OzThoughts –Tuesday 4th August, 2009

OzThoughts –Tuesday 4th August, 2009

The view to the west from the front of our house is across the roofs of other houses to hills which are covered with a forest of trees. The highest of these hills is easily identified by the television tower as Mount Tamborine. Mount Tamborine is a very low mountain in the scale of world mountains but it has for many years provided an escape from the heat of the summer and given an opportunity for many people to enjoy a relatively cold but still a winter without snow. Many tourist shops and accommodation houses dot the mountain to assist people who come to enjoy the natural beauty of the rain forest and mountain streams. (http://www.tamborinemtncc.org.au/).


I am reminded when I look to the hills of the words of the Psalmist. He warns us not only to enjoy the hills but to look beyond them:

1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

3-4 He won't let you stumble,
your Guardian God won't fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel's
Guardian will never doze or sleep.

5-6 God's your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.
Psalm 121 The Message)


Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Rance looked out on the Ochills in Scotland and without doubt remembered the words of the Psalmist. He wrote a beautiful song which embraces the thoughts of the Psalmist and something of his own meditation. The Colonel said the melody line of this song follows the line of the meeting between hill and sky. He says he traced the line of the top of the mountains on a music stave (5 lines) and then endeavoured to capture a Scotish musical sound.

The mountains like so much else can point to God but we need to look beyond them for the real experience of God.

[Listen : Songsters: http://www.regalzonophone.com/audio/SPS015%20-%2002%20-%20To%20The%20Hills.mp3
or
Songstrers and Band: http://www.regalzonophone.com/audio/BAB3503%20-%2011%20-%20To%20the%20Hills.mp3
or
Band arrangement: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4880.mp3
or
Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3505.mp3 ]

To the hills I lift my eyes,
The distant hills before me;
Hills that rise to reach the skies,
And spread their glory o'er me.
Planted by omnipotent hand,
By divine appointment they stand,
To the hills I lift my eyes,
The beckoning hills before me.

Eyes may scan the dizzy height,
And human feet stand on it;
Only faith, in mystic flight,
Can see the realms beyond it.
Steeper than the mountains of time,
Higher than the loftiest climb,
O'er the hills I lift my eyes;
From thence my help is coming.

To the hills I'll turn again,
Away from earthly slumber,
There to gain the topmost plain;
May naught my way encumber.
On the highest summit I'll stand,
There to view the long-promised land;
Though my eyes look to the skies,
I lift my heart to Heaven.
Author: Ernest Rance
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 766

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