Call upon the name of the Lord

Back in my early Secondary days, I remember the song 'Shout to the Lord' by Hillsong was one of the oversung anthems in church.

At some point, it was 'Here I Am to Worship'. And so when the church sang 'Here I Am to Worship' last Sunday, I was reminded of 'Shout to the Lord.'

Lo and behold, they proceeded to sing 'Shout to the Lord' right after that!


Anyway, I'm not particularly a fan of Hillsong (that is an understatement), but that day, the words from the bridge of 'Here I Am to Worship' refused to let me go:

"Call upon the name of the Lord, and be saved."

And in hearing it again and again (for that is how it is sung), I imagined hermits from the pre-Messianic days (for that is when the words were first written) hiding in caves and walking across deserts, chanting those words until they had no more breath to chant.


"And everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the LORD has said,
among the survivors
whom the LORD calls."

-- Joel 2:32 (NIV)