“The Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages.” - True Christian Religion §791
Kempton New Church

Week 2
Day 5

    Listen:

Sunday Worship
What Spiritual States do our Rituals Represent?

And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven golden lampstand One like the Son of Man. Revelation 1:12–13 This signifies the Lord as to the Word… He represented Himself as the Word because the New Church is a church from the Word, and according to the understanding of it. Apocalypse Revealed 44

Why do we sing hymns?

Sing aloud, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth;
O ye mountains, burst forth into singing aloud;
For Jehovah has comforted His people,
And will have compassion on His afflicted. (Isaiah 49:13)

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26, speaking of Jesus and His disciples)

AR 279. Verse 9. And they sung a new song, signifies acknowledgment and glorification of the Lord, that He alone is the Judge, Redeemer, and Savior, thus the God of heaven and earth…. Since the acknowledgment that the Lord alone is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, and that in no other way could He be called the Redeemer and Savior, was not in the church before, it is therefore called a “new song.”

AR 279:3. That songs were for the sake of exalting the life of love, and the joy derived from it, is evident from the following passages:

O sing to Jehovah a new song; make a joyful noise to Jehovah all the earth; resound, shout! (Ps. 98:1, 4–8)
Sing unto Jehovah a new song; let Israel rejoice in His Maker; sing psalms to Him (Ps. 149:1–3) ….

AC 8261. Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to Jehovah.

AC 8261:2. That “to sing a song” denotes to glorify, and that thus a “song” is a glorification, is because in the Ancient Church and afterward in the Jewish Church the songs were prophetic and treated of the Lord, especially that He would come into the world, and would overthrow the diabolical crew, then raging more than ever, and would liberate the faithful from their assaults. And because the prophetic utterances of the songs contained such things in the internal sense, therefore by these is signified a glorification of the Lord, that is, a celebration of Him from gladness of heart. For gladness of heart is especially expressed by a song, because in a song gladness breaks forth as it were of itself into sound. Hence it is that Jehovah—that is, the Lord— is called in songs “Hero,” a “Man of war,” the “God of armies,” “Conqueror,” “Strength,” “Bulwark,” “Shield,” “Salvation;” and the diabolical crew that is overthrown, “the enemy” that is “smitten,” “swallowed up,” “overwhelmed,” “cast into hell.”

AC 8261:3 …Those who knew that all prophetic utterances involved things heavenly and Divine, and that these were represented in them, knew that the subject of these songs is the damnation of the unfaithful and the salvation of the faithful by the Lord, when He would come into the world. And then those who knew this, and meditated upon it, and were affected by it, had internal gladness…

The angels also who were with the men were at the same time in the glorification of the Lord. Consequently those who sang, and those who heard the songs, had heavenly gladness from the holy and blessed influx which flowed in from heaven, in which they seemed to themselves to be as it were taken up into heaven. The songs of the church among the ancients had such an effect. They would also have such an effect at this day, for the spiritual angels are especially affected by songs which are about the Lord, His kingdom, and the church.

That the songs of the church had this effect was partly because by them gladness of heart became active, and burst forth from within even to the utmost fibers of the body, and set them in motion with a glad and at the same time a holy tremor. Not only that, but also there is a glorification of the Lord in the heavens by means of choirs, and thus by the harmonious music of many…. From this it is that the glorifications of the Lord among the ancients who were of the church were performed by means of songs, psalms, and musical instruments of various kinds, for the ancients who were of the church had a joy that surpassed all other joys from calling to mind the Lord’s coming, and the salvation of the human race through Him.

Points to Consider
  1. In the quotation from Isaiah, what feeling is being expressed in song?
  2. Notice that Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn together at the end of the last supper.
  3. Singing and saying recitations are the two main ways the congregation can physically respond and participate during our worship service.
  4. What is new about the songs in the New Church?
  5. In the Ancient Church, “the songs were prophetic and treated of the Lord, especially that He would come into the world, and would overthrow the diabolical crew, then raging more than ever, and would liberate the faithful from their assaults.” Might we also want to thank the Lord for similar things today?
  6. The ancient people “had heavenly gladness from the holy and blessed influx which flowed in from heaven, in which they seemed to themselves to be as it were taken up into heaven,” and it could be the same for us. But what if we are “not feeling it”? What can we do? What if we feel we are not good singers? Can we still be happy thinking about the coming of the Lord to save the human race, including ourselves, and sing as well as we can?
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