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;"
copyrfpt JI89 udy n
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