How often do we think about what it will be like to be in glory? Jesus has promised that He has gone there to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-6), and that He will come again to take us to be with Him. This world and this life are so filled with hardship, disappointment, and misery, isn’t it a wonder that think so seldom about the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8) which lies ahead of us, and is partially ours even now in anticipation of that day?
While the Bible doesn’t give us a lot of detail about what the new heavens and earth will look like (other than the highly symbolic descriptions in apocalyptic books like Revelation) or what we will do there for unending ages into eternity (again part from those passages in Revelation), God has revealed enough to whet our appetites, as it were, and to leave us looking forward to the day when “faith shall be sight.” The God who has ordained all our days (Psalm 139:16) has not only ordained all our days in this life, but also in the life to come. And what incredibly wonderful things has He ordained for us into eternity? Shouldn’t we be thinking of those and singing of them now?
We have a substantial body of hymnody that enables us to sing of the joys that lie before us. Be sure to look at that section of your hymnal about eternal life to see some of those, and then encourage your church leaders to make you sing them more often. These classic hymns and gospel songs include “When We All Get to Heaven,” “Soon and Very Soon,” “Who Are These Like Stars Appearing,” “No Night There,” and “The Sands of Time Are Sinking.” There are also newer compositions on this theme, like “Almost Home,” “Is He Worthy,” and “I Can Only Imagine.”
One such song that has caught on very quickly and widely is “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” written in 2014 by Sandra Marie McCracken (b. 1977). It calls us to look forward to that day when “we will feast in the house of Zion,” alluding to the marriage supper of the Lamb described in Revelation 19. It is an especially encouraging song for painful times when the sorrows of this life need to be counter-balanced by the joys of the life to come. It is also frequently used as a concluding congregational hymn at the end of a service in which the Lord’s Supper has been celebrated as a musical tool to point us ahead to a greater supper yet to come.
Sandra is a singer-songwriter, a founding member of the “Indelible Grace” music group with Kevin Twit that has been writing newer tunes for older texts in way that has been highly popular especially in university student ministries. These are called “re-runed hymns.” She won the 2023 Gospel Music Association Award for Bluegrass/County/Roots Album of the Year for her album “Light in the Canyon.” She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Westminster Christian School. As a child, McCracken would harmonize in the church choir, accompany groups on the piano, sing solos in church, and write new hymns for her congregation to sing. She began her musical career shortly after graduating from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999.
Here is her own account, written in 2023, of how the Lord has worked in her life and given her the ability to write and perform for the glory of Jesus. In it she refers to the tragic shooting at Covenant Presbyterian Church when three staff and three students were killed, including nine year-old Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of the church’s senior pastor.
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and learned to love hymns in large part by witnessing my mother’s love for hymns from when I was very young. I’m the youngest of 5 siblings, and our family had (and still has) varied faith perspectives. I had a spiritual sensitivity then and sometimes sat and improvised new hymn melodies to hymns in the Trinity Hymnal at our piano, especially if I liked the poetry but found the tune to be stuffy or if I wanted to express a different emotional frame than the one written on the page.
I moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1995 and continued to explore hymn writing with my friend Kevin Twit and the Indelible Grace community, which I was part of while I was in school at Belmont University. After graduation, songwriting quickly went from a hobby to a career path, and I practice the craft of writing songs and new hymns to help me navigate the changes of life, to frame my theology around real experiences, and to try to make sense of my emotions.
Fast forward to 2013-14, while making my living as a singer-songwriter in Nashville, I had stepped in to lead worship for a season as interim worship leader for a church in Houston, Texas. This church, called Ecclesia, sang a number of my songs in their Sunday rotation, but while spending time in the community, I began writing more songs for them to sing, and again, songs that reflected or gave voice to our shared experiences.
Over that year, I was writing and studying at Lanier library and finished the lyric for “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” with hymn-style stanzas. It was a significant time of transition and upheaval in my personal life. I shared the song with my musician friend, Josh Moore and he helped finesse the chords and melody of the chorus, giving it a triumphant lift.
In a season of disorientation and grief, God gave me comfort from Isaiah 30, and a hope for the future that I could sing in my own words. This song was used to carry me forward, to believe in a future glory; the healing and restoration that is ours in Jesus Christ. It has been 10 years since that time, and I can see so much healing and restoration that has already come. Echoed in Romans 8:18, the difficult things we may experience now, even the worst things, will not compare to the glory that will be revealed to us.
The song has given me an increase of joy and confidence that God will finish the work He has begun. When I sing “We Will Feast” I am reminded that God has been faithful to me all through the changes of my life, and I have heard this echoed in stories of people in our community many times over.
We have sung this song at several funerals this past 18 months in our home church community. And notably, we sang this at Hallie’s funeral, 6 days after the shooting at Covenant School and church in March of this year. It was one of her favorite songs when we sang it at church. There was sorrow and faith when we sang together in a packed sanctuary with bullet holes in the stained glass windows. That time of worship and especially in the context of a funeral, we realize that those who have gone before us are now singing in heaven along with us. But our loved ones who are in Christ sing with a full understanding on the other side of what it means to sing with hearts restored. There is a unity in that the Psalms invite us into this practice of prophetic imagination. In the meantime, we keep on singing together as the Lord supports us, gathers us and one day bring us home.
We have the promise in Revelation 21:4 that there will be no sadness in heaven, and that the Lord Himself will wipe away every tear. Oh, how many tears we shed in this life as we suffer with painful diseases, grieve over the loss of loved ones, agonize over indwelling sin, and weep over betrayals and broken promises. But how wonderful to sing this song in the midst of those tears, knowing that the day is coming when we will no longer gather beside hospital beds, or in funeral homes, or after failed marriages, or over wayward children. The day is coming when “We Will Feast in the House of Zion.”
The chorus paints the picture of the day when we will celebrate at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Our singing now will seem feeble in comparison with the grand chorus of the saints and angels singing “Worthy is the Lamb!” Our hearts now are still affected by sin, and often overwhelmed by sadness at the miseries of this life. But the day is coming when these hearts that Jesus has purchased will be restored and made perfect, and when we will sing forever of the many “great things” He has done!
We will feast in the house of Zion; we will sing with our hearts restored.
He has done great things, we will say together, we will feast and weep no more.
Stanza 1 paints a picture of safety amid troubles drawn directly from Isaiah 43. There the Lord promises that “we will not be burned by the fire,” nor will we be “consumed by the flood.” Our experiences in this life will inevitably feel like fires and floods, whether the times of pressure from opposition or persecution directed at us by hostile forces that threaten to “burn” us, or the times of mounting hardships like rising flood waters that threaten to drown us. It is the Lord who has proven and promised that He will be faithfully willing and able to help His redeemed children so that we will be “upheld, protected, gathered up.”
We will not be burned by the fire; He is the LORD our God.
We are not consumed by the flood, upheld, protected, gathered up. (chorus)
Stanza 2 paints a picture of darkness and fear in the middle of the night, before the first hints of light appear on the eastern horizon. We’ve all known times like that, when the frightening gloominess and ominous blackness of our circumstances seem to shut out any light of hope before the eyes of our heart. These are those times when we can’t see what’s ahead of us and so don’t know what to do to get through it all, when in the pre-dawn hours, darkness seems so intense and morning seems so far off. Imagine one of those sleepless nights when all you can think about is that huge difficulty and your prayers seem to be unheard. But despite that we continue to cry out to the God who helped Jacob when he was so afraid of meeting Esau, and will also be our strength.
In the dark of the night, before the dawn, My soul, be not afraid,
For the promised morning, oh how long? Oh God of Jacob, be my strength. (chorus)
Stanza 3 paints a picture of sadness and regret when vows have been “broken and betrayed.” For some these were the marriage vows that were broken by infidelity. For others these were the vows of friendship that were broken when one we trusted turned against us. And for yet others these were the vows we made ourselves when we promised the Lord that we would not give in to that temptation any more but sadly, we did. Whatever it was, we can come back to the Lord who will always be the faithful one who will never break His promise to forgive and restore us. We can count on that “from the garden to the grave,” as He will “bind us together” however we can have drifted apart, and will “bring us shalom” however impossible real peace may seem at the moment.
Every vow we’ve broken and betrayed; You are the faithful one.
And from the garden to the grave Bind us together, bring us shalom. (chorus)
Sandra McCracken © 2015 Drink Your Tea (ASCAP)
Here is a link to Sandra singing the song at the funeral for Hallie Scruggs at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Below you can see her official video.