I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the in-between hymns.
Today’s song is Seek Ye the Lord All Ye People, from 1978.
I think that I first heard this one in London in 1983, when I attended Bermondsey Christian Fellowship (which eventually became City Hope church). I love how music, both secular and Christian, forms the soundtrack for my life. Sadly, I rarely hear this one nowadays. It’s based mainly on Isaiah 55. So many choruses at the time were based on such Old Testament passages.
Sometimes we find it difficult to read the Old Testament. It’s God’s word, but the Bible contains many different writing styles. People sometimes attempt to read the Bible cover to cover, starting at Genesis, but soon get bogged down. I would always recommend people to begin with one of the gospels, then read from Acts to the end of the New Testament. And use the Old Testament as a reference book, although some parts of it, such as the Psalms make easy reading. And there are individual chapters from books such as Isaiah that have inspired many hymns. Sometimes it’s even good to get children’s Story Bibles, or to use web resources to give you a top level view of the Old Testament. I have read it all several times, but I don’t like treating the Bible as something tiresome to get through. I’d much rather pick small parts of it and seek to understand and apply it. Two resources that I would recommend are Bill Creasy’s Bible in a Year audiobook, and the Bible Project.
I don’t think that Bill Creasy is an evangelical Christian. He’s a Roman Catholic, but he does appear to take the Bible as is rather than dismiss or ignore it in the way that many liberal and modernists Protestants and Catholics do nowadays. I prefer to recommend evangelical resources, but if someone else is promoting God’s word, why shouldn’t I be pleased? I think of the words of Jesus when the disciples were concerned about a “rival group” casting out demons in the name of Jesus:
Mark 9:50
Jesus said to him, “Don’t forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us.”
So why do I promote evangelical resources? It’s because I believe that others might take too high a view of tradition, might be quick to deny the inspiration of Scripture, or might also place the views of their founder or “leader” on a par or above the teaching of the Bible. Evangelicals can have their faults like others, but we tend to take a high view of the Bible, which is one of the reasons that I became an evangelical Christian in the first place. The Bible always resonated with me more than Roman Catholic tradition and theological speculation did.
Anyway, today’s hymn is a delightful waltz based on a passage from some happy optimistic verses from Isaiah:
Isaiah 55:6-7
Seek Yahweh while he may be found.
Call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him,
to our God, for he will freely pardon.
Isaiah 55:1
“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters!
Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat!
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isaiah 55:12
For you shall go out with joy,
and be led out with peace.
The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing;
and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
The Jews were about to be exiled in Babylon, and Isaiah contains much about judgement, but later it records the hope of reconciliation and a bright future for Israel and for the whole world – at least for all who repent and are reconciled to God.
I can think of a few other songs based on these passages:
Hibernia Gospel 