I will Sing a New Song to You, O God

I will sing a new song to You, O God; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, ~Psalm 144:9

Saturday morning, driving through beautiful West Virginia just north of Charleston, I stumbled upon a gospel music station.

When I’m in my kitchen, I usually have a radio station playing that has a daily lineup of preachers and teachers — David Jeremiah, Alistair Begg, Focus on the Family, some local churches — I enjoy listening to the sermons and conversations. When I’m not listening to that, I’ll have the radio on K-Love, which plays contemporary Christian music. I enjoy many of the songs and love the message in most of the songs.

Saturday morning, the only stations I could get were country or gospel. Actually, I stopped on the gospel station because I caught the tail end of a sermon. After the sermon the bumper for the station came on and I found out it was a gospel station, right before they played In the Garden.

I LOVE In the Garden.

He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet that the birds hush their singing
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing

The next song was Jesus is Calling. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve sung that song on a Sunday morning.

Come home, come home;
ye who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

A few more songs played then I heard a sermon on Luke 8:4-8, The Parable of the Sower. Which was just awesome because it tied into my dad’s Sunday School lesson on Sunday. I’ve heard the parable on it a lot, but it put it fresh in my mind when I needed it there.

Right before I lost the signal of that station, I heard There’s Pow’r in the Blood. Another really nostalgic, take me back to singing out of a hymnal in a Baptist church days kind of song.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

Saturday evening, at my parents’ house, we watched the Gaither Family Reunion Atlanta special. More amazing gospel music.

There is nothing like listening to 100 of the top gospel singers ever all joining voices with a huge choir and singing Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

Or Sweeter as the Days go By.

It gets sweeter as the days go by
It gets sweeter as the moments fly
His love is richer, deeper, fuller, sweeter
Sweeter, sweeter, sweeter as the days go by

And Alpha and Omega makes me want to stand up and shout, “Hallelujah!” Here is a link to them performing this song. You don’t want to miss out on this one.

He is the Alpha and Omega
The Beginning and the End
The Son of God, the King of Kings
Lord of lords, He’s Everything
Messiah, Jehovah
The Prince of Peace is He
The Son of Man, Seed of Abraham
Second Person in the Trinity

I wish I had kept the order of services for my parents’ church, but I didn’t. However, after the beginning of the service, with a praise band leading choruses, the praise band sat back down and the organist took his seat and we sang two songs out of the hymnal. After the sermon, we sang another song out of the hymnal. They were awesome, traditional hymns. I just can’t remember what they were typing this right now.

Through the weekend, I felt immersed in beautiful, traditional gospel music. I grew up listening to this music, singing this music, watching people perform this music. It put me in a very nostalgic mind frame all weekend. It was beautiful.