THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG

For several years, I served as the song leader in my church. During that time, it was my responsibility to select the music and lead the congregation in the singing every week.

I took that responsibility seriously. The hymns and songs that I selected had to be doctrinally sound, and appropriate for worship with a God-centered worldview. Within those parameters, I tried to select music that would reinforce and support the text and the subject of my pastor’s messages.

Some of us have been singing the hymns for years; the words roll off our lips but the messages often don't engage our minds or penetrate our hearts. With the apostle Paul, I want the congregation to "sing with understanding."

So it has been my practice to select one hymn each week, research it, and then highlight it with a short introductory commentary so that the congregation will be more informed regarding the origin, the author's testimony, or the doctrinal significance of the hymns we sing.

It is my intention here, with this blog, to archive these hymn commentaries for my reference and to make them freely available to other church song leaders. For ease of reference, all the hymn commentaries in this blog will be titled IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Other posts (which will be music ministry related opinion pieces) will be printed in lower case letters.

I know that some of these commentaries contain traces of my unique style, but please feel free to adapt them and use the content any way you can for the edification of your congregation and to the glory of God.

All I ask is that you leave a little comment should you find something helpful.

Ralph M. Petersen

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Saturday, May 22, 2021

****THE SOLID ROCK revised

****THE SOLID ROCK 


Edward Mote was not raised in a godly home. He didn’t have the advantage of an early exposure to the Word of God. His parents, who managed a pub in London, often neglected their son who spent most of his Sundays on the streets of the city.

About his own childhood, he said: “So ignorant was I that I didn’t even know there was a God.”

But, eventually, Edward heard the Good News of the Gospel. He believed and was baptized at the age of 18 years. That’s grace! And that’s the only basis for our Salvation.

Edward worked as a cabinetmaker for 37 years but it wasn’t until after his 55th birthday, that he became the pastor of a Baptist church in Horsham, Sussex. And for the next 21 years, Edward did not miss a single Sunday preaching the Word of God.

He was so well-loved by his congregation that they offered him the title deed to the church building. But, to that, he said: “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.” 

I am amazed at that statement. It was profound. Edward Mote understood that the church is not about a building; it’s about the pulpit. It’s about the preaching of the Written Word of God which is inseparable from the Living Word of God.

I once had a pastor who referred to his pulpit as the SACRED DESK. He placed a small, engraved plaque on the top. For anyone who ever stood behind it, the engraving was a simple reminder from the pages of scripture that said, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” 

There is a good reason that so many churches place the pulpit right up front in the center of a raised platform. It is there to expose, elevate, and expound the Word of God so that the people can clearly see Jesus.

Edward Mote wrote the hymn, “THE SOLID ROCK,” at the age of 37. It is listed among the greatest hymns of the Christian faith. It reminds us that our salvation, our only Hope, is in the shed blood of Jesus (a sacrifice for our sin), and His righteousness is imputed to us.

Simply put, “I owed a debt I could not pay; Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.”