Tuesday Hymns: “Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne”

September 8, 2020 at 5:55 PM (Church History, Gospel Worship, Hymns, Sovereignty of God)

Language is a funny thing (As Paula Moye would say, “Funny, strange; not, funny, ha-ha”) Today we use the word, “awful,” to describe things that are horribly bad. That haggis was awful. I put my fingers in my ears, and I could still hear her awful singing. The movie was so awful that we left half-way through. However, just a few hundred years ago, the word “awful” was used to describe really great things that were “awe-inspiring.” Isaac Watts’ hymn, “Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne,” uses that latter definition to cause us to look upward to God’s holiness, His sovereignty, and His creational, redemptive, and sustaining power in our lives.

Our God is not a fretful, anxious, helpless being; but the Sovereign Lord over the universe and everything in it. We owe Him our all. Apart from Him, none of us would exist. Apart from Him, all of us would still be lost in our sins. Apart from Him, we would not have a Shepherd to watch over us and care for us. Apart from Him, we could not look forward to joining with the redeemed of all the ages to “crowd [His] gates with thankful songs, high as the heavens our voices raise.”

As Watts reminds us, it is not just the fact, “Wide as the world is [His] command,” but also, “Vast as eternity [is His] love.” It is in His love and grace that we find our rest. We rest in what Jesus Christ did for us through His life, and through His death. Yes, we will gladly “bow with sacred joy” before Him and His “awful throne.”

Psalm 100 was the foundation of his hymn, and it is usually sung to Frédéric Venua’s tune, PARK STREET.

Before Jehovah’s awful throne,
Ye nations, bow with sacred joy:
Know that the Lord is God alone,
He can create, and he destroy.

His sovereign pow’r, without our aid,
Made us of dust, and formed us men;
And when like wandering sheep we strayed,
He brought us to his fold again.

We are his people, we his care,
Our souls, and all our mortal frame;
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker, to thy name?

We’ll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heavens our voices raise;
And earth, with her ten thousand tongues,
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.

Wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity thy love;
Firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.

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The Lord’s Day Interposed

August 8, 2020 at 7:49 PM (Church History, Gospel Worship)

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Willliam Wilberforce once said, “O what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through the sea! There is nothing in which I would advise you to be more strictly conscientious than in keeping the Sabbath day holy. I can truly declare that to me the Sabbath has been invaluable.” I believe that he had discovered one of the reasons why Sunday is so important to the Christian. As he put it, it is “interposed between the waves of worldly business.”

On the one hand it is a good time to gather with God’s people to look back on the last week. It is a time to confess your sins, be thankful for your successes in Christ, and to be grateful to God for all of the blessings that He has brought into your life: spiritual, physical, and emotional. It is a time for resting in the fact that Christ is your Mediator, and that He is a merciful and gracious Savior.

On the other hand it is a good time to gather with God’s people and look forward. It is a time to believe that whatever you face in the next week: blessing, trial, or temptation; you will face it in the arms of the one who promised that He would “cause all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” There is peace in knowing that nothing that can come into your life that has not first passed through the loving and omnipotent hand of God.

It is a day to remember. It is a day to keep holy. It is a day to rest in Christ.

 

 

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Tuesday Hymns: “Lord of the Sabbath, Hear Us Pray”

July 20, 2020 at 3:26 PM (Church History, Gospel Worship, Hymns)

The “Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings” website posted this description of the rather inauspicious beginning of non-conformist pastor Philip Doddridge’s life:

“It was June 26, 1702. After thirty-six hours labor, Monica Doddridge gave birth to her twentieth child. It was obviously stillborn and Monica’s hopes were dashed. Eighteen of her children had already died in infancy and she had so wished to have a brother for her only surviving child Elizabeth. The midwife picked up the pale corpse to put it out of sight of the sorrowing mother. Suddenly her heart fluttered. Had she not seen a slight movement in the breast of the tiny boy? She began to slap the infant in an effort to wake him to life, and, sure enough, soon the tiny baby gave out a large cry as if he had the lungs of a robust healthy child.”

Although Doddridge’s childhood was marred by the death of both his parents and his own poor health, his intellectual abilities were such that a benefactress offered to pay his way to go to Cambridge; but because he could not adhere to Anglican doctrine, he attended a non-conformist seminary instead. At twenty-seven he became the pastor of the Castle Hill congregational chapel in Northampton, England, where he remained for the remaining twenty-two years of his life. Besides his pastoral duties he also offered training in Hebrew, Greek, math, philosophy, Bible, and theology to over 200 men.

He was a prolific author of theological works and hymns (he wrote over 400 of the latter). Today’s Tuesday Hymn is his “Lord of the Sabbath, Hear Us Pray.” It is a hymn about the benefits of congregational worship on the Lord’s Day, while looking forward to that Eternal Sabbath were “no sighs shall mingle with the songs resounding from immortal tongues.” It is sung to the tune, Germany L. M., from William Gardiner’s “Sacred Melodies.”

Lord of the Sabbath, hear us pray,
in this your house, on this your day;
and own, as grateful sacrifice,
the songs which from your temple rise.

Now met to pray and bless your name,
whose mercies flow each day the same,
whose kind compassions never cease,
we seek instruction, pardon, peace.

Your earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
but there’s a nobler rest above;
to that our lab’ring souls aspire
with ardent hope and strong desire.

In your blest kingdom we shall be
from ev’ry mortal trouble free:
no sighs shall mingle with the songs
resounding from immortal tongues.

No rude alarms of raging foes,
no cares to break the long repose,
no midnight shade, no waning moon,
but sacred, high, eternal noon.

O long-expected day, begin,
dawn on these realms of woe and sin!
Break, morn of God, upon our eyes;
and let the world’s true Sun arise!

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The Corporate Confession of Sin

April 21, 2019 at 5:31 PM (Gospel Worship, Grace, Ordinary Means of Grace, Personal, The Church)

 

A regular part of our worship each Lord’s Day is the Corporate Confession of Sin. We join together as God’s people, confess that we are sinners, and that we would have no hope apart from God’s pardoning grace. It is always a meaningful part of our worship, but today’s confession of sin really hit home for me. Our family has been going through some challenging times lately, and it has been particularly difficult for us to rest in God’s sovereignty. Thus, when we began to confess these words today my heart was laid open before God:

“Most merciful God, we admit that we have transgressed Your law in many ways. Particularly, we have been people of little faith; worrying about what we shall eat, what we shall wear, what we shall do with tomorrow’s problems. We have not sought Your kingdom and righteousness as You have commanded. O Lord, forgive Your people! O Lord, deliver us from evil worry! O Lord, lead us to see You as our portion and our inheritance. O Lord, increase our faith, that we may rest in Your care and providence and thereby show to the world that You are our Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.”

It was so good to know that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) And, furthermore, the beautiful words of God’s assurance of pardon from Psalm 103 that we heard read, gave me great hope to face whatever the future holds:

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.”

I am so grateful for the ordinary means of grace that God has given us for our spiritual health Sunday in and Sunday out.

 

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“Be Thou My Vision”

March 17, 2019 at 2:38 PM (Gospel Worship, Hymns, The Church)

Around the turn of the 20th century an old medieval hymn (probably as early as the 6-8th centuries) was found in the bowels of the Royal Irish Academy. This was during the time of the militant Irish Home Rule Movement and the Irish took great interest in all things that were distinctly Irish; so Irish scholar, Mary Byrne, translated the manuscript into prose in the Irish Journal, Eriú. A few years later one of the founders of the Irish Text Society, Eleanor Hull, versified that translation and published it in The Poem Book of the Gael (1912). When it was paired with the Irish folk tune, SLANE, it began to pop up in English hymn books, and before long, Be Thou My Vision, was being sung in churches around the world.

No one knows who the author was, although some claim 6th century Irish poet, Dallán Forgaill, was responsible for the words. However, there is no real historical evidence to back up such a claim. What we do know is that it was written in Old Irish which could very well place it as early as the time of Forgaill. It, therefore, is another reminder to us that we have a connection to the people of God of all the ages when we sing these great old hymns.

When we sang Be Thou My Vision this morning at Reformed Presbyterian Church in Beaumont, Texas, we were singing to the same Lord of my heart as that 6th century Irish Christian. We are a part of that one body and one Spirit and share in that one hope of [our] calling in Christ Jesus. And, we can have the same confidence as the author of that hymn did that our prayer will be heard by that one Mediator between God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
thou my best thought by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

 Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;
thou my great Father, I thy true son;
thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

 Be thou my battle shield, sword for my fight;
be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r:
raise thou me heav’n-ward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

 Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always:
thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

 High King of heaven, my victory won,
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

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“Wiser than God?”–Heidelberg Catechism

April 2, 2018 at 3:28 PM (Church History, Doctrine, Gospel Worship, Law and Gospel)

goldfish

We live in a culture that has been called a “visual culture.” People my age and younger grew up watching television and it is said that everyone’s attention span is shorter than it used to be. And, now with IPhones and such, one study has shown that a goldfish has a longer attention span than a human (yeah, I know; can such a study really be trusted?). Modern churchmen have latched on to that thought and have postulated that if we are going to teach people about God, we are going to need pictures. The problem with that kind of thinking is that the second of the Ten Commandments states very clearly that “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Any image that we would make to portray God could never capture His worth and glory, and thus pictures of the Godhead must be placed in the category of idolatry.

The idea of using pictures of God to teach is not exactly a new thing. The writer of the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus, felt that it was needful to discuss it several hundred years ago. I love the way he handled the subject:

“Q. May we then not make any image at all?
A. God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Creatures may be portrayed, but God forbids us to make or have any images of them in order to worship them or to serve God through them.

Q. But may images not be tolerated in the churches as ‘books for the laity’?
A. No, for we should not be wiser than God. He wants His people to be taught not by means of dumb images but by the living preaching of His Word.”

Yesterday, as we were about to share the Lord’s Supper, our pastor said something that bears repeating. He mentioned that although we do not have “pictures” in the place where we worship God to be an aid to worship, God has declared that we, as the church, may use two images to our benefit: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Each of them is a “sensible sign” that points us to the truth of the Gospel. They are reminders that Christ took on human flesh, kept God’s Law (something that we could never do) on our behalf, died as a sacrifice for our sins, and if we rest in Him, our sins will be cleansed through His sacrifice.

I think that I will meditate upon what Ursinus said and not try to be “wiser than God.” No matter how short my attention span  is.

 

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“He is risen!”

March 31, 2018 at 9:49 AM (Gospel Worship, Grace, Hymns, The Church)

empty tomb

Easter (or Resurrection Sunday, if you prefer) is not the earth shattering holiday for Old School Presbyterians that it is for so many others. Why, you may ask? It is simply because we celebrate His resurrection fifty-two Sundays a year. Every Sunday we gather to worship Him, confess our sins, be reminded of His sacrifice, and hear His glorious Gospel preached directly from His inerrant Word. For us, contemplating the phrase, “He is risen,” is not a yearly occurrence, it is a weekly occurrence. Three hundred years ago Isaac Watts captured with pen and ink the hallowed good news of the cross/resurrection event when he wrote:

Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain:

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb
Takes all our sins away,
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see
The burdens thou didst bear,
When hanging on the cursed tree,
And knows her guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing his bleeding love.

So for the thirteenth time this year we will gather, worship, and praise our Risen Lord this coming Lord’s Day, and look forward to next Sunday when we can do it all over again!

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“La vie est dure, mais Dieu est bon”

February 24, 2018 at 10:26 PM (Gospel Worship, Grace, Personal, Uncategorized)

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In A. N. Wilson’s, “Victoria: A Life,” he describes the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait: “He looked like a man who had been battered by life—a huge, fleshy face, pitted with line and scarred with grief.” Why might he look this way? During one year, five of his seven children (all daughters), ranging from the age of two to ten years, contracted scarlet fever and died. We think today, “How horrible!” (and it was), but such an ordeal was not that uncommon during the nineteenth century. It was just another reminder that we indeed live in a fallen world.

In our present day, although we may not usually see such loss in one family (at least in the United States), we still “know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” (Romans 8:22) Our world is filled with heartache, trouble, trial, sickness, sin, and death; and, as I sit here on this rainy Saturday night pondering my own problems, I am so grateful that tomorrow (Deo Volente) I can go and gather with God’s people and be reminded of God and His grace for me.

As the old French saying goes, “La vie est dure, mais Dieu est bon” (Life is hard, but God is good). And, because of that truth, I need to be with God’s people; I need to confess my sins; I need to join my brothers and sisters in prayer; I need to sing songs of praise to God; and I need to hear God’s Law, and the Gospel of His grace preached in my hearing. And, even if my face is “pitted with line and scarred with grief,” God’s grace is sufficient for me.

 

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“Let the little children come to me…”

January 14, 2018 at 4:01 PM (Family, Gospel Worship, Personal, Uncategorized)

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Today at worship I sat in the next to the last row of our worship center, which meant that I was surrounded by young families on three sides. As a sixty-three year old my days of corralling a small child during a worship service are in my rear view mirror. Actually, they are in my wife’s rear view mirror, because as a pastor, I was always on the podium or in the pulpit during this time of struggle. She carries the battle scars of those difficult days, but I digress.

These young couples did a masterful job of working with their children. Yes, there was some noise. Yes, they had to go out with a child once (okay, maybe twice). But, they were doing something very important. They were teaching their children how very important worship is. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad don’t go to soccer games (or other places) on the Lord’s Day, but to church. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad pick up hymnals and sing songs of praise to God. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad confess their sins. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad pick up their Bibles and read along as God’s Word is read. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad put their tithe and offerings into the offering plate when it is passed. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad close their eyes and pray at the proper time (okay, maybe they peak to make sure no one escapes, but they work at it). Worship is so important that Mom and Dad are quiet and listen to the pastor open up God’s Word. Worship is so important that Mom and Dad do this Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year, and that lesson is not lost on a child no matter how small. It is a lesson that can never be learned in a children’s church or youth service. It can only be learned up close and personal by observing Mom and Dad on God’s day in God’s house.

Is it easy? No, but it is important. It is called parenting, and it is one of the most important things that we will ever do. So to all of those young families who are afraid that they are bothering the old guy with a gray beard and thinning, gray hair I say, “Thank you. Thank you for loving your children enough to accept the responsibility to teach them about the importance of gathering with God’s people and worshiping Him. And, by the way, I heard the sermon from 1 Peter about loving those around us with the overflow of God’s love, because of the foundation of God’s love, and the nature of God’s love. You didn’t bother me a bit. I heard every word.”

May the Lord bless the faithfulness of young parents!

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“There’s no business, like soul business.”

October 2, 2017 at 3:47 PM (Gospel Worship)

I have always been a fan of the Rev. Will B. Dunn and the comic strip “Kudzu.” Sadly the reason that the strip is so entertaining is because the writer has his finger on the pulse on what is called Christianity in the twenty-first century. This may be why the modern worship center looks alarmingly like a theater or a recording studio. Maybe there is “no business like soul business.” It is comfortable, it is entertaining, maybe it is even exciting; but I am not convinced that “comfortable, entertaining, and exciting” are necessarily prerequisites to Gospel worship.

In that context I think back to what I experienced yesterday when I gathered with God’s people. We sang hymns of praise that contained Biblical depth. We confessed our sins and heard the promise of forgiveness from God’s Word. The Bible was read publicly (more than just a snippet) because that is how God speaks to His people. A child was baptized and we were reminded of the grace of God that is ours through what Jesus Christ did for us through His obedient life and sacrificial death. We called out to God in prayer. We heard the Word of God proclaimed. We shared the Lord’s Supper together which again reminded us of God’s grace. Christ was pointed to as our hope again and again.

It wasn’t comfortable, but it brought comfort. It wasn’t entertaining, but it was focused on God, both who He is and what He has done. It wasn’t necessarily exciting, but it fed more than just the emotion; it fed the soul. I am grateful that God Sunday after Sunday reveals Himself to us through simple things like prayer, Word, and sacrament. Maybe it is “soul business” after all.

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