The World Today is filled with the harsh, grating sounds of coming destruction. Jazz, rock-and-roll, and other forms of sonic deformity, through the medium of radio and TV, literally fill the air. The significant fact in this is that these musical perversions arise out of minds and hearts that are so filled with lust, hatred and fear they overflow and spread their own moral disease far and wide.
The shrill cries of class distinctions, national enmities and racial hatreds fill the present economic and political scene with a hideous din. Added to all of this, the air above us is rent asunder by the mighty jets as they scream like some prehistoric monster in dire pain.
After a time the mind becomes numb and the very soul becomes sick. It is small wonder that under these conditions so many folks have such misgivings as to the past, such uncertainty as to the present and such foreboding concerning the future.
At such a time what an unspeakable relief to turn to the Word of God and to the hymns which have blessed and purified believers all through the ages. In leafing through the hymnal the observant reader is soon struck with the “wholeness” that shines forth from every page. The character of God shines with a fadeless luster that does not admit of any darkness at all. The depths of Christ’s sufferings, the sharpness of His death, the utter triumph of His resurrection and ascension and the glory of His second coming are set forth with a wholeness of power and glory which lifts the soul above the things of time and sense.
This principle of “wholeness” appears very conspicuously in those hymns which have to do with faith, writing on such themes in terms of entire abandonment, the heart of the writer becomes lifted with the “song of the Lord” and therefore love, praise, and majesty flow from the pen as from a crystal fountain.
There is a very profound connection here between the “wholeness” of faith, repentance, obedience and consecration and the inspiring “song of the Lord.” During the great revival in the reign of Hezekiah, the priests did not lift the silver trumpets to their lips until the burnt offering was set ablaze. When the smoke of this offering, typifying total abandonment to God, began to curl heavenward, the surrounding hills and vales were filled with the melodious “song of the Lord.”
Peter declared that God who knoweth the hearts gave the sanctifying Holy Ghost to the Gentiles. He who brings the very purity of the victorious God-man and the joy which stirred Heaven when he returned in triumph from Calvary will not come to nor abide in any heart that is not wholly abandoned to God and the work of saving lost souls. When any part of the heart, no matter how small, is bolted against Christ, the “song of the Lord” cannot be sung.
Troubled heart, do you desire a song of triumph in the midst of all the sorrows which now engulf this world? Do you long for the great privilege of blowing the silver trumpet of salvation until all around are melted to tears of deep contrition of holy triumph? Of this one thing then be very sure: God will not place the trumpet in your hand until and unless there is a “wholeness” of surrender to Him and His holy purpose for your life. God gave all and He demands all. We can never know His pardoning favor nor His sanctifying fullness short of full surrender to Him.
The biographies of the great hymn writers of the Christian faith reveal that in many cases their lives were filled with trial, sorrow and above all, entire consecration to the glory of God. They did not allow their heart’s love to be divided but presented it in its “wholeness” to God. If you desire to be filled with the joyous “song of the Lord” and to lead others to Him, pay the full price and receive the full blessing.
--Royal S. Woodhead 1959
--Royal S. Woodhead 1959
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