Page 8 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

Continued from previous page WESLEY AND ZION
Wesley's hymns and Zion
THOU, who hast in Zion laid The true foundation-stone, And with those a covenant made, Who build on that alone: Hear us, architect divine, Great builder of thy church below! Now upon thy servants shine, Who seeketh praise to show.
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Drawing upon Isaiah 28:16 and 1 Peter 2:5-6, the lyrics of this hymn, Thou who has in Zion laid, make a connection between Zion and the Church. They recognise that God’s purposes for the Church were not independent of God’s purposes for Zion. Zion is indeed at the very foundation upon which Christ our ‘cornerstone’ is fulfilling through His Church. Any attempt therefore to sever the ties between Israel and New Testament teaching is a disregard for the very foundation of our Christian faith.
Another hymn, Thou Shepherd of Israel and mine, makes an affirming statement in the title alone! The lyrics poetically draw upon the themes of Psalm 23 and other pastoral psalms. The shepherd who watches over Israel is the same shepherd that watches over me – a truth so wonderfully presented to us in Psalm 121. It reminds
us that the Lord’s faithfulness to me personally is proven in His faithfulness to Israel.
Meanwhile, the hymn Heavenly Zion points us to a heavenly destination that
is eternal. But what about ‘earthly’ Zion as the homeland for the Jewish people? Did the Wesley brothers ever address Jerusalem and the return of Jews to their ancestral
homeland?
In his Short Hymns on Select Passages
of the Holy Scriptures, published in 1762, Charles Wesley included probably the most famous Zionist hymn, Almighty God of Love, based on Isaiah 66:19, 20 (and Romans 11:26). John Wesley selected it for his A Collection of Hymns for the Use of
the People called Methodists, published in 1780. Its significance is revealed in the way Charles Wesley looks forward to a restored Israel, and how, from His re-gathered people, the gospel will be spread to all the nations.
With absolute clarity, Almighty God of Love speaks of ‘Abraham’s favoured seed’ – a reference to the Jewish people.
From Abraham’s favoured seed
Thy new apostles choose
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It speaks of Jews being ‘called home’, a recognition that the Land of Israel is the