The Truth Sets You Free

They sing in joyful obedience to the prophet’s admonition to “sing and rejoice. O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord” (Zech. 2:10). Believers sing “the songs of Zion” (Ps. 137:3) because they alone are:

• “The children of promise” (Rom. 9:8; Gal. 4:28).
• “Abraham’s seed” (Gal. 3:29).
• “Heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).
• “The Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).
• “The circumcision” (Phil. 3:3).
• “The elect of God” (Col. 3:12).
• “A people of his own” (Ti. 2:14 – RSV).
• “The people of God” (Heb. 4:9).
• “A chosen generation” (1 Pet. 2:9).
• “An holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9).
• “A peculiar people” (1 Pet 2:9).
• “A royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9).
• “Kings and priests unto God” (Rev. 1:6).
• “Heirs of their kingdom” (Jas. 2:5).
• “The city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22).
• “Mount Zion” (Heb. 12:22).
• “They holy city” (Rev. 21:2).
• “The temple of God” (1 Cor. 3:16).

Believers sing because spiritual Israel blossoms and buds and fills the face of the world with fruit (Is. 27:6). They sing because in the former deserts of their lives a stream of living water has sprung forth and now they blossom as the rose (Is. 35:1-7). They sing because the Lord comforts all the waste places of Zion, turning wilderness into Edens, and deserts into gardens of the Lord (Is. 51:3). Today spiritual Israel stands as a city upon a hill, which cannot be hid (Mt. 5:14). As the body of Christ, the fullness of him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23), it is truly the only light in a world that loves darkness rather than light (Jn. 3:19).