Brothers and sisters of Indian Trail Church, this last Sunday, June 28, I slipped a song into our worship set that I think was new to a good handful of you. You might have thought, “What is our worship lead thinking! Having us sing a new song on the very first Sunday we were able to meet again? Shouldn’t he have planned familiar songs for us?” Well, great questions! The song to which I am referring is entitled, Across the Lands. It was written by Stuart Townend & Keith Getty in 2002, so not a new song (at least to me). I have been using it in worship leading . . . well, since around 2002. Here is why I chose that song this last Sunday.

When I planned the service, as I was meditating on Psalm 19, I realized that in an ultimate sense the Psalm is referring to Jesus Christ. Psalm 19 is about how God’s creation and God’s Word reveal to us the glory of God. The “glory” of God is how the perfect, sovereign and invisible God reveals his incredible and beautiful attributes to mankind in a visible way. Our God is so good to us to share his glory with us. But, as Josh Howie showed to us, the utmost expression of God’s glory is not his creation, nor is it his inscripturated Word. Jesus is the epitome of light guiding our path (John 1:4), not the sun. And Jesus is the fullest expression of God’s Word (John 1:1), who was with God in the beginning. So what is Jesus’ role as the second member of the one triune God? He reveals God to us! (John 1:18) He is the final and fullest expression of the glory of God! So all Jesus is and all He has done has this specific aim: to show us God in fullness! With that in mind, I lay the lyrics of the song, Across the Lands, before you (also I encourage you to look it up online and listen to it). And I encourage you to meditate on how Jesus, through all He is and all He has done, shows us God and therefore imparts to us light and grace and truth and salvation and eternal life.

Across the Lands by Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

verse one

You’re the Word of God the Father,
From before the world began;
Every star and every planet
Has been fashioned by Your hand.

All creation holds together
By the power of Your voice:
Let the skies declare Your glory,
Let the land and seas rejoice!

chorus

You’re the Author of creation,
You’re the Lord of every man;
And Your cry of love rings out
Across the lands.

verse two

Yet You left the gaze of angels,
Came to seek and save the lost,
And exchanged the joy of heaven
For the anguish of a cross.

With a prayer You fed the hungry,
With a word You stilled the sea.
Yet how silently You suffered
That the guilty may go free.

verse three

With a shout You rose victorious,
Wresting victory from the grave,
And ascended into heaven
Leading captives in Your wake.

Now You stand before the Father
Interceding for Your own.
From each tribe and tongue and nation
You are leading sinners home.