Today’s song from Sing Praise is “Send me, Lord”, a translation of a South African chant with additional English verses. The structure is simple, with a series of calls on the Lord Jesus to act with us in different ways: Send, Lead, Fill (and John added ‘Use’). Each then takes the same format: “Send me Jesus, Send me Jesus, Send me Jesus, Send me Lord” etc.
As I commented on another hymn on 3 June the key is that each verse starts with a verb, making this very much a call to action, or rather asking Jesus to rouse us to action. Being sent out, we need him to lead us; to serve him in this sometimes hostile world we need the filling of the Spirit, and at the same time the humility to let him use us for his purposes, rather than just assuming we are being useful in whatever we do.
At the risk of over-generalising, as with any song coming from Africa, it is best sung unaccompanied, if possible in harmony, and with enthusiasm.
Just a short note to agree with Stephen’s final comment: I added another verse “Use …”, and I thought of others beginning “Guide …”, “Point …”, … but these are basically because in the English singing culture we heighten the mood by varying the words … but in Africa they don’t have inhibitions about heightening the mood by repeating the words.
I have managed the technology of recording myself with the piano, and then later singing a harmony part along with the original and adding it as a track. But so far I haven’t ventured into unaccompanied singing (with all the risks of failing to keep the pitch) nor of doing more than about 3 tracks in total. Maybe I should push the boat out harmonically?