ROCK OF AGES

I awoke a few days ago with the old song “Rock of Ages” running through my mind; however, it was not exactly the version of the song that we sang in church when I was a kid. This was a little more contemporary with a definite flavor of southern gospel—it was good! I have quite an orchestra in my mind and I’m a pretty good arranger too; at least, my personal orchestra thinks so.

When we sang this song in olden times, my fondest wish was that they wouldn’t sing all five verses—but they almost always did. Here’s a link to a video of the Gaither Homecoming with The Martins, and then Vestal Goodman finishing the song. I think they borrowed my arrangement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB5Sc5vewcI&feature=related

One of the ways the Lord speaks to me is through music. When I was a boy in Canada, we sang a lot in church—and we went to church three or four times a week, so that was a lot of singing. These were real songs with real meaning….sadly, a little different from some of the “music” that has become the standard of much of the church today.

Rock of Ages was written in 1776 by an English clergyman, Augustus Montague Toplady (yes, that’s really his last name). Augustus was 36 years old when he wrote this classic hymn and I don’t think you can guess why he wrote it! Toplady, a fervent Calvinist, was in a bitter and very public dispute with John Wesley over predestination and election. Wesley was of the opposite opinion and believed that God gave men free will to choose salvation—or not. The dispute between these contemporaries went public and they sometimes used their preaching to denounce each other. Toplady wrote an article for a Christian magazine in which he supported the doctrine of election and he wrote Rock of Ages as the climactic touch to a very belligerent article.

Isn’t it fascinating that God would preserve this hymn with its timeless message? It’s even more fascinating that it would become one of the most beloved and best-known worship songs of all time, even though it was written as a part of a rather nasty argument. I am wondering if Toplady imagined the “Rock of Ages” crushing John Wesley when he wrote it?

The hymn was written in direct reference to 1 Corinthians 10:1-4:
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
There is no doubt that Paul had in mind the encounters that Moses and the Jewish people had in the desert (see Numbers 20 which contains a wonderful truth and also a chilling rebuke).

When the Israelites arrived at Kadesh in the desert, there was no water! I indentify with their expression of concern when they went to Moses and said, “Why did you bring us here? We are God’s people and we are going to die here because this is a terrible place and there is no water!” I have said the same kind of thing more than once.

When the people complained, they were expressing their lack of trust in God and how He was leading them (see Deuteronomy 1:31). The experience also became a stinging rebuke to Moses and Aaron because not only were the people distrustful, but so was Moses, and it cost him dearly.

After the people complained, God spoke to Moses and told him to “take the staff and speak to that rock in front of the people and they will see for themselves My power as the water flows out of the rock” (20:8).

Moses gathered the people together and spoke sternly to them, then he took the staff and struck the rock twice and the water gushed out (20:11). He struck the rock, he did not speak to it!

Some would say, “Okay, so who cares what he did wrong? They got the water!” God said to Moses after his impetuous act, “You did not trust me and you did not do what I said; therefore, you will not go into the Promised Land” (20:12). Moses dishonored the Lord by his disobedience and he short-circuited his own future.

When we don’t follow the Lord’s instructions as He speaks them into our lives, but we re-interpret them according to our own wishes, we dishonor Him. When we are disobedient, when we change His instructions, we are saying, “You are not a very good God! My solutions are better than Yours!” and we end up short-circuiting His blessing in our lives. In fact, God considered what Moses and Aaron did in not following His instructions as rebellion and punished them accordingly (Numbers 20:24).

Is He really my Rock of Ages or is that just a song written by a guy with a funny last name? Is He the Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever? Is He our leader, our guide, our provider, our rock of safety? Or are those just the words in a well-loved hymn?

“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).