August 15, 2010 AM
Come, Thou Almighty King
"Come, Thou Almighty King? Why would you sing an old hymn like that?"
I'm so glad you asked.
First of all, just because something is "old" doesn't mean it's bad and just because something is "new" doesn't mean it is good. The way to judge a song is first, by it's text - Is it scriptural? Does it make sense? Is it well written?
Come, Thou Almighty King gets great marks on all three of those questions.
Then a song should be judged by it's tune - Is it singable? Is it boring? Does it have a nice melodic line?
Again, this tune passes with flying colors.
I'm afraid too often we judge a song by whether or not it sounds good on a guitar. There is something wondrously majestic about a grand hymn such as this one played on a big pipe organ in a beautiful sanctuary. (There are a lot of times I really miss having a nice organ.) But, you know, this song actually would be just fine played on a guitar.
A good song is good no matter how it is presented. If a person can only worship if the instrumentation is exactly how he likes it then I fear he may be worshipping the music rather than the Creator of music.
As we sing these words, my prayer is that you will sing them as a prayer - that they will echo the sentiments of your heart, that God will "show up" and help us to praise Him.
Come, Thou Almighty King,
Help us Thy name to sing;
Help us to praise;
Father, all glorious, O'er all victorious,
Come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days.
Here are the other songs we'll be singing Sunday.
You Are God Alone
Choir Special – Sing Alleluia
Fellowship Song – He Keeps Me Singing
Offering
Shout to the Lord
Special Music – Diane Carroccia
Message – Dr. Larry D. Robertson
Invitation Song – Refiner’s Fire
Offertory – Michelle Dickerson
Showing posts with label pipe organ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pipe organ. Show all posts
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Monday, March 31, 2008
Family Television
I’m happy to report that I have now seen an episode of “Hannah Montana.” My granddaughter loves the Disney channel. After a week in Oklahoma I’ve actually seen many new things on TV.
We watched some show with Alton the cook on the food channel where he was in Minnesota eating nasty things like rotten fish head jelly.
My son loves to watch the food network.
My son loves to watch the food network. My daughter-in-law likes to watch “Good Morning America”, but she likes to see it around 10:00, so it’s on the TiVO schedule. Now and then they watched Fox News with me. But most of the time we watched Gibson bowl and play tennis on Wii.
It was nice, in this day of every room having its own TV, for us to be together as a family. Would I have watched Hannah or Alton or Diane if I had been home by myself? Nope. I guess I could have gone to a different room and watched what I wanted to watch all day long, but then I wouldn’t have been with my son and grandchildren and we wouldn’t have those shared – even if it was TV – experiences together.
Guess where I’m going with this: Sunday morning worship. Our congregation is blessed to have people of all ages worshipping together. How nice it is that when we gather together on a Sunday morning that we sing a great variety of music that speaks to all generations. How nice it is that grandparents, parents and children are singing God’s praises together. They may not sit together (It’s definitely not cool to sit with mom when you are 16.) but they have that same shared experience that helps make a family.
It would be quite sad for grandma to go to one service, mom and dad to another, teenage brother go to another and kid sister to a fourth service. In that situation, where is the common bond, the shared experience, the give and take of loving someone and giving up some of your own wants to meet the needs of another?
Oooo, he’s gone to preachin’. Land the plane! (If you missed yesterday’s sermon I’ll explain that one to you.)
Bottom line. I hope that when I am 70 and my grandchildren are 25, 24, 22, 21, 21 and 19 that we will go to church together. I hope that they will sing “old” songs that I like, like “How Great Is Our God” and that I will want to sing whatever “new” songs are written in 2028 and that we will worship together because we are “family!” I also hope that we’ll still be singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” which was written in 1861. It’s part of our Christian heritage and it connects us with all of the saints who have gone before us (but that is a whole other post).
Who knows, by then we may have rediscovered the grandeur of a pipe organ and how well it expresses the greatness of God and they’ll be replacing guitars and drums…
It was nice, in this day of every room having its own TV, for us to be together as a family. Would I have watched Hannah or Alton or Diane if I had been home by myself? Nope. I guess I could have gone to a different room and watched what I wanted to watch all day long, but then I wouldn’t have been with my son and grandchildren and we wouldn’t have those shared – even if it was TV – experiences together.
Guess where I’m going with this: Sunday morning worship. Our congregation is blessed to have people of all ages worshipping together. How nice it is that when we gather together on a Sunday morning that we sing a great variety of music that speaks to all generations. How nice it is that grandparents, parents and children are singing God’s praises together. They may not sit together (It’s definitely not cool to sit with mom when you are 16.) but they have that same shared experience that helps make a family.
It would be quite sad for grandma to go to one service, mom and dad to another, teenage brother go to another and kid sister to a fourth service. In that situation, where is the common bond, the shared experience, the give and take of loving someone and giving up some of your own wants to meet the needs of another?Oooo, he’s gone to preachin’. Land the plane! (If you missed yesterday’s sermon I’ll explain that one to you.)
Bottom line. I hope that when I am 70 and my grandchildren are 25, 24, 22, 21, 21 and 19 that we will go to church together. I hope that they will sing “old” songs that I like, like “How Great Is Our God” and that I will want to sing whatever “new” songs are written in 2028 and that we will worship together because we are “family!” I also hope that we’ll still be singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” which was written in 1861. It’s part of our Christian heritage and it connects us with all of the saints who have gone before us (but that is a whole other post).
Who knows, by then we may have rediscovered the grandeur of a pipe organ and how well it expresses the greatness of God and they’ll be replacing guitars and drums…
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