Sermons in Song - Come We That Love the Lord

Intro:

Good evening.

Tonight we are going to discuss a sermon from a song in our song book.

We might do this again. We will see how it goes.

The song that I have selected for our sermon thought tonight is number 111 - “Come We That Love the Lord,” also recongized as “Marching to Zion.”

This is one of my favorite songs, but it has to be sung right! (We’ll talk about that more in a little bit).

Before we get into the song itself, let’s turn to Psalm 121.

You may remember a week or two ago this Psalm was in our bulletin.

Discussion:

Psalm 121 NKJV

A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.

This Psalm according to the scribal note at the beginning is “a song of ascents.”

The Psalms were the Hebrew song book, and the Psalms 120-134 were the “songs of ascents.”

Three times a year, all Jewish males were required to appear for three feasts in Jerusalem.

Deut. 16:16 - says “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.”

When they appeared for these three times a year, they would sing as they climbed upward to the temple mount in Jerusalem.

These songs that they would sing were called … “songs of ascent.” (also known as “songs of degrees,” or “songs for going up to worship.” (because they sang them as they ASCENDED the mountain to Jerusalem, or Mt. Zion!)

Can you imagine a bunch of faithful Hebrews marching up the mountain together, all stepping and singing in unison as they went to worship the Lord? (I bet that was a beautiful sight!)

Hearing beautiful singing, seeing a beautiful view from the mountain top, gazing upon the temple of the Lord!

I’ve been blessed to see some amazing views in places like Yellowstone N.P., Colorado, Yosemite and Sequoia N.P.’s in California, the Grand Canyon, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and many more!

And there have been moments in my life when I’ve looked down at God’s creation from the top of a mountain somewhere, and really just wanted to sing “How Great Thou Art,” or “How Great is Our God,” or “Come We that Love the Lord and Let our Joys Be Known!”

And that brings me to our song I’d like to talk about tonight!

“COME WE THAT LOVE THE LORD”/“MARCHING TO ZION” - 111 in song book

(First verse) - “Come we that love the Lord” — Do you love the Lord?

“And let our joys be known!” — Do you have joy as a Christian?

You should! (Joy is a fruit of the Spirit!)

James 5:13 - “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms!”

Brethren, I have to tell you it frustrates me when Christians don’t sing!

(or when Christians pretend to sing but really they just mumble, or whisper)

How do we think that makes GOD feel?

Heb. 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

(Doesn’t matter the quality of your voice — Matters if you are actually singing or not)

(Read rest of 1st verse with little comment).

Chorus: “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, we’re marching UPWARD to Zion, Zion the beautiful city of God!”

Doesn’t that sound just like a “song of ascent?!”

By the way, when we sing this — It’s not “PLODDING” to Zion, it’s not “CRAWLING” to Zion; it’s definitely not “MOPING” to Zion! — although some seem to sing it that way!

It’s MARCHING to Zion! The beautiful city of GOD!

So we need to sing it with zeal, with joy, and with a good tempo!

(Second verse) - “Let those refuse to sing who never KNEW our God, but children of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly King may speak their JOYS abroad, may speak their JOYS abroad!”

Self-explanatory???

It should never be said of a CHRISTIAN “I downright REFUSE to sing.”

If it’s a self-consciout thing — Look, I get it - When I was a kid I never in a million years thought I’d be a preacher (did NOT like public speaking), but now nothing to it!

Same thing with singing.

I saw a Facebook post a while back — it talked about a good way to assess the health of a congregation …

It said: Take a look around, and see how many you have of the following: 1) Crying babies … (that’s future growth right there, right? :) …

and 2) Singing men!

And I thought, you know that’s a good point.

For whatever reason, sometimes some men just don’t want to sing (not sure why that is — Is it pride?)

Regardless, I thought that was an interesting Facebook post.

(Third verse) - I don’t believe I have EVER sung this third verse!

“The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets, before we reach the heav’nly fields, before we reach the heav’nly fields, or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets.”

Certainly a beautiful poetic glimpse of what is in store for us when we reach to where we are marching — Zion!

(Fourth verse) - “Then let our songs ABOUND” (again, I’m reminded of Heb. 13:15) “and every tear be dry” (no tears in heaven — and we sing about that too!) — “We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground (God-with-us’ ground), we’re marching through Immanuel’s ground, to fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high!”

And then the chorus again!

A beautiful song, and one of my personal favorites!

(I have about 200 other personal favorites in this song book at least!)

I think about our singing as part of N.T. “spirit and in truth worship.

John 4:24 NKJV

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The truth part is important when we sing — We need to make sure we sing the truth as we teach and admonish one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs.

And the spirit part is also important — We need to have the proper spirit — the proper mindset/attitude — when we sing as well!

And so when we sing “sing and be happy,” or “I’m happy today,” or “Oh happy day,” are we truly happy in Christ?

When we sing “sing to me of heaven,” or “no tears in heaven,” or “when the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there,” do we truly look forward to our heavenly home?

When we sing “I want to be a worker for the Lord,” or “we’ll work till Jesus comes,” are we telling the truth?

And when we sing “when we meet in sweet communion,” and “night with ebon pinion,” and “Alas and did my Savior bleed,” do we contemplate the sacrifice that was made on our behalf?

Conclusion:

Our singing is important!

There’s a reason God prescribed it for our worship.

Singing is good for the soul!

It helps us put the Word of God to heart through music (and God knew that about us, thus, again why He requires it of us) …

And why Col. 3:16 says “Let the WORD of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

I hope that you have enjoyed this sermon from a song, and I think we might pick another one next Sunday night!