7/27/2019 1990 Issue 8 - Ordained Praise, Part 1 - Counsel of Chalcedon

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ORD INED

PR ISE

by Judy Rogers

Dear parents of covenant childrert,

I am so excited to begin a parent/child column in The

Counsel. My

thanks

to

the editor, Bob Bailey, for giving

me

this opportunity to share with you and your children the

"heart's intent" behind m:y music

My husband, Wayne, called me from his office some months

ago and said, "Judy, I've found the· verse of Scripture ·that is

the basis for your music ministry--Psabn 8:2 " This verse, of

course, is a very familiar one, at least up to a

point: "Out

of

the mouths

of

children and nursing infants. God has ordained

praise .. .

But guess what? The verse goes on

at

that point

without even missing a beat, " ..

because

of

his enemies, to

silence the

foe

and the

v e n g e r Wow . That concept made

my head spin We saw clearly here something that we'd never

seen before: God wants our children to praise Him in order to

shut the mouths of His enemies when they hear our children's

praise and to raise up righteous little voices

in

their place

Then,

i f

that's

not

enough,

do

you remember what happened

in

Matthew 21 after Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the

temple? The chief· priests were "indignant" because the

children were "shouting"

in

the temple area.

You

say, "That

makes sense--children shouldn't yell in church " But what

were these children saying? Matthew 21:15 tell us that,

"-

children were shouting 'Hosanna to the Son

of

David '"

(Would that today's childrenshouted those kinds

of

things in

church ) Jesus then quotes from Psalm 8,

"Have you not read,

'From the lips of children and infants, God has ordained

praise'?"

Here was an instance in which God used the

children's praise

to

silence the foe, who in this case

just

happened to be the self-righteous ch ief priests

Because of this concept, I do not think it

s

proper for children

to stand before

the

church and sing, "Jesus Loves Me",

just

so

they can model their cute outfits and make their parents and

grandparents feel "warm" inside. I am weary of the old

tradition

or

is it a relatively new one?)

of

children getting up

in Sunday School

or

Vacation Bible Schooland singing

shallow, frivilous songs. The Lord has given

me

a great

desire to create Christi an children's music that flows from the

pattern of God's intent Music that is enjoyable and· beautiful

The Counsel

of

Chalcedon • Oc

tober

1990 • Page 22

and full of praise, truth and dignity. I see such a need to set

"the whole counsel o God"

to music that

will

be excellent in

quality and memorable for children.

We

all

know and sometimes "tremble" at the

power

of music:

.catchy tunes, hypnotic lyrics, and a strong beat Why should

Christian music be weak and anemic with milk-toast lyrics

and forgettable melodies? One

of

the goals

in

my music is to

produce songs

that

can·

Vie

for the attention

of

children over •

and against the popular

music of

the day found

on

radio and

MTV produced by groups such as New

Kids on

the Block.

This is uo small task

And

yet I find that God has ·blessed

this to happen in many cases ·

n

the next issue

of The Counsel of Chalcedon

I hope to

answer some questions that many of you have asked regarding

how, when, and why I write as

I do.

Mter

four recordings

it

has been interesting to see how

God

has provided and led in·

all.

these areas.

Our children can have an evangelistic outreach through

singing the praises

of

God in

a day when a clear and strong

message needs to be sounded forth. I challenge you to read

and meditate on Psabn 8 and for now I leave you with the

lyrics from "Out

of

the mouths

of

children'' recorded on "Go

to the Ant "

OUT

OF

THE MOUTHS OF HIWREN

Chorus

Out of the mouths of children and tiny

nursing

b b e s ~

From the lips of the little ones, God

has

ordained His pt&Se ..

He has ordained theirpraise, because ofHis eneiDies .

lord give our children a heart to know you,

let their song silence the foe.

1st t a ~ .

0

LORD,

our Lord how majestic is your name in

all

the earth;

When I·consider your heavens, tlie work of your hands,·

what is man, that you care for him. ·

. .Bridge

You made man a Jittle lower

the angels,

.

P Ut

all

things under his feet; ·

made

pim

p.Ller over.all of your creation,

· hJS children your foes

10 defeat

2nd Stanza

When children came to Jesus,

shouting Hosanna and singing His praise,

The priests indignantly_tried

to

send them away,

but Jesus said, "Have you not read,"

Repeat Chorus

Closing

Hosanna, Hosanna, our P.raises we

bring

;

to Jesus, our prophet, our priest and our Kfug;"

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