Worship Notes for Sunday, June 24, 2012
Of how many heroic characters have these old temple songs been the inspiration! Jewish saints and patriots chanted them in the synagogue and on the battlefield; apostles and evangelists sung them among perils of the wilderness, as they traversed the rugged paths of Syria and Galatia, and Macedonia; martyrs in Rome softly hummed them when the lions near at hand were crouching for their prey; in German forests, in Highland Glen, Lutherans and Covenanters breathed their lives out through their cadences; in every land penitent souls have found in them words to tell the story of their sorrow, and victorious souls the voices of their triumph; mothers watching their babes by night have cheered the vigil by singing them, mourners walking in lonely ways have been lighted by the great hopes that shine through them; and pilgrims going down into the valley of the shadow of death have, found in their firm assurances a strong staff to lean upon. —H.T. HannaI love this quote and the communal and timeless nature of the Psalms that it embodies. When we sing the Psalms, we sing with the Church—both visible and invisible throughout the ages, and we sing the words of God Himself. What a longing, therefore, do we have when we sing and read of the House of the Lord? The Call to Worship from Psalm 122 speaks of this longing and the joy that we have as we come into the House of the Lord and gaze upon His beauty. We continue by singing of this fount of life (Come Thou Fount) and of the grateful hearts that come before worship (With Grateful Hearts: Psalm 138).
The Old Testament Reading from Micah 4 invites the nations to come to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob. We continue by singing Psalm 5: Hear My Words—“In the fullness of Thy grace, to Thy House I will repair. Bowing toward Thy holy place, Lost in love, I worship there.”
For Communion, we sing of the delight that we have in the presence of Christ (O Thou in Whose Presence) and of the Sweet and Awesome place where Christ dwells. We conclude with As the Hart Longs—a versification of Psalm 42 and the longing we have to be in His presence.
