A Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 1st Sabbath of August

[A musical liturgy every other Sabbath of the year has become traditional for Sinaites.  As we frequently remind our visitors,  while we have shed the doctrines of Christianity, we have not shed its hymnody — we love the music but no longer agree with the lyrics.  Hymnodists of old taught the flock what they might have been missing from the preaching by writing stanza after stanza of doctrinal statements. Music has a strange effect on the brain; seniors with dementia will forget almost everything but they can still sing lyrics to songs they learned as far back as childhood.  Music is a great teaching tool in any learning context.   So here’s a sampling of borrowed music with revised lyrics according to Sinaite creed.  If you are not familiar with the melody, reading through the lyrics work just as well, in fact it reads like poetry.     Have a good restful and enjoyable Sabbath, folks!—Admin1.]

 

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KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

 

[The God of Abraham Praise/Slightly Revised Lyrics]

1.  The God of Abraham praise,

Who reigns enthroned above; 

Ancient of everlasting days, and God of love;

Yahuwah, great I AM,

by earth and heav’n confessed,

I  bow to praise the Sacred Name, be forever blest.

 

2.  He by Himself hath sworn, I on His oath depend;

I shall on eagle’s wings upborne to heav’n ascend;

I shall behold His Face, I shall His power adore,

And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.

 

3.  The God who reigns on high,

the great archangels sing,

And “Holy, Holy, Holy” cry, “Almighty King!”

Who was and is the same,

and evermore shall be,

Yahuwah, Thou the great “I AM”,

we worship Thee.

 

4.  The whole triumphant host

give thanks to God on high;

“Hail El Shaddai, Almighty God,

they ever cry.

Hail Abraham’s God and mine, I join the heavenly race,

All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.

 

 The Saga of Three Mountains

 

[Original Music: Victory in Jesus/Revised Lyrics]

 

1. I heard an old, old story

how our great, great God of glory,

Descended on a mountain top on the desert of Sinai; 

He’s chosen all these mountains,

for some reason why, we wonder,

Aside from Sinai there are other famous sacred mounts.

CHORUS:  

O climb the highest mountain, 

so many men aspire to conquer heights

beyond the reach of common folk like me,

take courage, faint of heart,

these peaks are worth the climb,

when God calls, He enables,

so leave all results to Him!

 

2.  There is another story  about another mountain,

Where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son,

Unquestioning this Isaac, just followed his father,

He carried all the wood and asked

“but where’s the sacrifice?”

 CHORUS:  

O climb your Mount Moriah,

dear Abraham and Isaac,

The same God who appeared on Sinai,

He appeared to you,

You’ve passed the highest testing,

You’ve reached your peak, your mountain,

Moriah is forever etched in scriptural history!

 

3.  There’s yet another mountain

where an ancient priest and king,

Melchizedek of Salem in the book of Bereshith,

This ancient place called ‘Salem’ became ‘Jerusalem,

All pilgrims journey up and sing their psalms, songs of ascent.

CHORUS:  

The Temple Mount is there,

where the Glory Cloud once rested,

until it left and lingered on the Mount of Olivet,

This makes us realize,

we have our peaks to conquer,

if God is on the ‘highest mountain’,

let us start our climb!

 

 

Psalm 127  (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

 

 

B L E S S I N G S

 

[Tune:  Oh how He loves you and me/revised lyrics]

 

1.   Blessings in life come from You,

YHWH Who’s faithful and true,

wine symbolizes  the joy that we feel,

bread from Your Hand, Lord, daily provided,

thank You each day of the year.

 

2.  Joyful are we as we sing

Praises are due to our King,

Thank You for family, those dear to our hearts,

beloved husbands, wives, sons and daughters,

Friendships that last through the years.

 

[Name each of your loved ones, after which, following the Jewish tradition of sharing bread and wine, make a toast and say ‘to Life’, ‘l’chaim’, ‘mabuhay’.]

 

SHABBAT MEAL

 

TORAH STUDY

 

HAVDALAH

 

“There’s a blessing in saying the NAME”

[Original Tune: “Are You washed in the blood of the Lamb?”/Revised Lyrics]

 

[Sing the 1st melody 2X before going to CHORUS.]

1.  Have you been to Sinai where the One True God

gave His Name, His ineffable Name,

Which His chosen people dare not say out loud,

out of reverence and awe for His Name.

2.  So they called Him ‘Adonai’ and ‘Elohim’,

and devised other titles for Him,

And in time it happened that not one could say

how the Name is pronounced to this day.

CHORUS:  Yod Heh Vav Heh, Yod Heh Vav Heh,

Yah forgive, we don’t know how to say—

Yah-weh, Ya-hu-weh,Ye-ho-vah, Ya-hu-wah,

There’s a blessing in saying His Name.

 

3.  So He’s known by many other titles like—-

El Shaddai, Eluheinu, HaShem,

He’s Creator, Master of the universe,

He’s the Rock, He’s Provider, He’s God.

 

4.  How can anyone who’s never heard His Name

ever call on a God they don’t know?

Are they faulted for not knowing to this day,

when they can’t read His Name in THE BOOK?

 

CHORUS: Ya-hu-wah, Ya-hu-wah,

is it so wrong to call on His Name,

All the world will never know the One True God,

if we don’t say ‘Yahuwah’s His Name!’

 

 

Shabbat shalom!