(Are there some songs that never get old for you? You can listen to them over and over again, even after you've just listened to them, and you still enjoy them? When they also make you think about interesting and important stuff, you get the kinds of songs I'm talking about in this series of blog posts.)
Since I started a trend of posting some favorite songs that I've written (I'm not saying they're the best songs, just my favorites:), here's another one.
I wrote this song in 2001, when I was a church planting pastor in the "wild west" of the northern California Wine Country. I had a prayer and study office in the home of a friend who lived in the hills high above the Sonoma Valley, and I could sit on the deck and pray for the city of Sonoma (where my church was) while I enjoyed a view of it much like that in the picture on the video.
When I left the Wine Country in 2005 to move back to Pennsylvania, where I had grown up, I recorded some songs like this and "Shining Eyes" with our music minister to give as a parting gift to the congregation. I figured they had heard me preach too many times in the years I was there, and I had given them many books already, so me singing would be something new and memorable for them. Again, I'm not saying it was a good gift--just memorable, but I did hear that this song in particular was somewhat of a hit among some of the kids who heard it.
If it encourages you to pray for the area where you live, and to reach out with the gospel in whatever way you can there, it will be worth a listen. And please pray specifically for Sonoma and the laborers in God's harvest there--that town is still in desperate need of His mercy!
Lord, Have Mercy On This Town
Lord, have mercy on this town
It’s so lost, can it be found?
Though I know I’m just one man
Won’t You use me if you can
Lord, have mercy on this town
Lord, have mercy on this town
Can You loose what has it bound?
Though I know I’m filled with flaws
I’m the long arm of Your law
Lord, have mercy on this town
I watch the vultures circle high above the valley floor
The life below that bids them stay one day will be no more
Descending with a lust for blood, by justice not delayed
They’ll feast upon the dead…
‘Til the penalty is paid
Lord, have mercy on this town
Break apart its fallow ground
Though I know I’m just a fool
Won’t You use me as Your tool
Lord, have mercy on this town
Stung by the summer heat I saw of a vision of this land
Saloon and bank and farm and stagecoach covered by the sand
But then the ground was moving and the dust was swirling high
The bones became a man…
And that man became alive!
He said, “Unless you die, you can never live.
“And before you can take...
you must learn to give.”
Lord, have mercy on this town
Spread Your gracious love around
Though I’m not sure where to go
Won’t You use my hands to sow
Lord, have mercy on this town
Lord, have mercy on this town
(I watch the vultures circle high above the valley floor)
Will its wounds yet be unwound?
(The life below that bids them stay one day will be no more)
Lord, it looks like harvest time
Grow some fruit among these vines
Lord, have mercy on this town
(Stung by the summer heat I saw a vision of this land)
Judgment day it’s going down
(Saloon and bank and farm and stagecoach covered by the sand)
When I stand before Your throne
I don’t want to stand alone
Lord, have mercy on this town
(I watch the vultures circle high above the valley floor…)
Yes, when I stand before Your throne
I don’t want to stand alone
Lord, have mercy on this town
,+by+John+Singer+Sargent.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment