BLESSED MEMORIES

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

2 Samuel 6:12-14  NKJV

¹² Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. 

¹³ And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. 

¹⁴ Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.

Last week I was driving to Houston alone.  I am very liable to go to sleep driving so I was singing to keep myself awake.  As many of you know my singing will keep anyone awake.  The songs I was able to remember were Jesus Loves Me, Come and Dine, and Beulah Land.

As I sang I remembered James Moore, who loved Jesus Loves Me, and Lester Roloff, who so often sang Come and Dine.  And the pages of my memory began to flap back in time to my first memories of Beulah Land.

It was in 1946, I was 10 years old and we were attending a small country Assembly of God Church.  My mother was a Christian and took us each Sunday morning and most Sunday nights.  We attended there for about two years and then returned to the nearby Southern Baptist Church at which she was a member.

This small Assemblies church was particularly blessed with musical talent, both vocal and instrumental.  There was always at least one guitar and a piano.  And it was not unusual for there to be as many as three guitars and a fiddle, along with the piano.  Often there was special music both instrumental and vocal or instrumental alone.

The man who played the fiddle was Jeff Green.  Jeff and his wife, Mrs. Green were, with their children, faithful members of this church.  They were also friends of our family who I remember with great affection.

Jeff and Mrs. Green were probably around fifty years old.  They seemed ancient to me.  Mrs. Green was a heavy woman and would not be considered attractive.  But she had a beautiful soul.  She was quiet, even shy.  She never spoke out in the church service and I never remember her singing special music.  Unless you knew her you would never notice that she was there.

Until Jeff played Beaulah Land.  In the two years we were there this happened no more than four times and maybe less than that.  It was not frequent.  Then when Jeff played Beulah Land, Mrs. Green danced.

I have seen organized “Spiritual Dance” in Sacramento, CA.  And in the same Assemblies church in 1982.  In neither instances were they vulgar or rowdy.  They really were nothing more than a Presbyterian Introit.  They are as easily forgotten as remembered.

But not Mrs.  Green’s exercise.  As I, a ten year old, observed it I knew that what I was seeing was not an attempt to gain attention or an emotional impulse.  The hair stood on the back of my neck and I knew what I was seeing was a woman at serious devotion.  There was nothing sensual or immodest, Jeff played, Mrs.  Green danced, and we sat in hushed awe.

As I recall we were as close as 20^th century people could be to David dancing before the Lord.  Now I recall with great joy as a Christian that I have this memory of this Saint, whose piety was never in question, rejoicing in God’s presence.

I can think only of three maybe four who were there with me.  To you I say sing with me –

I’m feasting on a mountain underneath a cloudless sky,

I am drinking at a fountain that never shall run dry,

I am feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply

For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

What a joy to have known Jeff and Mrs. Green and to have seen her dance

 I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky,
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry;
Oh, yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Far below the storm of doubt upon the world is beating,
Sons of men in battle long the enemy withstand;
Safe am I within the castle of God’s Word retreating;
Nothing then can reach me—’tis Beulah Land.

Let the stormy breezes blow, their cry cannot alarm me;
I am safely sheltered here, protected by God’s hand;
Here the sun is always shining, here there’s naught can harm me;
I am safe forever in Beulah Land.

Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation;
Hearing now His blessed voice, I see the way He planned;
Dwelling in the Spirit, here I learn of full salvation;
Gladly I will tarry in Beulah Land.