"I could sing 7-11s 24-7...." (branch of New Hymns thread)

The point stands. When you take the entire song of I can Sing of Your Love Forever, you have no option but to see that it is a song glorifying Jesus Christ. Any attempt to pretend otherwise is merely an excuse to not give the song the credit it deserves as an excellent song of the Faith.

 

Bingo. But people hate change, even good change. Better to cling to that [with a Southern twang] "good old tyme religion" [/Southern twang] then to dare change it, even if the change for the better.

 

Johnathon, with respect do you really considerate it to be a change for the better. The song in question here makes no reference to God whatsoever, no obvious reference anyway.

It would make me wonder if the writer was almost embarrassed to mention the Lord, I would guess that the real reason for the glaring ommission of the Lord's name is an attempt to make the song appealing to a wider (non-Christian) market in order to boost sales. Wouldn't you agree with this?

God Bless

Enda

 

Scott,

You describe the song as an excellent song of the faith. How do you arrive at that conclusion, faith in who? It doesn't say.

God Bless

Enda

 

Bingo. But people hate change, even good change. Better to cling to that [with a Southern twang] "good old tyme religion" [/Southern twang] then to dare change it, even if the change for the better. </font>[/QUOTE]I,for one,do not mind change...in fact on the other music threads I have aknowledged some newer songs that I believe are biblical....but this song(I could sing of your love forever) is not suitable for corporate worship...if you want to listen to it in your car,fine...but let's keep solid biblical music in our churches to keep the standard high...

By the way,the chorus is exactly seven words sung 4 times....pretty in depth stuff,makes you really meditate on the greatness of God...

Molly

 

Edna, yes I do. I think vertical worship is important. The Bible is filled with songs TO God. So why aren't our hymnbooks? P&W is the closes thing we have to the Psalms, I've compared them on other threads and the similarities are remarkable.
Obvious references? I think the terms are pretty obvious, but then I'm a rather insightful person. In fact, I'd bet that you could ask even the least educated Christians what this song is about and they would get it right 100%. The only people who don't understand the references are those that don't want to understand them. My guess is they figure if they can claim the references aren't obvious enough then they can keep the songs out. Just a hypothesis.
BTW, did you know that Amazing Grace only says Lord once and God twice, and not until the fourth verse. Nothing more specific, I mean if I really wanted to claim ignorance, for all I know the song is referring to Allah.

Nope. I don't have a clue why he doesn't reference God with a specific name that couldn't be identified with anyone else. Maybe he sat down to write and wrote what popped into his head. Maybe he decided that his words were obvious enough. Maybe he didn't even think about it. Who knows, why speculate? Whatever it was, I highly doubt it was to boost sales. This song isn't sung in the mainstream, so it wouldn't make one pound difference in sales.

 

Exodus 15:26 calls God the "Healer." Jesus Christ is called the Light of the world in John 8. So we see two direct references to names of God right there. It is only not obvious to those who choose to be oblivious (or who don't know their Bible.)

Somehow, I can't see a single non-Christian really seeking after this song. I've never met one. I HAVE seen non-Christians begin singing this song at a church meeting and begin asking questions about what "this love" is all about. How cool is that!

 

And how could we not forget Psalm 89:1, from which the chorus actually comes! "I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations." It's Scripture, folks!

Let us even go further...

Over the mountains and the sea
Your river runs with love for me (Psalm 98:3)
And I will open up my heart
And let the Healer set me free (2 Samuel 22:49, Psalm 119:32, Exodus 15:26)
I'm happy to be in the truth (Psalm 86:11)
And I will daily lift my hands (Psalm 119:48, 1 Timothy 2:8)
Of when your love came down (John 3:16)

I will sing of your love forever (Psalm 89:1)

So how can ANYONE insinuate such a song is outside of Scripture?!?

SEC

 

I would assume the one that comes straight from the Scripture myself. Ah, well...

 

As compared to the hymns which of course have the seal of approval straight from Heaven.

Comparing apples and oranges. You might as well ask which glorifies God more, Revelation 4:8 or Job 38?

 

If these songs come from scripture why not make the song more like scripture....and,also when people are asking about what kind of love this is,is that not a signal that the song may indeed involve more explanation.

Just wondering....

 

Do you mean more like Scripture in using older terms?

Oh, they understand that it's the love of God - they just want to personally know about it.

 

How? I'm not really sure what you mean.

So it's a bad thing for people to ask about God's love? Wow, I must say that's a new one on me.

 

What I am saying is I appreciate a song that explains the love of God and says why it is such a wonderful attribute of God. Using scripture is the best way to do that. Or using *biblical* words even. For example,when my children disobey,we call it disobedience,not a more contemporary term like * that child has some issues*. Maybe some of the words do stem from a scriptural background,but I think it was Jonathan that said,he just wrote what was in his head....That can happen,don't get me wrong,but it should come out of someone's head that has a proper view of scripture.

Like Dr. Bob said,I don't think every song has to be a theological stance set to music,but I think it should involve more than that particular song says.

This song is one of my pet peeves.

And,Jonathan,you seem to always accuse those who have a problem with these kinds of songs as being not willing to change...that is an insult to me,for my husband and I have studied this a great deal...we did actually change...from being more open to this kind of music to where we are now,very concerned about the whole downgrade.

Molly

 

You're trying to turn the song into something it's not. The song tells what God's love has done to the singer. It is a personal account being sung directly to God.

Is Psalms no longer a part of the Bible? Did someone tear out Exodus 15? Did Paul not tell Timothy he wanted men everywhere to lift their hands? Did Jesus never really come to Earth? My goodness, if most of the song coming directly from the Bible isn't good enough, what on earth do you want?

Don't know what this has to do with anything...

Who says he doesn't? Please point out the doctrinal errors in this song. And I said I didn't have a clue what happened when Martin Smith wrote this, I have no experience in song writing I just kind of assume people sit down at a desk and lyrics come pouring out.

I think the safest thing to say would be no comment.
`JD

 

Just thought I would point out on another thread, Dr. Bob praises a song by saying it has "glorious words." The song has one phrase, "Glory to God the Father," which is repeated three times to make up the chorus, and a total of 20 times throughout the song. 5-20???

 

While we're on the subject of repetition, I thought I would also point out Revelation 4:8
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

Day and Night?? That's a LOT of repetition. But apparently somehow it glorifies God. Imagine that, God doesn't get tired of repetition. Maybe it's our human selves that are the problem, to use a popular anti-P&W argument, we're making the music into something WE enjoy rather then what praises God. Well if we were really only worried about praising God, apparently repetition isn't a bad thing at all.

 

And let us not forget Psalms 136, which repeats a four word phrase over and over and over again - 26 times! It's a 4-26 song! (or really two in Hebrew - checed 'owlam)