Friday 18th
Psalm 96:1
NIV – ‘Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.’
ESV – ‘Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!’
‘Let the song go round the earth, Jesus Christ is Lord.’
Sarah G. Stock – RH 738
One of my favourite services when I was a teen growing up in the Church (and still is) were the missionary meetings where we used to meet once a month to concentrate prayer on mission, and the visits we would get from the missionaries who would be home on furlough and they would visit the Churches with a report on the work in the country they were serving in as missionaries. I remember the missionaries from New Zealand, and the work among the Maoris, those who came from Nigeria, Ghana, The Cameroon, Brazil, India, Rhodesia,(now Zimbabwe) Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka) Portugal and many other nations and I would be excited to hear of what was going on in these various countries, I dreamed of being involved in mission, as a young lad I was going to go to China, then it was Brazil, then Portugal – in fact back then it would have been anywhere where the Lord would choose to send me—I would have gone, but it seems like it was never meant to be, unless of course you can count Wales! and the ten years I spent visiting Hungary on a regular basis sharing with Churches there. Ironically, I ended up marrying a girl who had been with her parents on the mission field in the middle of the Gibson desert working for a short time among the Aborigines in Jigalong!
That is all by the way now, as my mission field is up here in the North East, but the reports that I enjoyed listening to so much and which always left a challenge in my life was that which is in the words of our hymn for today, it is all about letting the song go round the world, what song? Jesus Christ is Lord! It is a message that needs to be heard here in the UK, it needs to be heard across Europe, it needs to be heard across the other continents of the world, and it needs to be heard above all the other sounds that are being made from the false religions and cults and isms, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’. For as loud as the other religions etc may sound out their message, it is clear from the Word of God that ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is other no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:12) There is only one man in glory, and his name is Jesus and Scripture again says that ‘after making purification for sins, he (that is Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.’ (Hebrews 1:3-4) Again we read in 1 Timothy 2:5-6 ‘For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.’
We have the only good news that can bring salvation to men and women, wherever they are and whoever they are, it is good news that is worth sharing and worthy of declaring, it is the best news that any person can hear and respond to for it is the only message that can give the lost sinner hope, transformation, and eternal life.
Another hymn starts with these lines, ‘Jesus only is our Message, Jesus, all our theme shall be, we will lift up Jesus ever, Jesus only will we see. Jesus only, Jesus ever, Jesus all in all we sing; Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, Glorious Lord and Coming King.’
May we never be ashamed of the good news of the gospel, but may we always look for opportunity to share the good news and to play our part that ensuring that the song goes round the earth, Jesus Christ is Lord!
Let the song go round the earth,
Jesus Christ is Lord!
Sound his praises, tell his worth,
Be his Name adored;
Every clime and every tongue
Join the grand, the glorious song!
Let the song go round the earth,
From the eastern sea,
Where the daylight has its birth,
Glad, and bright, and free;
China’s millions join the strains,
Waft them on to India’s plains.
Let the song go round the earth,
Lands where Islam’s sway
Darkly broods o’er home and hearth,
Cast their bonds away;
Let his praise from Afric’s shore
Rise and swell her wide lands o’er.
Let the song go round the earth,
Where the summer smiles;
Let the notes of holy mirth
Break from distant isles;
Inland forests, dark and dim,
Ice bound coasts give back the hymn.
Let the song go round the earth,
Jesus Christ is King!
With the story of his worth
Let the whole world ring;
Him creation all adore
Evermore and evermore.