The campmeeting tradition dates back a couple hundred years, to a time when farmers and families would celebrate God’s goodness in the harvest and His continual provision for them. Their souls were refreshed as they gathered together as family and community to hear the preaching of evangelists who thundered God’s word of provision and invitation. They would gather under worship arbors (or ‘tabernacles’ for some) sing songs of faith that would truly refresh the soul. Over time, due to the intense depth and difference these moments made in their hearts, songs that were sung over people’s moment of surrender to Jesus and their being filled with the Holy Spirit stood out when that heard its tune or words.
I have a favorite song that sticks out for me—one that summarizes God’s call on my life and moved me to its full acceptance. The song is Trust and Obey and each time I hear it there’s a clarion call of remembrance and recommitment. But for my family, there’s a song that means a lot personally, one that when we hear it we are taken back to a person who showed us how to live and showed us what is truly important in life. My grandfather, Billy Martin, loved In My Heart There Rings A Melody. There are several reasons why the song is so wonderful, but for us it reminds us of God’s gift to us in the person of our “papa.” He’s been gone 17 years, and yet when they called it out from the pulpit the other night and we heard its sweet intro, all it took to make my cry was my grandmother turning and looking at me saying, “Papa’s song.”
Here’s my grandmother, along with the songbook turned to the blessed song that reminds of our grandfather, each time we sing it at campmeeting.
“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”—Psalm 40.3 ESV
The faith of King David was such that in the midst of the unhealthy fear his circumstances had caused, the Lord had shown up powerfully and put a song of praise in David’s heart. David would have a healthy fear, a sense of reverence, and a constant awe over the works of God, and that would sustain him. When you look at the mighty work that God has done in Jesus—how He love us so extravagantly as to give His Son so that we might be saved—you can’t help but talk about it, write about, or sing about it. Verse 2 and the chorus of the song says,
The song says it all. Sins washed away, a melody placed in the heart, and its permanence that brings a steadfast hope; now that is good news. It’s rings true, that there is a melody that rings in the heart for the Christian and that melody is Christ’s sacrificial love for you and for me. Maybe “Papa’s song” can become your song, too, as you reflect on all that Jesus has done for you. And just in case you don’t know or really understand just what Jesus has sone, simply listen for someone who sings this song or a song like it; a song with a melody of love.
—Pastor Whit