Hello, I'm Dr. Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies, a series designed to deepen your spiritual experience through the wonderful gift of music.
And specifically, we will be looking at hymns. We will explore how these poems said to music so beautifully depict the wonderful truths of Scripture. We will also see how we can use this knowledge to enhance our participation in the performance of these songs.
Stay with me as we discover new beauties in the lovely hymn near to the Heart of God sang for a deeper spiritual experience to draw nearer to the heart of God. Have you ever thought of or experimented with using music as a means for this? The Bible reveals that music forms a part of worship in heaven and we can also use it here on earth. In fact, the Bible is full of suggestions as to the uses and the benefits of music.
But we're going to look at a wonderful scene in the book of Revelation. Now, this is the last book in the Bible. If you've got your Bible there, I'd invite you to turn with me in it to the very last book, the Book of Revelation, which tells a vision seen by the apostle John while he was in exile on the Isle of Patmos.
Because of his faithfulness to God, in some of these visions, john was given glimpses into heaven. And so in Revelation chapter four and verse one, revelation four, verse one, we see that John says, after this, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.
So here we see that John looked right into heaven. And Revelation chapter four, and also the following chapter, chapter five, they describe a worship scene in heaven. And there are several verses that specifically portray the music that John heard.
So in chapter four and verse eight describes four beasts that are continually praising God. And they're singing, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And then in verses nine to eleven, we see that there's 24 elders seated around God's throne and they praise him for his creative power.
Then in the next chapter, chapter five, and verses eight to ten, we see that these elders actually have harps and they now praise God not only for his creative power, but also for his redeeming love. And then in verses Revelation chapter five and verses eleven to 13, first the angels, then all living beings, join in a glorious anthem of praise to God. And so let's just read that Revelation five.
And starting at verse eleven, John says, I beheld. And I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
And then verse 13 every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such that are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. So in this final scene we see that music is something that God is pleased for everyone to participate in. Some are more talented than others, no doubt.
And perhaps you may feel on earth that you're best in the choir or the congregation or maybe even in the audience listening. But everyone can participate in music in some way. Everyone can gain a blessing from thinking more and still more deeply about the poetry of hymns.
And we can use this as a really powerful medium to draw closer to God. And once we ourselves are drawn closer to God through the power of music, we can then share that experience with others. And so for those who are involved in performance of music, those who are well, many people in churches are involved in congregational singing, but particularly for those who are able to share with others through songs, through special items, it's one of the great joys of doing that, to be able to share your personal experience with others.
And so I can definitely say from personal experience that music has had an immeasurable impact on my spiritual growth. And actually, my love for music predates my earliest memories. My mother, as many parents do, kept a baby journal for me and at 24 weeks she recorded that.
One of the toys that I enjoyed playing with she had it listed under toys was that I enjoyed piano with Daddy. And at 15 months she'd written down one of my favorite church songs, a song that I sang in Cradle Roll Sabbath School Who Made the Beautiful Rainbow. And I'm so grateful to have had excellent music teachers at school.
And I then went on to complete an honors degree in music and a PhD in music education. I've taught both piano and singing as well as being involved for many years in various aspects of music at the local churches I've attended. And so I'm really excited to be able to share with you in this series some of the insights that I've gained from my training and my musical experiences.
And music is really an exhaustless subject. So there are three main overlapping focal points of this series. So first of all, we want to look at hymn lyrics more closely to see how these relate to the Bible and to use these to form a mental image about the particular song that we're looking at.
And by doing that, it gives us an aim for our expression. And without an aim it's really difficult to achieve a goal. So it really gives us a goal to work towards in our music.
So that's the first one to look at the hymn lyrics more closely, see what they're saying. And once we've done that, we then use that knowledge to find opportunities for expression in the hymn lyrics. We can look at things like think about things like dynamics, variation in tone and try to match those things as closely as we can to the words.
When we're singing or playing instrumental music, what we're really seeking to do is to express the words through the music of medium as well. And both of these I hope, will contribute to a deepening of your personal experience. This is the final goal of the series.
Being involved in music, it changes the performer and it's also the goal of performance, as I kind of mentioned before, to communicate to the audience. And it's so powerful when you see your audience touched by the words of a song. And yeah, I know from experience times when I've been looking at the audience as I've been singing and I can see the expression on their faces, I can see that I'm really communicating through the music and that's a really powerful moment and it just inspires me to want to share more.
And when we do this, we ourselves experience spiritual growth. So for me, this is really a journey that I'm taking with you. Just even as I've been preparing the things for this series, I've been myself blessed and yeah, I'm learning new things from the things that I'm thinking about every day.
So it's really, really exciting. And because this is a program about spiritual experiences, I would encourage you to let us know here at Three ABN about whether there's any way that music has helped you in your spiritual journey. And so, yeah, I will be speaking about my experiences, sharing some of those with you.
And with your permission we might also include your story. So you can email us radio at Three ABN, australia.org au and just before we do get into our hymn for today, we're going to focus each week on mostly one hymn.
Just before we do that, I wanted to mention a couple of sources that I myself have found really, really useful and helpful in my music journey. Obviously, yeah, I've had amazing teachers and lecturers, I've obviously looked at many books, but I wanted to mention too that I feel really bring a spiritual dimension into music which isn't always there. One of these books is The Voice in Speech and Song.
Both of these books actually are by Ellen White, one of my favorite authors, the Voice in Speech and Song. This is a wonderful book, it's a general book about music and specifically about the voice. And it has many wonderful insights and amazing practical points.
And that is a book that I would highly recommend to any singer who hasn't read it. And the other book that I will be quoting from a fair bit, particularly in this season, is a book called The Desire of Ages. This is a book about the life of Christ.
And the author in this book, Ellen White, beautifully describes many of the scenes in Christ's life. And I think that can really help us to get a picture in our mind, as I was mentioning before. So this season most programs will focus on the birth of Christ.
However, I want to begin the season and the series with looking at the song. That is actually the theme music for this program. And that is the beautiful hymn near to the Heart of God.
So let's get right into it. So this hymn starts out the first verse says, there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. And I don't think I need to spend a lot of time enumerating all the stresses in our world today.
There are social tensions, political pressures, economic uncertainties, natural disasters of unprecedented extent and degree. No doubt there are times that you felt overwhelmed by these things, as I have. And this song invites us to experience rest from these things.
How can we find this rest? Well, let's consider the chorus. The words of the chorus say, o Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God. And so this hymn points us to Jesus.
It says, oh, Jesus, blessed redeemer. It points us to Jesus as a way to find rest, especially during times of turmoil. This hymn actually was written by Clelland McCaffey, and it was written by him after he suffered the loss of two infant nieces to Diphtheria.
This was in 1903. So he lived in a time when many people died at a very young age. And so at this really sad time, McCaffey, who was a Presbyterian minister, he found rest in God.
And let's just actually look at a couple of Bible verses about this. Matthew eleven and verses 28 to 30, matthew 1128 to 30. And this is a wonderful invitation that Jesus addresses to everyone.
He says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And there's a wonderful chapter.
So I just mentioned before the book the desire of ages. And yeah, this is as I mentioned, it's a really wonderful book. And actually we have a special offer at the moment for the first 100 listeners to write in who do not have a copy of this book.
If you would like to have your own copy of The Desire of ages for free. Please write to us at our address, radio at three abnostralia.org Au and you can have a copy of this book for free if you live in Australia.
And yeah, this is a wonderful book that gives amazing insights into the life of Christ. And so the desire of ages has a beautiful chapter. Chapter 34 is called The Invitation and it really expands on these verses.
It's so beautiful. I'll have to leave you to read it in your own time though we're running out of time. But in that chapter, Ellen White there says that in these verses christ is speaking to all.
Whether we realize it or not, all are weighed down with burdens that only Christ can remove. And so Christ offers us this rest that is spoken about in near to the heart of God. And so we might ask what is this place near to the heart of God? So to answer that question, let's look at the second verse.
Second verse says, there is a place of comfort sweet near to the heart of God, a place where we our Savior meet near to the heart of God. And in fact, there's many Bible verses about comfort. You might like to use a concordance or you can even look up these days, you can just google Bible verses about comfort and you can look up different verses about comfort.
For instance, Isaiah 40, verse one says, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. And so I would like to suggest two aspects to finding this comfort and rest. And the second phrase of the second verse I think points us to these.
It says, there a place where we our Savior meets. And we see these two aspects from Jesus'life while he was here on earth. So first one is spending time apart with God, and that time apart with God prepares us to brings us to the second one which is to maintain this connection with God no matter how challenging our circumstances may be.
And so let's have a look at this in the life of Christ. And so we see that when Jesus was here on earth, he spent a lot of time in prayer. There's many, many verses in the Gospels that talk about Jesus going out, spending time praying.
Sometimes he would spend entire nights praying, praying to his Father in heaven. So one example of this is in Mark chapter one and verse 35. It says, in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he that is Jesus went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer and it was through prayer that he was strengthened to cope with continual hatred, opposition. And Isaiah is sometimes called the Gospel prophet. And there's many places in Isaiah that prophesy.
Isaiah was living 800, something like that, hundreds of years before Christ lived on earth. And so he prophesied though about these sufferings that Christ would experience and the opposition that he would face. So Isaiah chapter 53, one of the most famous prophecies about Christ, Isaiah 53 in verse three says he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
We hid as that were our faces from him. And so Jesus, while he was here on earth, he experienced rejection. He was rejected actually by those that he came to save, but he was determined in his heart to continue and to fulfill his mission despite the opposition that he faced.
And in Luke chapter nine, verse 51, it says, it came to pass when the time was come that he that is Jesus should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. So Jesus faced constant opposition, but it was through prayer that he was strengthened to cope with that.
And we can do the same. We can maintain our connection with Christ no matter what our circumstances may be. In John chapter 15, Jesus invites us abide in me, and I in you.
So that brings us then to the final verse of this song which says there is a place of full release near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace. And there's many Bible verses about joy and peace, how God is the author of joy and peace. Psalm 62, verse eight says, trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your heart before Him.
So God invites us to pour out all of our sorrows, all of our troubles before Him, and he will help us. So then what I wanted to do is we've kind of discussed a little bit the different verses in this song and I did want to just kind of have a bit of a summary of that and then sort of a practical application for those who are wanting to sing this song. I don't know, maybe as a special item.
Sometimes it can be beautiful to sing hymns as a special item or even if you're in congregational singing. So first of all to think about the general scene that you might have in mind. Now when we come to this sort of thing, it's not necessarily one right or wrong.
Different people may have different scenes in their mind. As long as it sort of matches the music and the words generally, then there's not really an exact right and wrong. But some of the scenes, if I was singing this as a special item or singing it even as a congregational song or listening to somebody else sing it, some of the scenes that I might have in my mind are perhaps scenes of Christ praying, christ inviting us to find rest in Him.
Maybe you've seen the picture of Christ knocking at the doors, at the door of a person's heart. Of course those pictures probably don't really look like Christ, but it gives us a kind of a mental image and maybe there is a particular time when you have found peace and rest in God. That's kind of the general scene that I might have in my mind.
And then if we think about as well when I'm singing a special item, what I like to do is to differentiate between different verses and try to think in my tone of voice or if I was playing him. On the piano as an instrumental thing or accompanying somebody else, then I'd try to maybe have some differentiation based on the words in my tone. And so in the first verse this is talking about rest and maybe a good feeling to evoke that when you're singing you can sing quite softly and yet with intensity and really good projection.
If you kind of have a feeling of awe, there is a place of quiet rest through the consonants. You can really get some good projection there and you can really sink into the words which is very important as well when you're singing. The second verse is about comfort.
So I'd probably try for a more warm tone in that one. And then the last verse I think would be the most intense with that full release. So what we're going to do now is we're going to listen to Fountain View singing this beautiful hymn.
And so I just want to invite you to reflect on the words, maybe to think about some of these Bible verses that we've been discussing as you listen to this beautiful recording of near to the heart of God. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God a place where sin cannot long last near to the heart of God oh, Jesus let redeemer sent from the heart of God hold on to wait. Before near to the heart of God a place where we are savior meet near to the heart of God o Jesus send from the Lord I go ram, you're always joy and peace near to the heart of God.
Oh, Jesus, let me from the heart hold on to it before me near to the heart of God and I would encourage you to experience this rest for yourself every day and to seek for a continually deeper experience with God. The Book of Proverbs actually is one of my favorite books and Proverbs 1623 I love this verse. It says the heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips.
And when we have a personal experience with God and a personal experience with the things that we're singing about or if we're playing an instrument, if we have that personal experience, this will give a power to our musical. Participation that has no technical counterpart or substitute. That's my challenge to you and to myself, as you're thinking about this hymn, is to experience this rest, this comfort and joy and peace that God offers us in His Word.
And so I'd like to invite you to just bow your head with me in a prayer as we ask God to bless us with this rest and peace that he offers us. Dear God, thank you so much for the many promises in Your Word, many wonderful things that bring hope to us, dear God, that can bring joy and peace to our hearts in Your Word. We thank you, dear Lord, that in Galatians 522 and 23 we read about the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy and peace.
And we know that only you can offer us a true peace and eternal peace in this world of turmoil. And so I just pray for myself and for each of the people listening to this broadcast that we can experience this rest, that we can respond to Christ's invitation. Come to me, all ye that labor in a heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
May we be able to experience that rest and then also be able to share that with others, especially through the gift of music. So that's my prayer today. In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you so much for joining me today on Heavenly Harmonies, and I would encourage you, if you have a musical experience to share, or if you would like to request your free copy of The Desire of Ages, please write to us at
[email protected] That's
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au. Unfortunately, that free offer is only for those living in Australia. But yeah, please write into us.
If you've got a musical experience of time when music encouraged you and helped you in your spiritual walk, please write to us. We'd love to hear from you. Or if you've got questions, I know that I don't always explain things as clearly as I would like to, so maybe there's something that wasn't clear, or you've got some other question.
Maybe you've got a favorite hymn that you'd like us to talk about here on the program. So, yeah, please do write to us at that address. And so I would invite you to join me again next time when we discuss another hymn.
Next time we're going to be looking at it came upon the midnight clear. So until then, though, goodbye and God bless.
