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 Days of Elijah from 1994.
This is a song that I became familiar with around 22 years after it was published. It’s was written by Robin Mark, an Irishman, but I had little interest in modern worship songs throughout the 1990s and throughout the early decades of the 21st Century.
I was a little bit puzzled by what was meant by “These are the days of Elijah”. Elijah lived in Old Testament times, so how can we still be in the days of Elijah? But maybe he’s saying that things aren’t all that different. Elijah was God’s man, a prophet, who faced huge opposition. And those who long for God’s kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven, still battle with the same spiritual forces.
Elijah had an amazing end though. He went to heaven in a chariot of fire, something that has inspired everything from the title of a great film to a widely know spiritual song – Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
Perhaps we all wish that we could be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire. But someone once described death as instantly turning off the light in one room and on in another room. You’re in heaven (or hell) in an instant. To be in heaven, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). And it’ll only take a moment, when we do die. So, we needn’t bother with the chariot 😀. That was done only because God sometimes works miracles to remind us of His presence.
In my opinion, we don’t need miracles anymore, but there’s no harm in asking for them. I often think of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man, who was in hell wanted Lazarus to go and warn his brothers. Abraham’s reply was that they have Moses and the prophets (the Bible), and if the don’t listen to that, they won’t even listen to someone who comes back from the dead. So if someone has a true appetite for God, they’ll believe without miracles, though God did occasionally do batches of miracles, mainly around the time of Moses, Elijah and Jesus. And you do sometimes hear of miracles or unusual happenings even in our day, though I tend to be skeptical about such reports, but I don’t rule them out.
So when we sing the hymn, we reflect on the Old Testament and we realize that we’re in the same war with evil. But we can look forward to victory. It’s just a matter of time.
Behold He comes, riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun, at the trumpet call
Lift your voice, it’s the year of Jubilee
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes
Here are some other versions of todays’ song:
Hibernia Gospel 