A Simple Song

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.

Psalm 32:7

Presbyterian minister A. B. Simpson, who founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was occasionally afflicted with depression. On one occasion while resting at Saratoga Springs, New York, he struggled with keeping joy in his heart. Strolling out to a religious meeting at a nearby campground, Simpson took his seat and listened for a word of encouragement. Nothing moved him until an African American quartet stood up and sang a simple spiritual. The refrain, repeated over and over, said, “My Jesus is the Lord of Lords: no man can work like Him.”

Something about that simple song touched Simpson’s troubled heart. “The truth of these words fell upon me like a spell,” he later said. “It seemed like a voice from heaven. It possessed my whole being. . . . I went forth from that rude, old-fashioned service, remembering nothing else, but strangely lifted up.”

Music is God’s therapy for the heart, and the songs of Zion—whether old or new—have the ability to encourage us when little else will help. Are you listening to the right music? Are you saying, “Singing I go along life’s road, praising the Lord, praising the Lord”?

For it to be a hymn, it is needful, therefore, for it to have three things: praise, praise of God, and these sung.

ST. AUGUSTINE