Posted October 18th, 2007
There are a few topics about which it is hard to find an abundance of truly good quality hymns. The Lord’s Supper is one of those topics and this song is one of the true gems of hymnody that combines doctrine with delight, teaching with thankfulness. This song is rooted in the gospel of grace; that God invited us to His table, enabled us to hear His voice and respond, and now calls us to dine on the peace and pardon available to us through Jesus’ blood. The second verse calls to mind the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22. The reminder that thousands would “rather starve than come” to Christ reminds us that without God’s enabling grace we would still be stubbornly hungry as well. When we gather as a church family around the Lord’s Supper we experience a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19) May God be glorified as we remember His grace in saving us and bringing us to His table!
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Posted June 8th, 2007
Good songs (modern or historic) on the significance of baptism are hard to find. This song is about what baptism is, what it reminds us of, and what it signifies. Baptism reminds us of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (see Romans 6:1-10). This song is well-suited to sing congregationally after a public baptism. In the first verse we affirm that baptism is dear to us because it reminds us of our beloved Savior and what He did for us. In verse 2 we remember that we were and still are unworthy to be permitted into the cleansing waves of baptism, but that because of God’s mercy he beckons us to enter. In verse 3 we affirm cost of the faith that we publicly entered at our baptism and recommit that we are willing to pay it because what we were given at baptism was so much more valuable. The song concludes by using the term baptism in a different way, to refer to how we will be immersed in God’s glory when we finally go home to be with Him in Heaven.
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Posted June 8th, 2007
This song, based on the well-known text “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” is about the often-misunderstood doctrine of the sovereignty of God, specifically in the area of providence. The God of the Bible directs all things to fulfill His divine purposes, which have existed from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:11). Yet at the same time He is actively involved with His creation, guiding and shaping it in real time, using the choices of people in a mysterious way to fulfill His purposes without diminishing their responsibility. These are, for certain, some of the deep things of God, which is probably why Cowper opened the hymn as he did. This song grapples with God’s sovereignty in the midst of difficult circumstances, times when all that we see are storm clouds above us. The certainty of His sovereignty and His promise to work all things for good for believers (Romans 8:28) will drive us to rest on the promise that the storm clouds are in fact filled with mercy and will burst in a glorious rain of blessings at God’s perfect timing. The song calls us not to judge God’s ways and workings but to trust Him for His grace, to trust that behind what we see as a frowning providence His face is, in fact, smiling upon us.
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Posted September 12th, 2006
If you don't know this word, you will be blessed to learn it: omnipotent. This song rejoices at the fact that God is omnipotent or all powerful. There is nothing that the King of the universe cannot do. And because God is merciful and kind and has taken care of our sin on the cross through the sacrifice of His son, the Lord Jesus, we have reason to believe that He will make good on His promise to "work all things for good" (Romans 8:28) for believers. God's omnipotence should bring us comfort because we know that we can never be beyond His control. Each circumstance that comes our way, whether blessing or calamity, is from God (Isaiah 45:7). If you have a hard time swallowing the fact that calamity can be from God, remember that God uses calamity as a means by draw us back to Himself. As a loving Father He disciplines us for our good and to make us more like Christ (Hebrews 12). So take heart, believer, and rejoice! The Lord omnipotent is King!
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Posted September 12th, 2006
This song presents a triumphant, even defiant view of life, death, and affliction. Henry Lyte understood the function of trials in the believer's life. 2 Timothy 3:12 declares that "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," and James 1:2 encourages us to "consider it all joy when you encounter various trials." Instead of worrying when trials loom over us, we should rejoice because it is the very evidence that God is at work in us. But even though we are instructed to take joy in trials, we are still to long to be free from sin and its effects. Verse two reminds us not to seek comfort from our trials in this world but in the next – the city where we have permanent residency, heaven. It is possible to have so much confidence in our destination because of our union with Christ that we can even taunt Satan and his army. As the song says "so let Satan's army assail me full force." The amazing truth is that even Satan's plans to destroy us serve at the pleasure of the sovereign Lord of all who orchestrates every circumstance to bring us closer to glory. And the certainty of that glory is found in our union with Christ, that we have died with Him and are hidden in Him (Colossians 3).
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Posted September 12th, 2006
This song beautifully illustrates the great exchange of the cross. Because of the work Jesus did on the cross in satisfying the wrath of God on our behalf, we bring all that we have done, including the things we thought were good ("so-called righteousness"), to exchange them for the merits of the Son, Jesus. Yet the believer desires to bring even more than simply his dead works to the Lord. We desire to bring the glory we once took in our works and nail it to the cross. What can the response be to such a great exchange – our filthy works for Jesus' righteous works? The declaration that by faith we will cease the labors of our own righteousness, stop trying to earn favor with God, and rest in the work of Christ for us.
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Posted August 24th, 2006
This text is very heaven-focused. Not from the standpoint that it attempts a description of heaven, but more that it expresses the longing in each believer's heart for the day when our burdens will be lifted and we will be fully free to praise! The verses each give a different look at how heaven will be a relief to the believer - spanning the freedom from flesh to the rest we will have from trials. The final two lines leave us with a simple, but beautiful vision of the glorious transition we will experience one day. As believers, we are wise to keep our eternal destination ahead of us as a reminder that this world is not our home, and that our longing and expectation for home can bring us hope in any circumstance.
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Posted August 19th, 2006
Christ deserves praise from every creature and every aspect of creation. This popular Isaac Watts text paints beautiful pictures of the effect Christ's reign has on all He has made and their response to Him. As a church, we need to speak of the greatness of Christ in ways that spark our imagination. To sing about the "early blessings" that infants cry out to Him gives us a shifted perspective on the cry of a newborn. Watts obviously looked for ways that God is praised in the every day life he saw around him, and as worshippers of the living and omnipresent God, we are encouraged by this hymn to see and hear His praise happening all around us.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
Luke 18 records the Lord Jesus teaching on the nature of justification by telling the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector. Pharisees were the respected religious leaders of Jesus' time. They lived outwardly moral and pious lives that many of us wouldn't come close to matching. In fact, Jesus never condemned the righteousness of the Pharisees, he even told his disciples that "unless [their] righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, [they] would not enter heaven." (Matt 5:20) The problem with the Pharisees was their motive for obedience. In Luke 18 Jesus explained how the Pharisee exalted himself by focusing on his moral life. In start contrast, however, Jesus praises the tax collector (a social outcast because of moral failures, perhaps think of a prostitute today) because instead of focusing on his works, he focuses on God's mercy as he begs "God, be merciful to me." This is the biblical "sinner's prayer" and it expresses the terms that God requires people to come to him on in order to be saved. We must acknowledge that nothing we have or do can ever allow us to stand before a holy God. Only God's mercy can save us from God's justice, and these two intersect only at the cross.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
All believers should be able to identify with the heart cry of this song. Have you ever felt like your mind was spinning amidst a thousand thoughts? When you retire to your prayer closet do you find it hard to suppress the onslaught of worries that constantly barrage your mind? The long list of to dos and responsibilities you have each day? Take heart believer, that the Lord is able to conquer even your craziness and replace it with a peace that surpasses comprehension (Philippians 4:7) . God has the power to draw us away from ourselves to Himself with one sovereign word. That is the essence of true worship - turning away from our preoccupation with self.
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