Micah 6:8 has long served as a call to just and holy living for the Christian community: “… and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Music of the church and of popular culture has further developed that theme, using songs as a teaching tool and a rallying cry for justice in the world.
             No group has used songs to signify resistance more clearly and consistently than people of African descent in the United States. Spirituals were used in times of slavery and during the Civil Rights era to call people to resist their oppressive living conditions. The exodus experience of the Israelites provided the background for a number of spirituals that speak of escape from bondage. Most renowned as a freedom song is the spiritual “Go Down, Moses,” with its refrain of “Let my people go.” “Steal Away” is believed to have been a code song for encouraging slaves to escape to freedom. “Wade in the Water” was the signal for people to cross the river to follow the “drinking gourd” (the Big Dipper) to freedom. The Civil Rights struggle adapted these songs as well as “This Little Light of Mine,” “Free At Last,” and “We Shall Overcome.”
             The theme of resistance to injustice is embodied in music coming from countries and cultures beyond the United States. Shirley Erena Murray of New Zealand, in Global Praise I, penned “Child of Joy and Peace” (#17), which speaks to the need to pay attention to the ills of hunger and poverty. “We’ve Packed for the Journey” (#118), a traditional Vietnamese hymn, urges Christians to carry “the lot of the poor, the anguish of the earth, and the search for what’s just.”
             Songs of justice are the music of mission. The words of Isaiah (58:6-12) exhort us to cease perverting justice, to satisfy the needs of the afflicted and to rebuild ruins. We do so with the words of song.