On Jordan’s Stormy Banks
Hymns of The Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
We continue today our series Hymns of the Faith.
Singing this hymn takes me back. This might have been a new arrangement for you, that is the one I grew up singing and one that comes to my mind often — Develop
There is another arrangement that appears in our hymnal by Christopher Miner.
As I sing I am taken to the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi — Philippians 3:17-20
17 Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things.
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Are you ready for the message God has for us today?
Cool, let’s dig in!
Samuel Stennett and Tullis Clinton O’Kane
Samuel Stennett and Tullis Clinton O’Kane
Let’s start with the author of the poem that became the song Pastor Samuel Stennett.
Samuel Stennett was an English man born nearly 300 year ago.
August 1, 1727.
He wrote this exciting lyric about heaven.
When Samuel was 10 he moved with his family to from Exeter to London.
There his father a Seventh Day Baptist became the pastor of a Baptist Church on Little Wild Street.
Samuel would later in life become the pastor there as well.
He would stay there for the rest of his life using his incredible gift for words.
There are rumors that Samuel was friends of King George III and had the ability and opportunity to have big well-known jobs in politics.
However, his passion was his commitment to be a pastor like his father and his grandfather.
Samuel loved his wife greatly and shortly after she died he followed when he was 68 years old.
Unlike the previous songs we have considered in this series there is no known back story other than the life of Samuel and in words of the song a clear looking froward to heaven.
The arrangement I grew up with and the one we sang this morning was written by Tullis Clinton O’Kane.
O’Kane received his Bachelors’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1852 and a Maters in 1855.
Immediately upon graduating he accepted a position there as Tutor of Mathematics.
Even though he was only a tutor, the students always referred to him as “Professor.”
O’Kane was for years the music leader in the daily chapel devotions.
He also ran the choral society at the school and was the first musical instructor in the Ohio Wesleyan Female College.
He is known for many writing or arranging many songs in church hymnals.
The tune created by O’Kane for his arrangement of On Jordan’s Stormy Banks, is “Evergreen shore.”
The refrain was likely added by O’Kane as it did not appear in Stennett’s original poem.
What does this song remind and teach us?
What does this song remind and teach us?
Focus of the death leading on heaven.
Turn your inserts over — skip the chorus!
Read verse 1 — As the singer we are standing on the banks of the spiritual Jordan looking across to the fair and happy land of Canaan.
The hymn uses metaphoric imagery from the books of Exodus and Revelation.
Like Israel we stand looking over Jordan at the promise land.
14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people,
15 and when those who were carrying the ark came up to the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark stepped down into the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest),
16 then the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.
Spiritually as we look to the Jordan our possessions lie in Canaan (Heaven), not on the earthly side of the Jordan, here in this world.
Read verse 2 — in this verse we find that spiritual Canaan is a wide extended plain.
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
There in that land there is only one eternal day that is always shining.
No earthly king reigns there just God and the Son forever reign!
In this shining eternal day the night of this life has been scattered away!
Read Verse 3 — In this stanza we sing about this being a place in which we will want to stay.
Jordan’s waves represent the time of our death.
Death is simply an opportunity to depart and be with Christ.
Thus we launch away knowing - 1 Corinthians 15:17-20
17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
The chorus further describes the glory of that eternal land where we shall sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. — Revelation15:3
3 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
Now read the Chorus
Conclusion
Around the time this hymn was first used in America thousands of Irish people were crossing the Atlantic Ocean to find a new home home in America.
Between 1820 and 1860 about a third of all immigrants to the US were Irish.
All through history people have been looking for a home to call their own and often traveled far and wide to find it.
In the book of Exodus, we read how God called the children of Isreal away from slavery in Egypt to the promised land, a new land where they would be free to live and worship him. They first would need to cross the Jordan.
We sing to remember who we are and where we are going.
Just like the Israelites looking over the Jordan river and longing for the promised land we long for our forever home in heaven.
We are always traveling towards that happy place!
What are you going to do based upon what God has today?