B.C.E. A descendant of King Hezekiah, he probably was a cousin of the noble King Josiah. However, Zephaniah’s role in the royal courts was that of a prophet.

Zephaniah sized up the condition of his people as ripe for judgment in the light of world events. He also envisioned a day when all nations would suffer judgment from the wrath of God. Zephaniah could be specific about the enemies of Judah who would have to pay the price for their opposition to the people of God. All creatures, people and animals, in fact, everything on the whole face of the earth, would feel the full weight of this judgment. Judah would suffer, because Judah had engaged in the worship of idols. Judah had been guilty of violating the covenant relationship with the God who had created and redeemed Judah. None of these harsh judgments sounded like good reason for the people of God to join in a lusty song of praise. However, the prophet also had another word for his people, a word of promise.

Even as God calls us from sin, God opens the door for our redemption! The very nature of God is love. That love that God manifests in so many ways is also an assurance of God’s faithfulness. Zephaniah could entertain notions of how utterly severe judgment would be, but he also could affirm the goodness of God. He called for his people to sing and shout aloud.

Although the group of people who consistently trusted God’s promise was relatively small, they were the people who could be counted on to keep alive the promise of God for others to hear and trust. And they would keep the promise alive in song. The prophet and his people sang aloud with joyful hearts, even as their nation was invaded and destroyed. They sang about God. They sang about God’s promise of a Messiah. They sang and kept the memory of the promise alive.

How important it is in difficult times to keep the stories of God’s fulfilled promises alive. That is why we sing. It is worship. It is remembering. It is something we do together as the body of Christ, no matter our age or ability.

A couple, who had one beautiful little girl and then struggled through a string of miscarriages, became pregnant again. They prayed with their pastor, Mark, for God’s mercy and help. But the pregnancy was very difficult. It seemed especially hard on five-year-old Julie. Would she be a big sister or not?

One afternoon a few days before Christmas pastor Mark received the call. The baby was coming much too early. Things looked very grim. At the hospital the father asked Mark to watch Julie so that he could be in the room with his wife.

“What should we do,” Mark asked?

“Welcome the baby,” Julie replied with the absolute faith of a five year old.

“How?” he asked.

“Let’s sing the baby home.” Julie said. Sing the baby home? Mark couldn’t imagine where she got an idea like that. She held his finger and faced the door. Then she started to sing a favorite song, “Joy to the World . . .”

It was absurd! The tall preacher and the tiny girl facing a closed door in a busy hospital and singing a song written nearly three hundred years before that little girl was born.

But Isaac Watts taught that song to somebody. They taught it to someone else. They taught it to someone else to teach them about Jesus. Now Julie thought it was the most important thing in the world to sing that song to the baby in her mommy’s tummy.

And then it started from the other side of the door. A little squeak that turned into a raging, unmistakable squall. The cry of a baby. A nurse stepped out, looked down at Julie, and said, “You have a beautiful little brother.”

Singing is an act of utter faith in God!


This article originally appeared in The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2008, Copyright © 2007 Abingdon Press

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