The Covenant Psalter

Besides Colossians 3:14, this opening line comes from Bob Gillman's 1974 song, "Bind Us Together."¹ We hadn't heard this song, but once we read Paul Larsen's The Mission of a Covenant, we were really struck by the words. Larsen uses this line as a way of articulating "the Covenant's understanding of the Church."² For our project, we were really interested in how some of the most notable Covenant theologians spoke about the mission and tradition of our denomination. Larsen's book on the mission of the ECC was invaluable. This chapter, in particular, helped shape the lyrics of this song. 1. Bob Gillman, "Bind Us Together," in Songs of the Church: Twenty-First Century Edition, Alton H. Howard (Howard Publishers, 1990) 2. Paul A. Larsen, The Mission of a Covenant (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1985), 51.

So much of the Covenant literature surrounding worship has to do with "gathering." Specifically, as we were reading through"The Covenant Book of Worship" and the seasonal Calls to Worship, we found language around Easter and Holy Week that really struck us. The words in the book: "Almighty God, who sent Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to gather us together, may we not wander from his flock, but follow where he leads us, knowing his voice and staying near him until we are safely in your fold."³ 3. Evangelical Covenant Church, The Covenant Book of Worship, (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1981), 60.

This line is pulled directly from a hymn found (among many places) in "Sing it Again! A Handbook on the Covenant Hymnal." The hymn is called "We Gather Together." Originally a Dutch hymn, it was translated by Theodore Baker in 1894.⁴ Interestingly enough, the literal words "you forget not your own" are not found in Scripture. What's more common: the idea of us not forgetting the Lord's goodness or benefits. 4. Erickson J. Erving, Sing it Again!: A Handbook on the Covenant Hymnal (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1985), 14.

This is one of many references to John 15. Jesus' prayer in John 15 contains so much language about unity, and in a song about being mission friends, we thought conveying the unity that only comes through Christ was vital. We were in great company with this idea; near the end of "Sing... With Understanding", the hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour" is referenced as a hymn that was performed first at "the National Baptist Sunday School Association" in 1872.⁵ This hymn centered on unity through Christ being beautifully debuted to a group of Sunday School teachers really struck us and made it worth including. 5. James P. Davies, Sing... With Understanding (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1990), 91.

We used John 15:8 to help us in this line. Jesus says, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." We're united for the Father's fame. Jn 15:8 (NIV)

Isaiah 6 is a famous passage as it pertains to hymns, and it's found referenced several times in different Covenant hymnals. We loved the language of "Sanctus" that came from the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy" as referenced in "Sing it Again!"⁶ The image of God being worshiped as he sits on the throne is powerful, and if our mission in the Covenant is to draw people in towards this ultimate reality, we wanted to reflect it in this song. 6. Erving, Sing it Again!, 235.

In Chapter 18 of "According to Thy Word : A Confirmation Study of Bible History, Church History, and the Christian Faith", readers are given several verses to memorize.¹² One of them is 1 John 3:2, where John says that we are now "children of God." For the world to know us as God's own children is part of our mission (as referenced in John 15, again!) as the church. This is something adults are aware of, but the fact that this was a portion of teaching in an ECC Confirmation Handbook was another compelling reason to add this line. 12. Clifford W. Bjorklund, Harry J. Ekstam, Karl A. Olsson, and Donald C. Frisk, According to Thy Word: A Confirmation Study (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1954), 379.

This is a reference to John 14, where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit once he departs. However, this is also a reference to Milton Engebretson's 1969 address. As he continues to call the ECC a "structure" he describes the church as "a spiritual dwelling."¹³ We really wanted to keep the ECC heartbeat in this song, which is why we kept using actual Covenanters actual words. 13. Engebretson, ECC Annual Meeting Address (1969), quoted in Olsson, 154.

Near the end of The Mission of a Covenant, Larsen explains that “Christ, the Scripture, and covenanted community” are the foundations of the ECC’s mission.¹⁴ Our line was our attempt to combine those three elements. In faith, as defined by Scripture, our ECC community will reach the lost for Christ. We originally wanted to add a line that summed up the Great Commission as well, and we thought that Larsen’s words paired nicely with Jesus’ in Matthew 28:19: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 14. Larsen, The Mission of a Covenant 119.

This is pulled straight from the Lord’s Prayer. We both lean heavily into spiritual formation (Michael has a Master’s Degree from Talbot’s Institute of Spiritual Formation), so we wanted to incorporate prayer into the song, just as the Covenant has incorporated prayer in the life of the denomination. We also used this line from the Lord’s Prayer to convey the idea of the priesthood of all believers. As the ECC was forming its identity, they took a sharp turn away from the church of their homeland by emphasizing the role that all believers could have within the community. Jesus’ followers asking him how to pray is the catalyst for the Lord’s Prayer in Scripture, and Jesus later says that because he has allowed his followers to partake in his mission they are now his friends. “The church, accordingly, is made up of those who, having been born anew through the grace of God, seek to live a new life in Christ and serve as his witnesses in the world”.¹⁵ 15. Frisk, New Life in Christ, 62.