A song about and for the church!

Tim Challies reminds us:

Songs are a powerful means of teaching. The melodies, rhythms, and rhymes that characterize songs make the words easier to remember. The best and most effective songs combine lyrics and music to cultivate feelings that complement the meaning.

All throughout history God’s people have used songs to teach. We can see this as early as Exodus 15 where Moses records the song Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea. It taught everyone who heard and sang it about God’s character in that great act of delivering his people. In the New Testament we encounter simple but important truths in the earliest Christian hymns.

Challies goes on to share the background to a famous hymn which instructs us on the doctrine of the church. It’s a hymn that is sung worldwide and has an interesting reason for being written.  Read about The Church’s One Foundation here.

 

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Sing the power of Jesus’ name

All hail the power of Jesu’s name!
Let Angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
To crown Him Lord of All.

Let high-born Seraphs tune the lyre,
And, as they tune it, fall
Before His face who tunes their choir,
And crown Him Lord of All.

Crown Him, ye morning stars of light,
Who fix’d this floating ball;
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might,
And crown Him Lord of All.

Crown him, ye martyrs of your God,
Who from His altar call;
Extol the stem of Jesse’s rod,
And crown Him Lord of All.

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
Ye ransom’d of the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of All.

Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line,
Whom David Lord did call;
The God incarnate, man Divine;
And crown Him Lord of All.

Sinners! whose love can ne’er forget
The wormwood and the gall,
Go–spread your trophies at His feet,
And crown Him Lord of All.

Let every tribe, and every tongue,
That bound creation’s call,
Now shout in universal song,
The crowned Lord of All!

–Edward Perronet

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How many stanzas to Christ the Lord is Risen Today?

Last Sunday morning, Resurrection Sunday, we sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”  I was fascinated to find that the origin of this hymn goes back all the way to the 14th century in Latin, although the version most of us sing dates back to the 1700′s with the words penned by John and Charles Wesley.  We usually sing three or four stanzas of this rousing hymn, but there are actually eleven, count them, eleven stanzas that were penned by the Wesley brothers.  Read all 11 of them today and read more about the history of this hymn here.

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Upon a Life I Did Not Live

Worth meditating on this day:

1. Upon a life I have not lived,
Upon a death I did not die,
Another’s life; Another’s death,
I stake my whole eternity.

2. Not on the tears which I have shed,
Not on the sorrows I have known,
Another’s tears; Another’s griefs,
On these I rest, on these alone.

Chorus:
O Jesus, Son of God, I build on what Thy cross has done for me;
There both my life and death I read, my guilt, and pardon there I see.

3. Lord, I believe; O deal with me,
As one who has Thy Word believed!
I take the gift, Lord, look on me,
As one who has Thy gift received. (Chorus)

–Horatius Bonar

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A hymn history: Robert E. Lee’s favorite hymn, free download

Tim Challies reveals the identity of Robert E. Lee’s favorite hymn which was also a hymn that left one of America’s great theologians speechless as he sung it. It’s a hymn that you are likely familiar with it.  And you can even get a free download from a recently recorded singing of this hymn. Click here to learn more.

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Abide with Me: the story behind the hymn and free download

A wonderfully stirring history of this hymn “Abide with Me” and a new melody that is available as a free download for a limited time right here

 

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In Eden’s Sinless Garden

7 6. 7 6 (St. Alphege)

In Eden’s sinless garden
A man and woman stood,
Each crafted in God’s image,
And both entirely good.

The serpent entered Eden,
And entered both their hearts;
And neither did resist him,
Fell to his fiery darts.

So Adam’s abdication
Was punished by the Lord;
Eve’s insubordination
Jehovah much abhorred.

Then came the Second Adam
Into the wilderness.
Where Adam fell, he conquered,
Both to restore and bless.

He raises from the ruins
Of Eden’s shattered bliss,
And by his saving power
Does Satan’s blight dismiss.

True men, pursue with courage
Loving nobility;
True women, with true beauty,
Submissive dignity.

You sons of Adam, glory
That Jesus sets you free.
Eve’s daughters, bow before him,
Embrace your liberty.

Jeremy Walker

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“I Need Thee Every Hour”

Joe Thorn on the classic hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour”

The hymn was written in 1872 by Annie Hawks. She was a thirty-something wife and mother of three when during the course of a typical summer day God impressed her with her need and Jesus’ sufficiency. She said, “When in the midst of my daily cares at home, I was so filled with the sense of the nearness to my Mast­er that, won­der­ing how one could live with­out Him, ei­ther in joy or pain, these words, ‘I Need Thee Ev­e­ry Hour,’ flashed in­to my mind. Seating myself by the open window in the balmy air of the bright June day, I caught up my pencil and the words were soon committed to paper, almost as they are being sung now.” (via)

Years later, with the passing of her husband, Mrs. Hawks wrote, “I did not un­der­stand at first why this hymn had touched the great throb­bing heart of hu­man­i­ty. It was not un­til long af­ter, when the sha­dow fell over my way, the sha­dow of a great loss, that I un­der­stood some­thing of the com­fort­ing pow­er in the words which I had been per­mit­ted to give out to others in my hour of sweet se­ren­i­ty and peace.” (via)

The words are as follows:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

. . .

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

. . .

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

. . . .

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

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John Newton life in a hymn

In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

Alas, I knew not what I did,
But now my tears are vain;
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain.

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.”

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief and mournful joy,
My spirit is now filled;
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by him I killed.

- John Newton

HT: Trevin Wax

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Songs that soften the heart

I can identify with Kara who writes about the effect of simple worship music on her heart. Good especially as you slow down at night. Here is a summary:

Worship music turns me around, lifts my eyes up and stretches out my hands in desire for Him. It’s a bridge for me. A bridge from earth to the very feet of Jesus. It takes my eyes off myself and my small world to Christ and His kingdom.

I’ve been blessed with a rich heritage of traditional psalm-singing, i.e. psalms sung in very traditional organ/stanza style. But there are times I need just a few words of the Word to roll around the crowded spaces in my heart. Perhaps its the smallness of my mind but I crave simple lines that can saturate every part of my heart with truth. It wipes off the mental and emotion-laded board and sets Christ at the center.

I need these pausing points, these selah moments. So many in the Psalm-singing tradition oppose simple worship songs because they say little and use repetition, I’d argue that if they are based on the Word they are a tremendous gift and needful expression. There are times in the intensity of life that the soul is hard and dry and cracked. Beautiful and eloquent songs can roll by so quickly, verses full of meaning, but instead of sinking in and nourishing, the mouth moves and the mind numbly leads. Sometimes you may be so dry, so broken that your soul can only respond to the deep penetration of one line,  a simple glimpse of Jesus. It moistens the dry soil, softens the hard defenses and seeps down into painful crevices. 

Worship music softens the soul, focuses the mind, and warms affections. It prepares the heartfor delving into the word of God and receiving more spiritual food, it returns submission to resistant hearts and and focuses distracted earthly hearts on heavenly things.

Read the rest of this helpful post.

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