Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Two Sundays ago, our lectionary focused on Paul and Silas’s trials in prison. They’d been accused of causing a raucous and teaching abominable doctrine. For their transgressions, they’d been flogged and imprisoned. As they awaited further judicial sentencing, they sat with their feet fastened in chains in what was most likely a rat-infested, filthy cell.
What would you have done as you sat out the night in pain and uncertainty. I think I would have had myself a good cry!
Instead, Paul and Silas sang to the Lord. Their voices rang to the point that scripture states that the other prisoners listened, perhaps soothed and encouraged by the apostles joyful refrain.
Songs inspire, sooth, elicit joy and comfort. We recently watched the movie Sinners, which was definitely not my genre! However, a scene in the movie really struck me. It showed the ghosts of the past dancing with their heirs of the present and children yet-to-be-born from the future. All danced in perfect harmony. Lives touching lives from past and future generations. It was symbolically beautiful.
And such is our heritage of hymns! On May 17, we will have a “hymn sing” on Sunday morning. If you haven’t already done so, place your hymn request in the offering plate to be sung on the 17th. A snippet of a favorite hymn of mine is found below. Written in 1923, over 100 years ago, this hymn has brought comfort to generations past and continues to be an inspiration today.
Dear Lord, we thank you for the richness, the timelessness of music! May we lift our heart in joy this week as we are reminded of your unending faithfulness to us.
Blessings to all,
Diana
Chorus:
Great is thy faithfulness,
Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hast provided;
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Verse 2:
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
By: Thomas O. Chisholm 1923
Recent Comments