Race, Justice and Gospel Music - Seth PinnockSample

If My People 

If My People is a song that echoes the promise of God to his people, and reassures us that in the midst of crisis, confusion and chaos, God will always hear our prayer. 

God’s words to Solomon are a rallying cry for the believer. He tells Solomon that when locusts come to devour or the rains fail, it is a challenge for those who are God’s children to carry it in prayer to the Father. As Solomon found, his heart was often quick to seek solutions in other idols, and the Israelites’ land was ultimately torn apart into two kingdoms upon his death. This is not too dissimilar to our world today where the very real division and brokenness on our planet should bring us to our knees in prayer. 

The prophet Joel lived in a tumultuous time, when a plague of locusts destroyed the land as God had foretold to Solomon. He described the barrenness and desolation, that even “joy is withered away from the children of men.” (Joel 1:12) Amid this hunger and sadness, Joel urges that the people fast and repent. When we fast, our physical hunger can be a reminder of our deeper hunger for God and His Kingdom. When God’s people hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled. 

The song, If My People serves as a reminder that God is concerned with the condition of the earth, and is not ignorant nor unaware of what is going on in the world.

God sees the poverty and destruction in the third world countries. God also hears the protest against social inequalities and racial injustices happening in the Western world. God is aware of climate change and deforestation happening in the Amazon. God feels the hearts of those mourning - the loss of loved ones during this global pandemic. 

Yes, in the midst of all this it may seem as though God is silent and doing little to nothing, but as you listen and meditate on the scripture in If My People, be reminded that God is not only able, but willing to heal our land. Our part? We are to come humbly before Him to seek his face, and acknowledge that He alone is God.

We can be assured as believers that God always hears our prayers, irrespective of what we see in the world around us. “A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise” as He has promised in His word. Let this song and these scriptures be an invitation to do just that today.