by: Rachel Neumeister

I wonder what the need is for songs that are more upbeat.  Music is becoming less of something simplistic and profound, and more of something convoluted and noisy.  Music is becoming noise.  I have had the opportunity over the past semester to attend the Sunday evening church service at Emmanuel Village where at least three hymns are sung every week.  Even though it is only an organ and voices making the music, it is some of the most beautiful I have ever heard because it is a group of believers joining together in true worship and adoration of the Lord.  The lyrics of the hymns are written from the heart; they are not mere words on a page fit to a tune.  They are profound. 

I can recall several times both recently, and as I was growing up, hearing these old-fashioned hymns sung a capella, and being able to sense the Holy Spirit; it sends shivers throughout my whole body.  Words cannot express how I feel in that moment.  It is especially at the pinnacle of several hymns when glory is sung that I feel this way. 

The following are three verses from three different songs that particularly move me when they are song.  [I know it is irritating to read lyrics – someone else’s writing – in the middle of an article, but take the time to read these and think about what they say.]

(Because He Lives)

And then one day I’ll cross the river;
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives.

(Amazing Grace)

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
then when we’ve first begun.

(It Is Well With My Soul)

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

These hymn writers seem to capture our hope of the Kingdom with these words.  As difficult as it is to describe, no, impossible, we get a glimpse of what it may be like. And how exciting that glimpse is! 

I don’t know about you, but it’s this hope that excites me, that gets me through each day, that takes away my fear in death and builds my eagerness of spending eternity with the Lord God Almighty.