The well-deserved criticism of some contemporary Christian music should be balanced by evaluating their predecessors. Here’s an old standard with far better music than its faulty lyrics.

 

On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Refrain:
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
Oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

 

Oh, the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight!

O’er all those wide, extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.

 

No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.

When I shall reach that happy place,
I’ll be forever blest,
For I shall see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest.

 

Filled with delight my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay;
Though Jordan’s waves around me roll, 
Fearless, I’d launch away.

 

COMMENT: The hymn supposes the Promised Land  is Heaven, filled with joy, which it is not now, or ever will be.

It is the land promised to Abraham and to the Jewish nation.

 

It is presently a bitterly contested land and has been since Joshua led the descendants of those who first  refused to enter and possess the land given to them.

 

Under Joshua, Israel established a beachhead but fully possessed the land.

After Joshua passed, the various tribes failed to do the mop-up of the land portions given to them.

 

This disobedience produced their dismal record of disobedience, discipline of God, desperate prayers and deliverers sent from God. All this is recorded in Judges.

 

Israel now occupies only a tiny fraction of the Promised Land, while living under the threats of annihilation from her hostile neighbors.

 Only God’s love and eternal promise given under oath to Abraham and his people stays the hand of her murderous Enemy.

 

If the Rapture happened today, Christ would return in seven years to establish His rule over the whole earth.

He will begin with destroying His enemies.

 

On the first Palm Sunday, He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to offer Himself to Israel as their King. Traditionally, Kings coming into a city in that manner, meant they were coming in peace.

The Second Coming will be far different!

 

JUDE 14: Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 

15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

 

Only after the Prince of peace has cleansed the earth of His enemies will the true Israel take full possession of the land in peace.

 

But even then, it will not be Heaven.