We had quite a treat this weekend. Many of you know that my wife, Debbie, writes songs that we at Hope Chapel incorporate into our worship times. A few of them are being adopted into worship services in other congregations. Far and away, the most used song is Psalm 124, “Had it Not Been the Lord who was on our side”. A local congregation, Westover Hills Church of Christ, has been doing a sermon series on the stories behind the music, picking several hymns and songs used frequently in their worship times and explaining the story behind the music and also how members of their congregation relate to the songs.
During the past week, Deb was interviewed on camera, basically explaining how she came to write the song and then how it felt to have other churches singing some of her songs. She, of course, was pretty anxious leading up to the interview, and even after it was over, she worried about whether it came out right, did she say the right things, did she look OK, etc. It led up to a nervous Sunday.
This nervous Sunday,(Sept. 5th) Westover’s preacher, Kevin Withem, closed his series with “Had it Not Been”. We were able to slip away from Hope’s service after our worship time and join them about 10 minutes into their worship service. Wow, what a blessing to be sitting with them as they sang the song (among others) and hear Kevin’s excellent sermon. Listen to it to find out how he blends the Beatles song, “Help,” with “Psalm 124”.. 🙂
Westover’s services are online and you can hear this service (Sept. 5th) here: http://www.westover.org/node/1978
The first minute and a half is silence, a lead into the service. Don’t adjust your sound until after that. We recommend listening to the whole thing, beautiful music and a good sermon. If you only have a few minutes, you can skip to about 11:50 to hear the song. Kevin’s sermon begins at about 28 minutes and Deb’s interview starts around 37 minutes. In the video, Deb’s interview and Karen Alexander’s response to the song are woven together. Excellent job.. Kudos to Westover’s A/V team. And thanks, Karen. It was terrific to hear your story and meet you and your family after the service.
It is difficult to describe the emotions we felt, the gratitude we have to God for his faithfulness, and the love we feel in the Body of Christ as we heard them sing the song which has meant so much to us at Hope Chapel.
So, we have some shout outs for the weekend!!:
- Thanks to Westover for doing this series. We love to worship in song and you guys inspire us.
- Thanks to the Churches of Christ for keeping the tradition of Sacred Singing. It is beautiful music, four part, full hearted praise to our King.
- Thanks, Kevin, you did a great job.
- Thanks again, to Westover Hills for welcoming us, for taking the time to come by and share your joy.
- Thanks, Martha Rasco for sharing the service with us.
- Thanks, David and Donjalea Chrane, for putting this song out there for many to hear.
- Thanks be to our God, for His unfailing love, for His rich salvation, for Life Eternal …
…
The snare is broken and we have escaped,
Our help is in the Name of the Lord
Blessed be the Lord.
Pingback: Timeless: Ancient Psalms for the Church Today | Jack's Blog
John Mark Hicks and I mention your song, Had It Not Been the Lord, in our book, Down in the River to Pray. Your song was particularly meaningful for John Mark in coping with grief over the death of his son, going through a subsequent divorce, and the song was meaningful in loss of relationships of life teammates as we transitioned from mission work in Uganda to living in Nashville, Tennessee. I live in Tulsa now with my wife and three children, and minister at Garnett Church of Christ. We would sure love to have you come to Tulsa to minister with us in music in 2014, and we would enjoy talking with you about that.
Greg, thanks so much for the comment. We are always blessed by the stories as God reveals himself to his people. Sorry for the late update here. I’ll contact you.
Jack