About Wind of God – Singing at the Queen’s Service in 1977
I’ve always admired Queen Elizabeth 2 of the United Kingdom. Technically she was my monarch until recently and despite all of the adverse criticism in the media, I have a lot of time for her family, the ones known as the ‘Working Royals.’
This might seem a little strange but I’m not making a statement about Royalty or Republicanism: the reason that I have time for them is that they are in many ways exactly the opposite of most royal families throughout human history, including nearly all the biblical ones.
The reason I have admired Queen Elizabeth II goes back to the statement that she made on the death of her father in 1952. She pledged her life to serve others and she never stopped doing this. Even as cancer claimed her life 70 years later, she was still leaving her death bed to perform works of service. Her daughter, son and grandson have also shown a commitment to making the lives of others much better and to giving up their days and nights to do so.
Certainly, they are humans with flaws and these have been exposed in a media which felt only the need to tell a story and never the consideration of how much hurt and harm such tales would bring. But then so too were King David and King Solomon, the two greatest kings described in the Old Testament. One was a murderer and the other allowed and tolerated the worship of false Gods. When we look at most of the monarchs of history, we see the same patterns of self-centred behaviour. The taxes of the people pay for rich clothes and fine living and the poor go hungry. Our modern times when these funds pay for education, roads and social security are unique but monarchs are known for extravagance, not for a servant attitude to the common folk.
I had the fortune to sing for the Queen when I was a chorister in a cathedral choir in 1977. For years I had looked at the 2 special ‘thrones’ reserved for the Queen in the sanctuary (the fenced off area where the altar/ communion table was placed.) Interestingly though, this was not where the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, were sitting during this Sunday Service in Sydney.
The Queen, who always insisted that she would go to church whatever city she found herself in on a Sunday had also made it clear that she would be sitting in the congregation area with everyone else. And while one of her predecessors had declared that he was the Head of the Church of England, I think that the Queen had a very good understanding that Jesus was the Head of the church. As a regular bible reader, she was also quite aware of James’s statements that the rich were not to be given the best seat when the church gathered together (2:2-3) and the ‘rich should take pride in the humiliation.’ (1:10)
So, our queen and her husband sat down with the congregation and we sang to her and the congregation rather than to an isolated person at the other end of the building – and the ‘thrones’ sat empty’ because in gathering of believers, all are of the same status: sinners before God and at the same time, the redeemed of the Lord who sing with great joy before God.
This is the theme of the song, ‘Wind of God’. It exults in the Holy Spirit sweeping away all the powers of this world so that everyone shall acknowledge the only real monarch, Jesus Christ, and that ‘every knee should bow’ to Him and all will see that God has ‘placed all things in heaven and earth’ under His control. This song is, in that respect, a fervent prayer that God will bring all in our nation to voluntarily commit to Him and the same Holy Spirit will sweep people to repentance.