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 I Will Enter His Gates from 1976.
We used to sing this one in the first fellowship that I attended in Cork back in 1980 – The Upper Room, which was near Camden Quay at the time. And, I suppose we sang it down through the years until 2022, when I began to attend a very modern evangelical church near my home, which sings all 21st Century songs. I want to settle into the 21st Century. It’s taken me some time – 26 years in fact! But, I must confess, I’m still back in the 20th Century mentally. And I love all the old songs, both secular and Christian. But if I live long enough, I might get nostalgic about the hymns of the 2020s.
Anyway, the hymn, like so many other 1970 songs, is based on a Psalm:
Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
Many of these 1970’s songs were short and sweet. You’d repeat the same chorus several times, and it was worth repeating. We’d often sing them without hymnbooks or screens. You’d just pick them up as you went along.
I find this one so uplifting. And it’s still popular.
Here are some other versions:
Hibernia Gospel 