Scripture in Song
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Back in the 1970’s when I first began in ministry, there was a thing called Scripture in Song – scripture passages (usually from the King James Version), were set to music and sung in worship times. It started in New Zealand, it quickly came over to England, and when I went to America it was going strong there too. We literally sat in church with our Bibles open and sang the Scriptures – it was wonderful, and I pray it will come back again because it was a great and easy way of learning Bible verses!
It was no surprise to me therefore, when I was in a meeting the other day, that words from a Psalm which we had sung in church all those years ago, came to mind (along with the tune by the way). What was a surprise was that the meeting ended up being such a blessing in so many ways because I really had not wanted to go to it! Can it be true - Pastor Paul did not want to go to a prayer meeting? Yes sorry, it does not happen very often - but you are going to get reality from me!
I did have an excuse however - I had woken up that day at about 4am and because I could not go back to sleep I got up and did some work and basically kept going for the rest of the day - so I really felt a bit tired and reluctant to go out that night. Anyway in the end I was glad I did go. My wife and I received a prophetic word, some great praying went on, other people got blessed through us being there and these words which I had learnt as a song in the 70’s came alive that night:
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“I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say on the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14).
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There are times in ministry when we can get really discouraged, tired, and stressed out of our brains. Those are the times to wait on the Lord, be of good courage and see how He strengthens us.
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Many times over the years I would start the week with some kind of crisis going on and then by the end of the week, having prayed about things (and possibly others praying for me without me knowing it), I could not even remember what the crisis had been! That was what was going on with me prior to that meeting the other day.
I don’t get depressed as a general rule and it does not last very long, but when I do, it’s heavy and that’s probably one of the reasons why I woke up early that morning. Actually the person who gave us that prophetic word in the meeting, told us they had been burdened in prayer for us for two days!
So these words of that Psalm really resonated with me: “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” If we lose sight of the goodness of the Lord it’s easy to faint and get deeper into depression. So the way to get out of that is to wait on the Lord – and He will strengthen your heart!
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“Wait, I say on the Lord!”
If you are interested in Scripture in Song here are some links. Maybe some of you young anointed musicians could put words of scripture to music for a new generation!!
www.scripturesongsforworship.com
http://www.davidanddalegarratt.com
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/scripture-in-song/id284954061
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