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.
Continue reading...
Posted June 1st, 2006
There is a great need for modern worship songs about Jesus' second coming. Most older hymnals have a section about the second coming but hymns there usually focus on the judgment Jesus will render there. But for those who belong to Christ, this coming will be a truly joyful time. Believer, Jesus is certainly coming back for you. Let that truth settle deep in your soul and move you to worship Him with your voice and your life. When you are tempted to despair, remember 1 Peter 4:12-13: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation."
Continue reading...
Posted June 1st, 2006
This powerful hymn from Isaac Watts ascribes wisdom, power, and majesty through song to the Lord our God. It looks ahead to the eternity in heaven that we will spend extolling and enjoying God in worship. In verse one we are exhorted to bring our humble praise before our King. Verse two declares that because of His love, God is preserving and will preserve us safely until we reach our final home. Then in verses three and four we look forward to the time when we will meet saints and angels around Jesus' throne and praise Him with everlasting songs. Perhaps Watts was thinking of Revelation 5:11-13: "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.' And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, 'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.'"
Continue reading...
Posted January 8th, 2005
In this song we sing about death which, unlike to the unbelieving world, is a topic of great joy! Jesus has conquered death, removing its sting (1 Cor 15:55) so that it is now our "gate to endless life." This song offers us a chance to remind ourselves of why heaven is such a place of joy and why we should set our hope there. How wonderful that heaven is where believers will "meet to part no more" and that it is the place where we can finally sing our praise to Him alone because we will be free of the idolatrous distractions of our sinful flesh. Particularly endearing is the idea of being so moved by God's loving smile that all we can do is collapse with joy at his feet. Imagine the passionate, whole body-mind-soul worship we can enjoy forever in heaven! But this song does not only stop at describing the joys of heaven and those who have gone on before us, but it confesses the struggle of our journey there. Oh how we long to be there, stripped of this "body of death" (Rom 7:24).
Continue reading...
Reformed Praise presents Martin Luther's setting of Psalm 130 in a fresh, reflective, piano-driven setting suitable for a wide range of worship music styles.
