And God said, "let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them mark the seasons and days and years." Recently the sun has turned back toward the north, and we have marked out another year. This is naturally a reminder of time as we experience it; it seems appropriate in this song service to consider what the Bible has to say about the subject, presented in the form of songs based on Biblical psalms.
In these songs, the words and thoughts deserve primary emphasis, because of their intrinsic importance, their profound nature, and their authoritative source, but the music is a necessary part, and deserves a brief notice. These four psalm tunes come to us from four different centuries, and through four different countries.
[One comes from the earliest version of the Genevan Psalter -- the first attempt to put the whole psalter into a modern language for congregational singing. Johann Crüger was the most important early German editor of chorale tune collections. William Croft was an English court composer who contributed to psalm tune books in the eighteenth century. And the tune attributed to Beethoven actually comes from nineteenth-century America.]
[Two of the tunes may be unfamiliar; on their first stanza, if the altos and tenors will sing the melody only, that may help others learn the tune.]
The psalms themselves also represent several different centuries (from Moses to the temple choirs in Jerusalem) but their message is timeless.
These English texts are by Isaac Watts. That also seems appropriate. In the early eighteenth century, most people died in infancy or childhood; many adults were suddenly killed by disease. But even more than most people, Watts was acutely aware of his own mortality. His health, never very robust, was shattered by disease before he was thirty; he was a chronic invalid for the rest of his life. Apparently he also faced bouts of severe depression. And yet, in that time he published dozens of books, including a textbook on Logic that was still used at Oxford 100 years later; an innovative book of religious poetry for children; and over 600 psalms and hymns, that defined the whole concept of "hymn" for the English-speaking peoples. Clearly, he had determined to use the time he had. It may be that these themes resonated deeply with his own experience, producing some of his finest work.
In Psalm 90, Moses speaks of God as beyond time, and therefore as our only hope when we realize that everything else we know will fade away. This may be the root of the Old Testament faith in immortality: a conviction that the kind of relationship that God had with His people could not be ended by time: as God had said to him, "I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
Psalm 146 responds to God's word with a determination to use all the time we do have wisely: in faith that when time is over, God will remain faithful to us.
Psalm 118 speaks of God's work within time; throughout Israel's history, God had acted to liberate his people from oppression, and to send relief for all kinds of difficulties. Watts makes a special application to our weekly celebration of God's greatest work within history.
And finally, these verses from Psalm 119 emphasize the value of God's word throughout the cycle of our lives.
This wisdom is worth our meditation throughout the year. But let's use this time to determine to begin, now, to live unto God, in order that we may live together with him when time is no more. We know, from God's word, what we need to do: whether you need to pledge your life to Christ in baptism, or to ask forgiveness for opportunities lost, come forward now, while we stand and sing.
| These studies are created by members of the West Allen Church of Christ in Allen, Texas |