Andrew P Partington

Worship Jesus in Song SA (A) Andrew P Partington

One of the main purposes of music in church for which it is under-utilised is to have an easy way of learning sections of scripture. So many of these songs are translations or paraphrases of sections from the letters of Paul or the sayings of Jesus, and various other parts of the Bible. I have written quite a few of these songs as rounds but it is not necessary to play them as rounds, they all work quite well as worship songs in their own right. There are sad songs as well as happy ones. The Bible contains many sad psalms, laments, and passages expressing grief as well as consolation. Christian worship ought to acknowledge the full range of human emotions: while joy is the predominant note in the New Testament, even Paul acknowledges that the Christian life is not always a bed of roses. He says in 2 Corinthians 1:8, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself." But the predominant note is joy, I hope, in the hope we all share, who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and our own future resurrection when the new heavens and the new earth come to be.