Tag Archives: hymns

Hymns of Encouragement

17 Saturday Mar 2012

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This past weekend, I was in a class that Kevin Twit taught on the History of Hymnody. It was a weekend seminar at my seminary, covering the hymn as a genre of writing (not specifically the music thereof, though we did sing periodically in the lectures).

For the class, we’ve been reading Faith Cook’s Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns. I have been stirred, even as I’ve cried, as I’ve read about people dying well, trusting their Savior while passing on their love for Christ and the experience of joy in Him and sorrow in weakness and sin to others through their music.

In chapel an excellent new tune by Joel Littlepage to a hymn by Ora Rowan (altered by Kevin Twit) was introduced. The words were especially moving and I cried as I sang them on Friday:

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The Steadfast Love of the Lord

19 Thursday May 2011

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When you were few in number, and of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”

–1 Chronicles 16:19-22, ESV.

When the ark of the covenant was placed in the tent in Jerusalem after it had been returned from captivity in Philistia, David sang this as part of his song of praise.

How often do we find ourselves thanking God for His provision and protection of the saints of old? Of the children of Israel? David was more than a couple generations removed from Moses or even Abraham. And yet he sets his praise of God in the context of God’s acts prior to his birth! And yet, he sings of God’s faithfulness.

Something I love about the liturgy of the word at my church: we often end a Scripture reading with the statement, “This is the Word of the Lord. This is our story. Thanks be to God!” The story of the wandering Israelites, the sojourning family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the story of David dancing before the ark–this is our story. God’s provision of redemption for his specific people is the story of the Church.

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A Morning Well-Spent

18 Tuesday Jan 2011

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I spent some time with a couple of good friends this morning in the chapel at CTS.  We got started shortly after 9 and finished up at a quarter to twelve.  We rehearsed and recorded six of my original tunes and one arrangement I’d written while at my previous church.  All three of us had a great time (even though I’m a little bit hoarse from the sinus gunk that’s been going around lately).

It was an extremely encouraging way to spend a morning, indeed a privilege, to worship God with our skills and our instruments as we recorded songs which ranged from heart cries (Psalm 88) to celebrations of God’s mercy (“The Holy Ghost Must Give the Wound”) to songs about the risen Christ (“I Know that My Redeemer Lives”).

Look at the Rose

31 Friday Dec 2010

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Isaiah 11:1 says, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”  This German hymn, dating from 1560, was translated by Theodore Baker (vv1-2), Harriett Spaeth (vv3-4) and John Mattes (v5).  Taken from The Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition, 1990.  Hymn #221.

Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From the tender stem hath sprung
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As men of old have sung
It came, a floweret bright
Amid the cold of winter
When half-spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind
With Mary we behold it
The virgin mother kind
To show God’s love aright
She bore to men a Savior
When half-spent was the night.

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Break Forth!

30 Thursday Dec 2010

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“O God, You make this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light.  Grant that as we have known the mysteries of that Light on earth we may also come to the fullness of His joys in heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy  Spirit, one God, now and forever” (Collect for Christmas Midnight, from The Lutheran Service Book).

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Prophets Foretold Him

29 Wednesday Dec 2010

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Of the Father’s Love Begotten.  by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413), translated by J. M. Neale and H. W. Baker.  From Cantus Christi, pg. 246.

Of the Father’s love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be
He is Alpha and Omega
He the Source, the Ending He
Of the things that are, that have been
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore!

At His Word the worlds were framed
He commanded; it was done
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean
In their three-fold order, one
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun
Evermore and evermore!

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All Praise to Thee, Eternal God!

27 Monday Dec 2010

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A hymn by Martin Luther.  From The Lutheran Hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, Concordia Publishing, St. Louis, MO: 1941. #80.

All praise to Thee eternal God
Who, clothed in garb of flesh and blood
Dost take a manger for Thy throne
While worlds on worlds are Thine alone

Once did the skies before Thee bow
A virgin’s arms contain Thee now
While angels, who in Thee rejoice
Now listen for Thine infant voice

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A Great And Mighty Wonder

26 Sunday Dec 2010

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From the Greek of Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople and a member of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451.  Translated by Dr. J. Mason Neale, 1862.

A great and mighty wonder
The festal makes secure
The Virgin bears the Infant
With virgin-honor pure.

The Word is made incarnate
And yet remains on high
And cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.

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Hark, How the Heavens Ring!

25 Saturday Dec 2010

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A hymn I’ve selected for the first day of Christmas.

“Hark, How All The Welkin Rings!” is a hymn by Charles Wesley, first published in his Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739.  It has passed into modern usage as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”  While I understand and to varying degrees support the modernization and editing of this hymn that has gone on, I think it’s good to examine the original.  There are some notable changes, so read carefully.

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