Those Song Words – Oh Come …

Music, eh.

Maybe there’s too much music in my household.  Maybe there was too much when I was brought up by my parents.  Perhaps I was conditioned to music from hearing it at home, and then singing with others  at least twice a week at church, and then getting tons more music via first my sister, and then friends and then from the television and now the blessed stuff online.

I am at a point where I can hardly go a day without a tune in my head.  Indeed I can hardly go long without coming across a tune of some sort, and the variety of stuff I’ve heard means that one moment I can have a hymn going through and the next minute a tune from John Lennon.

Not that I’m complaining, mind.  I love it.  I cannot get enough of it, and it has been instrumental (geddit?) in a great deal of my personal development.

This leads me neatly to some of the truths we come across in those hymns.

The other day I was reflecting (and of course singing) one my all time favourite hymns To God Be The Glory.

Now when you give me a song like that, I find it difficult to remain reserved.  This is not the sort of song, you hum to yourself and make your way down the street.  This is a tune where I well up and then on the odd occasion spontaneously combust in praise and thanksgiving.

Now why do I do such a thing.  Music?  Well sure, the melody is superbly crafted and the flow to the crescendos in the chorus and the uplifting ending would in and of itself get my applause.  But no, that is not the reason why I struggle to keep myself together when I sing the song (and if you see me keeping it altogether outside, you have got to know inside me is a wreck).

It is the truths we sing in harmony to each other, to God and most importantly as an insight for those who are not yet part of the family.

Check those words out – you could meditate on a line for a long while.  The one I’ll just dwell on for a little comes after the crescendos in the first part of the chorus.  It’s meant to be sung a bit more softly before we shout out the last line.

Oh come to the Father through Jesus, the Son,

No, don’t go anywhere.  Don’t go to the next line.  Stay right there.  What on earth are we saying right there?

Oh Come – Invitation.  Now the context of the song might suggest that it’s an invitation to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  I believe.  Ahh but it is an invitation to those who are not as yet members of the family – and that last word is there deliberately.

To the Father – Now right here, I get choked up.  Our depictions of God take different forms, but the one as Father is deliberately the most intimate.  This is an invitation to return to the Source.  To the one from whom we get our identity.  This should evoke again those images of the Prodigal Son returning to a father who is only too willing to restore him to his rightful place by his side, in his home, among his own, loved and belonging to the family.  No matter what kind of day we’ve had, or week, or month, or year, or life the invitation remains – Oh Come To The Father.  Ohhhhh but how???

Through Jesus, the Son – For so long our way of relating to God had been messed up with our own human distortions – a way had to be made and what better way than by coming in the form of man.  What better way to show how we can relate to the Father, than by living as we do, in all of our humanity and portraying The Way to the heart of the Father.  Now there is no other route.  Our most ingenious devices and routes, tactics and strategies will not get us any closer to the father.  Our best intentions, our good works, our noble name, our stunning reputation counts for nothing.  We are invited back to the family by our Brother.  He opens the door – for He is the door – and the way is full of truth and grace, rich in mercy and compassion.  He does all, we believe and place our trust in that.

I mean, that is just a short insight into the rich depth of truth and marvellous reason to rejoice in just one line of a song.  The deal, though is to sing it.  Sing it with a life that has etched the truth deep in your heart.

Sing it with a knowing that is not about head knowledge, but is about a life where you didn’t feel you belonged, but then Jesus walked into your life and informed you that you were a part of God’s family. You have a Father who loves you and desires to live in you.  You have a Brother who died for you to restore you to the family.

Such grace, such love, such a wondrous invitation.  One thing to say it, another thing to sing it, a greater thing to experience it and explode in its repercussions.

And don’t get me started on the next five words we sing …

Oh my.

Music, eh.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden