ORSBORNAGAIN (14)
A devotional series by Major Rob Birks
ORSBORNAGAIN is meant to introduce the poetry of the first Poet General, Albert Orsborn (1886-1967) to a new audience and to reintroduce his works to dyed-in-the-(tropical)-wool Salvationists.
These are not new songs.
However, the lyrics are jam-packed with new life, which may be missed during corporate worship. Re-examined through scripture and experience, Rob Birks intends through an examination of these scared songs to renew the spiritual fervor of believers, and point seekers to their Savior.
Have we not known it, have we not heard it?
Power unto God belongs.
Yet do we daily find in his mercy
Themes for the sweetest songs;
Healing the wounded, raising the fallen,
Making the blind to see,
Saying to all who seek his face
These precious words of redeeming grace:
No more! No more! He remembers sins no more,
They are pardoned forever, And he will never
Bring them up against me any more.
I will hear no more
Of the evil days of yore;
I’m a pardoned offender,
And God will remember them no more.
Joy-bursts of singing gaily are springing
With every day that starts;
If we were silent then would the stones cry
Shame on our fainting hearts.
O banish sadness, sing now for gladness
Glory in Christ, the Lord!
Who is a God like unto thee,
One who can pardon iniquity?
Safe in the dark day; safe in the bright day;
Safe till my latest breath;
There is endurance in this assurance,
Stronger than fear of death.
When the accuser comes to the judgment,
Seeking my soul to claim,
I have a token in the blood.
I have the word of a pardoning God.
Albert Orsborn
460 Our Response to God – Salvation, Forgiveness
Do you have any idea where the sea of forgetfulness is? Me neither. I did, however, think it could be found in the Bible. Nope. Haven’t we always heard that God throws our forgiven sins into the sea of forgetfulness? Well, as it turns out, he doesn’t. No worries, though. He does forgive us. He does forget our forgiven sins. There is a sea involved. And God does have a serious arm when it comes to distance throwing. There are several verses in the Bible that tell the comforting truth about God choosing to forget our forgiven failures. Here are a few: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34b); “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Is 43:25). Here’s where the sea comes in: You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).
I don’t know if Orsborn was partial to one of these verses over another, or whether or not he was meditating on one or more of them before writing this great freedom song. I don’t need to know. I’m just glad he wrote it. And I’m doubly glad for the truth of it!
This is a song that should be sung loud and often – both corporately, in large crowds, and individually, in great humility and thankfulness.
In November 2006, the corps we served in Seattle held a worship and justice weekend. We invited special guest speakers, including Danielle Strickland from Canada, and guest worship leaders, including Eric Himes and The Singing Company worship team he leads. It was a meaningful weekend for us and for those who accepted our invitation to attend. We learned about worship and we worshipped. We received biblical teaching on justice, and we went out and did justly in that great city. As weekend events tend to do, everything culminated at the Sunday morning holiness meeting. At one point, The Singing Company broke into a rousing rendition of “No More, No More.” By the closing chords, if there was anyone in that place unconvinced of God’s power and his willingness to forgive and forget, they must have been either hard of hearing or hard of heart. That Sunday was a little of heaven.
Hey, we all have people in our lives (well-meaning or just well, mean) who remind us of the times we fell short of the glory of God, in the “evil days of yore.” Sometimes we do that to ourselves, don’t we? Forgiving doesn’t come naturally to most of us, and forgetting is even less common. The good news of this Orsborn classic (and, by the way, of the gospel of Jesus Christ) is that the same God who is faithful and just to forgive our sins (I John 1:9) is also faithful and just to forget our sins. Those of us who “have a token in the blood” also “have the word of a pardoning God.” Thank God! From one “pardoned offender” to another, let’s get better at forgiving sins and forgetting forgiven sins. When we do, we’re becoming more Christ-like and less accuser-like.
Which reminds me, even though there is no sea of forgetfulness mentioned in Scripture, there is a lake of burning sulfur mentioned in Revelation 20:10. That’s where the accuser will ultimately be thrown.
Power unto God belongs!