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 very modern hymns.
Today’s song is Across the Lands It’s from 2002.
This is one that we used to sing in my fellowship in Tipperary here in Ireland. It was popular across many churches. It’s lovely to think that a movement that, from an earthly perspective, could have begun and swiftly ended in Israel 2000 years ago spread across the world. But from a heavenly perspective, it was always going to happen. Here’s a passage about Abraham, who lived 2000 years before Christ.
Genesis 12:1-3
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
The key thing was Abraham’s faith. Old Testament Judaism were given many ceremonial and civil laws. Few are practiced today, even by Jewish people. A prime purpose of these was to create a distinctive culture that would separate them from the pagan nations around them and also to point forward to the coming of the Messiah. And when the Messiah came, it became clear that a true and living faith was more important that rituals and places. I often think of what Jesus said to the woman of Samaria.
John 4:21-24
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
And in the New Testament, when Paul speaks of us Gentiles, he presents Abraham as our father, though of course, our real Father is God Himself. He was wanting to ensure that the Jewish believers welcomed the Gentiles into the church community without insisting that they follow the Jewish rituals. So he focused on their shared faith and their shared Messiah rather than cultural rituals that tended to separate people.
Galatians 3:6-9
6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
So just as these Gentile Galatians who put their faith in Christ are children of Abraham, Irish people, and people of every nation who trust in Jesus can be viewed as children of Abraham. Funnily enough, historians say that the people Paul wrote to in Galatia were ethnic Celts, and the Celts later migrated into regions that include modern‑day Ireland. But not all the Galatians became Christians. Patrick and a few others brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th Century. But who knows? Maybe some Irish people might have been descendants of the very people that Paul wrote too. And they might have been believers before Patrick even came to Ireland.
Anyway, as always, I’m drifting away from today’s hymn. I’d better get back to it 😀.
It’s a hymn of praise to Jesus, which ends in a line delighting in the fact that the gospel message cries out across the lands.
You're the author of creation
You're the Lord of every man
And Your cry of love rings out
Across the lands
And of course, throughout the world, we worship God together. In fact, we’ll do it for eternity:
Revelation 7:9
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
Here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
Hibernia Gospel 