Welcome to the Song of the Month Club!

In 2014, we’ll be focusing on learning one song each month. That way, we can learn not only to sing it really well, but we can develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of the song. A good song teaches us the word of God (see Colossians 3:16). We want our minds to grow in understanding that gospel message, so that our hearts grow in our love of Christ and our voices grow in praise to Him.

I’ll also be writing a short online article on each “Song of the Month.” This month’s song, which we sang this past Sunday, is “By Faith,” a modern hymn written by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend. You can read the lyrics and listen to the song here.

The words of this song summarize the teaching of Hebrews 11:1 – 12:2. The writer of Hebrews wants us to have faith in God—to believe the promises God has made to us, even though we cannot see the things He has promised now. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).
For the rest of chapter 11, he walks us through the Old Testament—from creation to the prophets—and reminds us how all of the mighty men and women of scripture were able to do amazing things only by faith—because they believed the promise God made to them.

Then there is a twist: all these people, it says, “did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us” (11:39). That’s because all of these promises find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ, the “Longed for Messiah… with the power to break the chains of sin and death, and rise triumphant from the grave,” as the song says. What we have is better than what the people of the Old Testament had—we have Christ, and a new and better covenant in His blood.

If what we have is better than what Joshua had, then we have even more reason to be “strong and courageous”! We have even more reason than Moses or Abraham to follow where God leads.

But we have an even better example of faith in God’s promises. Hebrews 12 says we look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He willingly suffered pain and death, because He was certain of the joy that would follow as His death makes possible the saving reign over all creation that will culminate in all things being made new!

Jesus Himself is the joy set before us—as the song says, He is our soul’s reward. This is important to remember, because we often cannot see how God could possibly be at work for our good. Sometimes we don’t see it because of despair—whether in our fight against sin, or in times of pain and suffering. Other times we don’t see it because things are going so well we forget we’re even in need of God’s promises. We need to remember that God’s promises are more trustworthy than what we think we see with our own fallen eyes!

Whatever our circumstances, I pray that this would be our heart’s cry:

“We will stand as children of the promise,
We will fix our eyes on Him, our soul’s reward.
Till the race is finished and the work is done,
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight.”