Too Many Gospel Songs Tell Only Half The Story

What kinds of songs would Jesus encourage us to
use in our worship services? 

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by his love o'er-shaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark, 'tis the voice of angels,
Borne in a song for me,
Over the fields of glory,
Over the Jasper sea.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe from corroding care, 
Safe from the world's temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there,
Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears!

Jesus, my heart's dear refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages,
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o'er;
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.

Refrain:
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on his gentle breast,
There by his love o'er shaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.

These words penned by the saintly (and blind) writer Fannie Crosby (and set to music by W. H. Doane) were among the many gospel songs I grew up singing in Life Songs Number Two, first published by the Mennonite Publishing House in 1938. We frequently sang these revival-themed numbers with our family at home and in our church's youth meetings as a teen, Christian music being a social activity actively encouraged in our very conservative congregation.

As a result I learned scores of such personal testimony songs by heart, and they still keep singing themselves in my head all these many years later. In so many ways I feel the richer for it, but I'm also increasingly aware of how much of the gospel message they tend to leave out, or even distort. Yet it never dawned on me, or any members of my family or church family, to question any of the theology they represented.

While the lyrics quoted above may be of great help and comfort for people going through severe trials and griefs, would they be even remotely close to those Jesus would have spoken to his followers as a group, or that he would have chosen to have them sing together?

For one, to associate the word safe with following the way of Jesus would have been seen as unbelievable, as would be any notion of being completely free from sorrows, doubts, fears, and trials, which doesn't even describe Jesus's own life experience. From the writer's perspective, Jesus does all the suffering and sacrificing for us. All we need to do, at least from this song's point of view, is to have Jesus tenderly hold on to us, while all we need only to trust him and to wait until it's all over.

But is that the whole story?

If Jesus is our Prophet, Priest and King, how would Crosby's message sound if it were applied to other characters in those roles in the Bible?

For example;
Safe in the arms of Prophets--like Moses, Miriam, Amos, Deborah, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah or John the Baptist.
Safe in the arms of Priests--like Aaron, Eli, Zachariah, Ananias or Caiaphas.
Safe in the arms of Kings--like Saul, David, Solomon, Josiah or Herod.

Of course being a part of the God movement does occasionally, and certainly ultimately, offer sweet rest for the soul, but that's not what the call to following Jesus is primarily about. Rather, it is about being recruited to continue the work of seeing God's will being to be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's the call to live like Jesus lived, and to carry on his mission, as in announcing good news to the poor, the oppressed, the blind, and the imprisoned. And to announce the coming of Jubilee, the 'year of the Lord's favor'.

That means God's people spending a lot of their time on their feet as well as on their knees, forever  engaged in being Jesus' kind of light to the world and the preserving salt of the earth.

As Richard Stearns writes in The Hole in Our Gospel,

"When our churches become spiritual spas in which we retreat from the world, our salt loses its saltiness, and we are no longer able to impact the culture. Morgan Chilulu, an African pastor of a small and humble church in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, once told me, 'A church that lives within its four walls is no church at all'.” 

Or Chilulu might have added, "A Christian who is focused primarily on his or her inner life with God, is not being Jesus' kind of Christian." 

Meanwhile, I see some of Fannie Crosby's songs, like the very first one in Life Songs #2, "God of Our Strength, Enthroned Above" and the hymn "To God Be The Glory", as great for congregational use. But many others, like "He Hideth My Soul", "Jesus is Mine", "Hold Thou My Hand", "Close to Thee" and "Hide Me, O My Savior Hide Me" may be better suited for personal use, with their predominance of me/my/mine language.

For other posts on this theme: 
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2018/08/from-anabaptist-ausbund-to.html
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-whole-armor-for-whole-army.html