Our churches need to sing songs of the good news of our great redemption in Christ and the hope that we have because of that truth. However, we also need to sing songs of sojourning in our gatherings to train believers how to walk as pilgrims through this barren land with an enduring faith in God. 

The seeds of my faith were sown in a little red brick church building found on a sharp bend of an oil-topped road in East Texas. To the eye that cares more about impressive appearances than anything else, that place is just another little church building, on another country road, in another small town, in the middle of nowhere. If you are looking for a place that depends on impressive, multi-syllabic theological terms, proper light temperatures, and musical builds into thunderous bridges attempting to express deep, abiding faith, then you took a wrong turn somewhere. By these superficial characteristics, it would seem like that red brick church building couldn’t possibly be the soil for spiritual growth.
But it was there–in that little church building—that I heard the gospel of Jesus proclaimed every week. It was there that I was taught to love the Word of God, under the instruction of my favorite Sunday School teacher—my mother. It was there that I heard my dad and other deacons pray and sing “with their chest” as they led us in our devotional period to open our services, showing me that men could lead with deep resolve and display deep emotion in worship. It was there that I learned the value of having older saints around who could testify to the goodness of God. It was there that doctrines of the sovereignty and providence of God—words that I later learned and had to define in seminary—were living, experienced realities. It was there that I learned that God is not a concept to be examined but a person to be worshipped, adored, delighted in, and trusted.
It was in that little red brick church that I learned the power of songs of sojourning and shared testimony. These were a means of reminding of the goodness of God, inviting others to share in our joy and resolute faith in that goodness, and strengthening the faith of those who were having a hard time holding on to faith because of the persistent and unrelenting presence of suffering. I later learned through studying the Scriptures that these rhythms and practices of song and testimony were part of the spiritual diet of God’s people throughout the generations. These rhythms and practices have been critical for my own growth and steadfastness in the faith.
Songs of Sojourning
I recently spent time with a friend who, like me, grew up in a historic black church in the south. As we reminisced about what it was like growing up in that environment and what got instilled in us there, I realized that while we grew up a little over 1,000 miles away from each other, we shared a spiritual hymn book, a heritage passed to us from the generation before us. We both had our seasons of drifting and hardship in young adulthood, and when things became unbearably difficult, our souls turned to the same collection of songs to stabilize and strengthen our faith.
Those songs were sojourning songs. By sojourning songs, I mean songs that tell the narrative of how God meets with, walks with, and sustains his people through the various hardships of life. These songs are part testimony and part prayer, training our hearts to look for and trust God in uncertainty, songs that instill an expectant longing for the fulfillment of all of his promises to us.
Most Sunday mornings, the deacons would come out to open the service with a devotional period where they would pray for the gathering, as we responded by singing lined hymns together in the call-and-response style that is rooted in the Black church. I loved (and still do) when those first lines rang out,
Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,Pilgrim through this barren land
That would be followed by the congregation’s response as we recounted the story of the exodus and asked God to be with us on our own sojourn through this “barren land” on our way to the promised land of the new Jerusalem. My favorite line in the hymn, the one that resonated with me most and brought tears to my eyes as I belt it out to this day, is:
Strong Deliverer, Strong DelivererBe thou still my strength and shield.
I think it was in those lines that I learned that part of God’s unchanging character was that of a strong deliverer. The request to “be thou still,” was a request for God to show up again to protect and deliver me when things got rough. It is a reminder to my doubting heart and an act of defiance against the surrounding circumstances to call on and expect God to be that for me again. It was another seed of faith sown into the soil of my soul.
On most of the Sundays of my childhood, that deacon-led devotional period was followed by the choir singing Albert A. Goodson’s “We’ve Come This Far By Faith.”
We’ve come this far by faith,Leaning on the Lord.Trusting in his holy word.He’s never failed us yet.Oh, oh-, oh- can’t turn around,We’ve come this far by faith.
There is a point in everyone’s journey of faith where the road gets rough, and you can’t see how the Lord is going to get you through. There is an internal alarm that goes off in your soul, saying, “Abandon ship! The journey is too hard this way. Surely there has to be a better way. Surely you can find a self-salvation strategy to get you through.” But I was reminded yet again that the only way that we have even gotten this far is through faith—leaning on the Lord and trusting in his holy Word. He has never failed us, and because he is unchanging, always faithful, and always working all things together for our good, we can trust him with our next step and all the way home.
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When the news stirs fear in you, do not choose distraction and pretend all is well.  Instead, hide in a healthy way – running into the fortress that is our God.  That is, our God, the God of angel armies, the God who has chosen to be with us.

For several generations, some of us have lived with relative stability.  Yes, our cultures have shifted and changed.  And yes, we have seen our military forces participate in conflict.  But seismic shifts that rock our world have not been so familiar to many of us.  The past few years have changed that.  If the world can change so suddenly, then maybe we would do well to be ready for significant events.  Actually, if we are involved in church leadership, we should be both preparing our people for the future and preparing ourselves for major moments that will surely come.
Recently, my wife and I enjoyed another anniversary and took some time together in Psalm 46.  This is a great passage to soak in for your own benefit.  And it is a great passage to be ready to share with others both before and when the need arises.  It is a Psalm of healthy hiding.
When the constant stream of news is suddenly shattered by something genuinely significant, where can we go?  When the normal rhythm of daily tasks grinds to a halt because something huge is happening, how can we find safety?  And when we look beyond the normal news narrative and see such significant and terrible agendas at play, who can be trusted?  Psalm 46 points us to the answer.
Psalm 46 falls neatly into three stanzas, neatly demarcated by a Selah to give us the opportunity to contemplate.  The first stanza establishes a key thought that is then picked up in a refrain at the end of stanzas two and three.  It is a clear Psalm, easy to read, and probably well worth committing to memory!
Stanza 1 serves to establish a truth that will weave through the whole Psalm.  Our refuge and strength is God himself, and our God is always accessible to us.  The result is that we will not fear.  Four situations are described to underline how secure we are in our God.  Even an earthquake, even mountains being relocated, even raging seas, even the normal secure boundaries of creation trembling – even if the whole created order should revert to utter chaos, we will not fear.  The character of God is more trustworthy than the apparently permanent mountains and boundaries of the seas?  Yes.  Selah.
Despite appearances in the first three verses, I do not think the writer is really focused on natural disasters.  He seems to be using them as descriptions of having your world rocked.  Even a hypothetical upheaval that impacts everything considered permanent and stable would not undermine the reality of God being our ever-present refuge and strength.
In the second stanza, from verses 4-7, the writer zeroes in on the threat of war.  He begins with two verses describing the tranquil city of God, the place where he reigns and is present.
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Dear friends, are you prepared to meet the Lord of glory? Are you prepared to leave this life today and be in the presence of Christ? How can a man be reconciled to God? Repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be reconciled to God through Him and be saved!

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him…Matthew 25:6
Shortly after I was married and before I had children, I came up with a brilliant idea to solve the logistical challenges of owning just one car and not being able to afford a second car: I would buy a motorcycle. For three months in 2009 my wife and I saved money on gas, insurance, car payments, etc. as I commuted to work, cruised around town, and all around enjoyed my ability to go from 0-60 as fast as I could twist a throttle.
One Saturday afternoon I was riding a distance behind a two cars. We were travelling about 65 mph on a country road. I was enjoying the speed and beauty of the day. I remember how peaceful and relaxing the Georgia farmland seemed, how great our God is for making such a beautiful creation. I remember thinking how fun it would be to have my wife ride the motorcycle with me and someday perhaps my children would even ride on the back.
Faster than I can remember my thoughts completely changed. The car two vehicles ahead of me abruptly slammed on its breaks and made a hard left turn. The vehicle immediately in front of me was squealing to a stop in order not to hit the first car. My motorcycle didn’t make any noise. My brakes locked as I squeezed them with everything I was worth. My last memory was that I was going to crash a motorcycle at 65 mph. No further thoughts came to my mind until I woke up looking up at the sky with a dozen people looking down on me telling me not to move.
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