COME WE THAT LOVE THE LORD/WE’RE MARCHING TO ZION
Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known;
Join in a song of sweet accord and thus surround the throne.
The sorrows of the mind be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less.
Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God;
But favorites of our heavenly King may speak their joys abroad.
The God that rules on high and thunders when he please,
Who rides upon the stormy sky, and manages the seas.
This awful God is ours, our Father and our Love;
He will send down his heavenly powers to carry us above.
There we shall see His face, and never, never sin!
There, from the rivers of His grace, drink endless pleasures in.
Yea, and before we rise to that immortal state,
The thoughts of such amazing bliss should constant joys create.
The men of grace have found glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground from faith and hope may grow.
The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound, and every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground to fairer worlds on high.
We’re marching to Zion! Beautiful, beautiful Zion!
We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
(Most of Isaac Watts' lyrics to this hymn are not as well-known as Robert Lowry's lines of refrain "We're Marching to Zion". Daddy and I sang them all at his hospital bedside.)
It crossed my mind “Death Wish” is the expression unregenerate minds give to weary hearts who want to “shuffle off this mortal coil.” And so is the tragic end of those who turn away from the last hope of Him Who is Life. What they do not realize is that on the other side awaits an existence of endless regret for not having seized that hope and availed escape of torment from which scripture says there will be no exit. That boggles my mind.
However, for the child of God, wanting to die and go to Heaven, this is not a “death wish”. It is an “everlasting life wish”. Because I still remember how Daddy wanted so bad to go to Heaven, to see Jesus (and Mommy!), break free of this body’s limitations and out of this darkened world into God’s perfect Home of Love, Joy, Peace, final victory, and true fellowship! That, to me, was NO “death wish.” Far from it. He really wanted to start living. That is why his screams of pain began changing to “Hallelooyah—soon!”
Incidentally, that was only at the beginning when the hospital workers were frantically trying to stop Daddy’s hemorrhage. Years later, when Daddy really died, it was peacefully, without pain. I’d just finished saying something to him, and he closed his eyes as if to rest. Then I realized he wasn’t breathing earth’s air any more. He didn’t need it. He was living elsewhere
Daddy wasn’t wishing for Death; he was singing for Life!
