Lord, We Come Before Thee Now
1. Explain why we should or should not sing this song in worship to God (use Scriptures to
support your statements).
This song, when considering the whole song, is very Calvinistic in nature. It is asking
God to descend, fill hearts with grace, tune our lips to sing, grant what He has already
granted, and to help us to rejoice. God does not so infringe on our free will or our
responsibilities (John 8:30-31).
Can we ask the Lord to descend in compassion to fill our hearts with His rich grace? Did
Christ not already come to do this (John 1:14-17)? How can we sing this? We cannot!
God has already granted [allowed] all to seek and find Him and His supreme kindness
(Acts 17:24-28, I Timothy 2:4, and II Peter 3:9), but we cannot request Him to end
freewill (Deuteronomy 30:19).
What is meant by heal the sick and the captive free, especially in the context of him
descending to do such? There is the necessary inferences of a healing from sin (Acts
28:27 and I Peter 2:24). Has He not already offered freedom from sin (Galatians 5:1)?
Does this mean to heal the sick and set free prisoners as was in the age of the miraculous
(Acts 12:5-15 and Mark 1:34; cf. I Corinthians 13:8-13)? He has done these things
already!
2. Whether this whole song is scriptural or not, what can we learn from examining this song (use
Scriptures to support your statements)?
We do come before the Lord when we sing [since this is a song] to Him (Psalms 95:1-2,
Psalms 100:2, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Hebrews 2:12, and Hebrews 4:14-16).
o God does see and know all things (Ezekiel 11:5, Luke 16:15, and I John 3:20).
We should bow ourselves (Psalms 95:6 and Luke 18:13-14) humbly before His feet (II
Chronicles 34:27, Hebrews 12:29, James 4:6-10, and I Peter 5:6) rather than standing
tall as though we are somebody when addressing our Maker.
Suit could mean several things. For one, it could mean request. We should not want God
to have disdain for our requests, but if we sing a song requesting Him to do our part we
can assure that He will. Also, suit could refer to a garment of sorts. We should not want
our Lord to have disdain for our suit [garment] spiritually or even physically at that
(Matthew 22:2-13, I Timothy 2:8-10, Jude v. 23, and Revelation 3:4).
We should not want to seek the Lord in vain (Isaiah 45:18-19), which is dependent upon
our relationship being right with Him (Proverbs 15:8, Proverbs 21:27, Proverbs 28:9,
Isaiah 59:1-2, and I Peter 3:12). However, the context of this song is asking God to take
care of that rather than ourselves.
Our souls must depend on the Lord (Philippians 4:13 and Hebrews 13:5-6).
While the song wrongly asks for God’s direct intervention and such is wrong, our lips can
be tuned to sing His praise (not directly however). One definition of “tune” is “frame of
mind; general attitude”. In this sense, if we allow the Scriptures to work, God could put
us into a frame of mind to sing His praise because He saves us through His grace (Psalms
51:14-15; 63:3-5 and James 5:13; cf. Ephesians 2:5).
We should all rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 3:1; 3, Philippians 4:4, and Romans 5:12).
© 2007 This study was prepared for the midweek studies of the Sunrise Acres church of Christ in El Paso, TX by Brian A. Yeager.
© 2007 This study was prepared for the midweek studies of the Sunrise Acres church of Christ in El Paso, TX by Brian A. Yeager.