Today during Priesthood meeting, the person giving the lesson brought up the song Ye Elders of Israel (hymn #319). This is one of my favorite songs! I love the tune! I love the words! I love it all together! Just reading the words of the song today gave me chills. Let’s take a look at the words shall we:
Verse 1
Ye elders of Israel, come join now with me
And seek out the righteous, where’er they may be–
In desert, on mountain, on land, or on sea–
And bring them to Zion, the pure and the free.
Verse 1 kicks off the song with a bang. Seeking for the righteous. There are so many ways this verse applies to us. Missionary work. Home / visiting teaching. Teaching. Blogging. Social Media. Etc. Sharing the gospel and sharing out testimony. Seeking those that want something more from their lives then what they have. I love how it says “seek out the righteous”. We aren’t just out seeking for the wicked to repent, but taking those who are righteous and helping them become more righteous. Pure. Free. Zion. Remember, Zion are those that are free from any worldly bondage and are the pure in heart.
Verse 2
The harvest is great, and the lab’rers are few;
But if we’re united, we all things can do.
We’ll gather the wheat from the midst of the tares
And bring them from bondage, from sorrows and snares.
This reminds me of D&C 121:34: “Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen.” There are many times that we are called as laborers in the kingdom and sometimes, only few people respond. Verse 35 adds a little more insight: “Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men.” To be a Zion person, we have to be willing to leave beind the things of the week and seek for the things of a higher world. Gathering the wheat. Releasing them from “bondage, … sorrows and snares.” The only way we can help them release these though, is if we are free from them ourselves. Remember in verse 1, being in Zion we are “the pure and the free.”
Verse 3
We’ll go to the poor, like our Captain of old,
And visit the weary, the hungry, and cold;
We’ll cheer up their hearts with the news that he bore
And point them to Zion and life evermore.
This is another excellent verse and a great way to end off the song. This verse can be viewed very literal just like the rest of the song and be related to the poor without money, the hungry without food and the cold without warmth. This is for sure one of its meanings. If we look at it just a little bit deeper though, our Captain, Christ, went and worked with people like this, but He also with with those that were poor in spirit, weary in well doing, hungry for the truth, and cold in their hearts. The thing that we do for them is cheer up their hearts and point them to Zion. And why do we do this? For life evermore. Most people are seeking for the truth and the highest good. As Elders of Israel, we have the good news and we get the blessed privilege of sharing it with others.
Chorus
The last part of each of these wonderful verses is the chorus:
O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell;
We’re going to the mountains of Ephraim to dwell.
As a seeker of Zion, it is time for us to bid Babylon goodbye. Elder D. Todd Christofferson said this in his talk Come to Zion: “Recalling Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s phrase, let us once and for all establish our residence in Zion and give up the summer cottage in Babylon (see Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light [1990], 47).”
Friends. I know that it is a challenge to live in the world, but not of the world. To seek for Zion and still need to pay the bills of Babylon. Right now we may not be able to leave Babylon physically, but we sure can spiritually. We can clean ourselves from all the garbage of hate, envy, jealousy, anger, rage, hurt, sorrow, disappointment and anything else negative and become clean and pure. A vessel of the light of Christ. A person guided continually by the Spirit and one that is found doing good in all things. We can do this and leave our “summer cottage” and live in Zion.