I was looking around on your blog and came across this post, an appropriate post-worship reflection. I had the privilege of leading our command post “chapel service” this morning because our chaplain was out in the field. I taught on John 9John 9
[9:1]As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
[2]And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?" [3]Jesus
answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,
but that the works of God might be displayed in him. [4]We
must work the works of him who sent me while it is day;
night is coming, when no one can work. [5]As long as I am
in the world, I am the light of the world." [6]Having said
these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the
saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud [7]and
said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means
Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
[8]The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a
beggar were saying, "Is this not the man who used to sit
and beg?" [9]Some said, "It is he." Others said, "No, but
he is like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." [10]So
they said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" [11]He
answered, "The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my
eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went and
washed and received my sight." [12]They said to him, "Where
is he?" He said, "I do not know."
[13]They brought to the Pharisees the man who had
formerly been blind. [14]Now it was a Sabbath day when
Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. [15]So the
Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.
And he said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, and I washed,
and I see." [16]Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is
not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others
said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And
there was a division among them. [17]So they said again to
the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has
opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."
[18]The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and
had received his sight, until they called the parents of
the man who had received his sight [19]and asked them, "Is
this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he
now see?" [20]His parents answered, "We know that this is
our son and that he was born blind. [21]But how he now sees
we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask
him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." [22](His
parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for
the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess
Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)
[23]Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
[24]So for the second time they called the man who had
been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know
that this man is a sinner." [25]He answered, "Whether he is
a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I
was blind, now I see." [26]They said to him, "What did he
do to you? How did he open your eyes?" [27]He answered
them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to
become his disciples?" [28]And they reviled him, saying,
"You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
[29]We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this
man, we do not know where he comes from." [30]The man
answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know
where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. [31]We know
that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a
worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
[32]Never since the world began has it been heard that
anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. [33]If this man
were not from God, he could do nothing." [34]They answered
him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?"
And they cast him out.
[35]Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having
found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
[36]He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in
him?" [37]Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is
he who is speaking to you." [38]He said, "Lord, I believe,"
and he worshiped him. [39]Jesus said, "For judgment I came
into this world, that those who do not see may see, and
those who see may become blind." [40]Some of the Pharisees
near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also
blind?" [41]Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you
would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your
guilt remains. (ESV)

, a follow up to a previous teaching on John 4John 4
[4:1]Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard
that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than
John [2](although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only
his disciples), [3]he left Judea and departed again for
Galilee. [4]And he had to pass through Samaria. [5]So he
came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field
that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. [6]Jacob's well was
there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was
sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
[7]A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said
to her, "Give me a drink." [8](For his disciples had gone
away into the city to buy food.) [9]The Samaritan woman
said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink
from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans.) [10]Jesus answered her, "If you knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me
a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given
you living water." [11]The woman said to him, "Sir, you
have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water? [12]Are you greater
than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from
it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." [13]Jesus
said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be
thirsty again, [14]but whoever drinks of the water that I
will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I
will give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life." [15]The woman said to him, "Sir, give
me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to
come here to draw water."
[16]Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come
here." [17]The woman answered him, "I have no husband."
Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no
husband'; [18]for you have had five husbands, and the one
you now have is not your husband. What you have said is
true." [19]The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you
are a prophet. [20]Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,
but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people
ought to worship." [21]Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe
me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father. [22]You worship what
you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is
from the Jews. [23]But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship
him. [24]God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth." [25]The woman said to him, "I
know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When
he comes, he will tell us all things." [26]Jesus said to
her, "I who speak to you am he."
[27]Just then his disciples came back. They marveled
that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do
you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" [28]So the
woman left her water jar and went away into town and said
to the people, [29]"Come, see a man who told me all that I
ever did. Can this be the Christ?" [30]They went out of the
town and were coming to him.
[31]Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying,
"Rabbi, eat." [32]But he said to them, "I have food to eat
that you do not know about." [33]So the disciples said to
one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
[34]Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him
who sent me and to accomplish his work. [35]Do you not say,
'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look,
I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are
white for harvest. [36]Already the one who reaps is
receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so
that sower and reaper may rejoice together. [37]For here
the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' [38]I
sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others
have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
[39]Many Samaritans from that town believed in him
because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I
ever did." [40]So when the Samaritans came to him, they
asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
[41]And many more believed because of his word. [42]They
said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you
said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and
we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."
[43]After the two days he departed for Galilee. [44](For
Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in
his own hometown.) [45]So when he came to Galilee, the
Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in
Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
[46]So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had
made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official
whose son was ill. [47]When this man heard that Jesus had
come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to
come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of
death. [48]So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and
wonders you will not believe." [49]The official said to
him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." [50]Jesus said
to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word
that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. [51]As he was
going down, his servants met him and told him that his son
was recovering. [52]So he asked them the hour when he began
to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the
seventh hour the fever left him." [53]The father knew that
was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will
live." And he himself believed, and all his household.
[54]This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had
come from Judea to Galilee. (ESV)

, and had to have the iPod leading worship since all our musicians were involved in operations. From my limited selection I used “Here I Am to Worship,” “Be Thou My Vision,” “Who Is Like You,” (from the Awesome God CD) and “Beautiful Savior,” (I LOVE that song, “cries of WORTHY will honor the lamb!”) trying to emphasize the themes of Jesus as the light that provides true vision and appropriate responses to encounters with the Savior - worship, awe, witness. Although I hadn’t read this post, I was doing what you described because that was my experience from CLC: combining familiar songs with new songs, taking time to explain some of the lyrics - especially the irony of God as consuming fire when I know His love - alternating simpler lyrical content and some repetition with more theologically weighty lyrics.

Thank you, I continue to be the beneficiary of sound biblical worship and teaching about sound biblical worship.

Thanks for stopping by. I think you might have misunderstood what was said at the ministry microphone. The person was talking about how an anchor functions for a ship. But the line from the song is actually a reference to Hebrews 6:19-20Hebrews 6:19-20
[19]We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the
soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the
curtain, [20]where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our
behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. (ESV)

, not a nautical reference. Your original understanding was right. This is what F.F. Bruce has to say:

“We are refugees from the sinking ship of this present world-order, so soon to disappear; our hope is fixed in the eternal order, where the promises of God are made good to His people in perpetuity. Our hope, based upon His promises, is our spiritual anchor. The figure of the anchor is not pressed; all that is meant is that ‘we are moored to an immoveable object’— and that immovable object if the throne of God Himself.” (New International Commentary on the New Testament, p. 131)

Hope that’s helpful.

In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil

One of the shared on the ministry mic that the veil is a nautical term for how far a ship is allowed to seemingly drift once it has dropped anchor. Before I missed this powerful metaphor and thought it was some sort of reference to the veil in the Old Testament temple. The refrains tend to hit home because they recur. But the verses, with all their lyrical beauty, sometimes seem elusive either due to references like the aforementioned or, if you’re like me, blind anticipation of the long-cherished refrain.

Rich theological content should never be diluted or brushed aside but does sometimes need to be clarified.

Great insight, as usual.

This is particularly encouraging and pointed for me. I recently moved from a reformed church accustomed to modern hymnody (I introduced a healthy portion of Sovereign Grace songs, including several of yours), to a much smaller church used to a steady diet of far simpler (and more popular, if CCLI is accurate) contemporary songs. Would never sing a hymn unless it had been contemporized, far less theologically insightful lyrical content, more focus on contemporary instrumentation than insight into the person of Christ, etc.

I’ve found it an enormous challenge to introduce even a few new songs (I’ve tried Receive the Glory, All Glory to You, Before the Throne), and there have been a litany of practical impediments I’ve run into as well.

I appreciate you mentioning some of the practical challenges. Our flock needs to be gently brought along in their loving grasp of the manifold implications and nuances of Christ and His cross-work (how the Gospel really IS the center of all we are and do and love and adore), a predominantly vertical focus of worship needs to prevail, and of course I’m finding people can only accept change at a particular pace…and certainly going from less-wordy to more-wordy isn’t easy.

But what I think I’m being taught most these days is that our Lord must move in the hearts of His people or worship won’t happen.

There’s so much more for me to do, and so much to teach and so much more leadership and humility and gentleness and patience He needs to instill in me.

But I think He’s also teaching me that at the end of the day, it isn’t the song selection, and it isn’t the musicianship (this, from a professional jazz musician). Either God is pleased to move in His church, or we remain on our knees imploring Him to.

Ah - so far we have to go to even dimly reflect the image and character of our Beloved in our own hearts and lives. Thanks so much for the insight and encouragement along the journey.

Blessings,

Tim

Thanks for the post, I really enjoyed it.

Justin

Besides fulfilling the command to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, this keeps us connected with our past, the “gread cloud of witnesses” that have gone before us over the last two millennia — we are not alone and we are not the first generation to worship at the foot of the cross.

These things — writing new songs in the spirit and lyrical style of the hymns (without using antiquated words), revising old hymns and bringing back old hymns without revision, when appropriate, represent what we’re trying to do at Sojourn, both with our upcoming Isaac Watts project and in our current and past musical endeavors.

Thanks again to Bob and everyone at Sovereign Grace for being great examples in this and for publishing posts such as this one.

I blogged on this topic this morning, using your excellent thoughts! Thanks again.

God’s blessings!

Jeremiah Gumm

I also agree that the leader can do much to aid in understanding in his introduction of the hymn, and I appreciate the comments and suggestions along those lines!