On the way home from a worship service one day, the preacher’s son complained that church music was boring.  His father challenged him, “If you think you can do better, then you write a song for us to sing.”  Young Isaac, who had a propensity for rhyme, took on the challenge, and the result so impressed his father that he taught it to the congregation, and they also loved it.  So he wrote a new song for the church every week for the next two years!  Thus began the career of Isaac Watts (1674-1748), often called “The Father of English Hymnody.”  He published hundreds of songs which influenced all English speaking churches for generations.  We still sing some of them in churches today.  Many of Watts hymns present his Puritan, Reformed theology in profound or memorable ways.

            Possibly Isaac Watts’ best known song today is “Joy to the World.”  The lyrics of the later, probably lesser-known, verses present great theological thoughts for Christmas.  Notice the Reformed themes of glory, sin and grace:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Have a glorious, Christ-filled Christmas!

         Here are some links Stephen Pegler (http://peglermusings.blogspot.com) sent me with some videos of hymns that I didn’t know.  These are powerful, amazing songs of grace.  The first is an older hymn; in the video it is sung by the Stoneleigh Band, led by Stewart Townend — co-author of my all-time favorite “In Christ Alone” and author of “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.”  This is a song as powerful as those.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_GB_N_79-Q

The words were written in 1863 by Charitie Bancroft.  I love the second verse, since we all face the temptation to despair and the “guilt within.”

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

          The second song is a newer one called “The Power of the Cross.”  In the video, it is sung by Kristyn Getty.  Her husband Keith is the other co-author of “In Christ Alone” and, I believe, is playing the piano.  This is also a song he wrote.  Their ministry is to introduce the modern church to new hymns with great theological depth.  Most of their words are amazing.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ms-gxEOtLA&feature=related

The words can be found on the Getty’s site:  http://www.gettymusic.com/hymns.aspx

          Speaking of Keith and Kristyn Getty, here is their version of “In Christ Alone.”  I love her Irish accent and the way they present the third verse.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZuIyrwSqHY&feature=related

 Happy listening!  Thanks Stephen!

“Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” (Psalm 29:1)  I wondered, when reading this passage today, what “ascribe” really means.  I knew that scribe is “to write,” “the words written,” or “the one who writes,” but I wondered what the prefix means and how ascribe compares to describe, as they appear to be opposites.  Describe adds the Latin prefix “de” which means “out of” or “derived from,” so to describe is to get words out of something.  When I describe God, I derive my words from his character.  Ascribe uses the Latin prefix “ad” which means to or toward, so I take it to mean “words or writing put towards something.”  If I ascribe something to God, I put words towards his character.  This psalm tells me to ascribe to God the glory due his name.  Thus I am commanded to put words of glory toward God.  It is parallel with the phrase “worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” (v.2)  The rest of the chapter gives an example of how to do that.  It’s worth the time to look up and read.  Examples of ascribing to God in this psalm are “The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic,” and “The voice of the LORD twists the oaks.”  Each of these expressions offers words toward God about his glory and splendor; that is true worship!

          On a related note, I found another interesting derivative of “scribe” when looking up these root words.  The perfect past participle of scribe is “scripture.”  In other words, the English word “scripture” comes from a Latin word meaning “what has been written and still stands written!”  That’s a great thought!   Greek students will recognize in this paragraph Jesus’ use of the word gegraptai when quoting to the Old Testament, the perfect participle of the verb “to write!”  In other words, the English translation of Jesus’ word gegraptai is “what has been written and still stands written!”

            We are vacationing in Knoxville this week with Cathy’s brother and family.  Since I just finished John and am on vacation, I am changing my devotional reading plan for the time off – just pondering some Psalms.  As I’ve read the Psalms numbered in the nineties, I have been impressed by four things concerning worship:  First, our worship must always be directed toward God.  Notice things like “sing to the LORD” (found in 95:1, 96:1-2, 98:1, 101:1); “It is good to make music to your name, O Most High” (92:1); and “Shout for joy to the LORD all the earth” (100:1).  In every case, the praise is directed to God.  He must always be the object and the receiver of our praise.  How often do we sing songs that please us, songs that are choreographed for “seekers,” or songs that are directed to something other than God?  We easily direct our church music everywhere but upward.

            Second, God must be praised for who he is – especially his love and faithfulness.  I have mentioned before the number of times these attributes of God appear together in Psalms, and there are some examples in these chapters.  You can look up 92:2, 94:18, and 98:3; but probably the best know verse of the list is 100:5, “The LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

            Third, the style of worship is demonstrated in these verses.  Some worship must be a jubilant, joyous, noisy type of worship.  Examples include the prescription to “sing for joy” (92:4, 95:1, 96:12, 98:8, and 100:2).  We are even told to shout in our expression of worship (95:1, 100:1).  Listen to these words of jubilance praise:  “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.  Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth” (96:11-13).  “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn – shout for joy before the LORD, the King” (98:4-6).  Sometimes it puzzles me, why those who believe a Reformed theology often have more boring worship services than those who believe the Arminian perspective.  It seems if I have some part in my salvation, there is not a lot to praise God for, but if God has done it all for me, and it is all about him, then I should be terribly excited about that!

            However, there should also be a melodious, quiet, reverent side of our worship too.  “It is good to praise the LORD  .  .  .  to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp” (92:3); “Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (95:6); and “Tremble before him all the earth” (96:9).  Noisy, upbeat praise is a good thing to draw one into the spirit of worship, but a diet of nothing but that style is shallow and can become empty emotionalism.

            Finally, worship is all about God, all about his glory.  “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name  .  .  . Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness” (96:8-9, but read 3-9); “You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods” (97:9).  Even our salvation, which we think of as for our good, is ultimately for God’s glory.  I was impressed by these words in 98:1 “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”  Did you catch that?  He has worked salvation for him?  God doesn’t need salvation, so it must be our salvation that is in view here, yet even that is for him.

One morning I was thinking about Psalm 97:7.  This psalm, which gives the words for the popular praise song “I Exalt Thee,” see verse nine, also has this interesting verse.  “All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols – worship him all you gods!”  I found that final phrase an interesting one.  Have you ever thought about that, even inanimate idols will worship God?  Everything in the universe is subject to Jesus Christ; everything is under his sovereign control.  Though we think many objects of our affections are inanimate, they also are subject to and will eventually bow down to Jesus Christ.  That means everything we worship will someday worship him.  Knowing the end of the matter, we might as well give up on those other things and worship him now!  Once again, it’s all about Jesus!

Though Thanksgiving is not technically a “Christian” holiday, we are exhorted numerous places in the Bible to give thanks.  Not giving thanks to God is one of the first steps down the slope of living out depravity (Romans 1:21-32).  It is one of the most quoted commands in the Old Testament (Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever!)  It is directly commanded in the New Testament at least 8 times, and the words thanks, thank, thankful, thanksgiving appear 69 times (144 in the entire Bible).  A verse from this week’s quiet times says it all.  Hebrews 12:28: “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Colossians 1:9-12.  “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”  I haven’t written many devotional journal entries lately.  In part this is due to busyness and in part due to having very few profound thoughts in my devotions and study.  However, I have had some great prayer times, as I’ve used Paul’s prayers for the churches as patterns to follow in my own prayers for others.  Praying the Bible – God’s own words back to him – is a great devotional tool for many who, like me, are not prayer warriors.  I especially like the Psalms for this exercise – like my prayer for the election winners.  But this week, I used this Colossians prayer for my family and our church staff.  One might notice, in it, the theme of our ministry to others coming from God’s ministry to us.  (Their “bearing fruit in every good work” is a result of God’s filling his people with “knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding.”)  That is the same theme I’ve emphasized with our staff and in these pages in recent weeks.  I also noticed that this prayer is a God-centered prayer.  It recognizes that life is all about God and makes no greedy self-centered requests.  It’s a great prayer.  Try using it as a prayer guide for your friends, family and church leaders.

Some miscellaneous thoughts and prayers from yesterday’s devotions in the latter chapters of Romans:

9:25-26  “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one.”  I can praise God because, even though I am separated from the promises of God by birth, and even though I am separated from the righteousness of God by sin, I can still be called one of God’s children by grace.  “So then, the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.  As it is written,  .  .  .  ‘Rejoice you Gentiles with his people.’  And again, ‘Praise the Lord all you Gentiles; let all the peoples of the earth extol him.’” (15:9-11)

13:1  “There is no authority except that which God has established.”  With the election tomorrow, and the poles not looking very good for Christian values, we look to God to direct minds and hearts to sway this election as he desires.  At the same time, I know that he has used evil regimes and rulers in his kingdom work as well as good ones, so I assume whatever happens, God will use it to advance the eternal things of his kingdom.  As Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come; Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

15:13  This blessing of Paul to the Roman Christians is what I prayed today for my own life and ministry.  May the God of hope fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  God, touch other lives through my faith in you.  Just as Paul’s faith was visible to others in times of trouble and overflowed to them, may my faith be evident to those around me who do not know you.

Finally 11:33-35, another prayer I offered back to God this day:  “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”   Lord, you are beyond my knowledge, wisdom and understanding.  I could never know you, except that you, in your grace, have chosen to reveal yourself to me.  Help me grow in the knowledge and wisdom of you.  “For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen.”   God, everything that is, or ever was, is, or was, because of you; it came from you and through you, and it is to you – to your glory and praise.  Everything is about your glory.  May I know you as you desire, and may I glorify you in my life.  Amen.

“He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into springs of water.”  Psalm 107.  I have to ponder this idea every once in a while because life can be dry.  There have been very few “devotional thoughts” published on this blog in the past three weeks; I just haven’t had many thoughts worth publishing.  As a teaching pastor, I have to have a message for the congregation every Sunday, and for many that is their major input from God for the entire week.  (That is a humbling and sobering thought – maybe a matter to discuss another time.)  Fortunately, God has been gracious allowing me to be faithful to that task for many years, though I’m sure many of those massages have been very dry as well.  But for my own personal devotions, there have been many dry periods over those same years in ministry.  During the dry times devotionally, I am reminded that if God can raise the dead, and if he can make a dry land into a spring of water, then he can revitalize a dry devotional life also.  This period has been short lived, and there have been great times of fellowship through it.  My Sunday morning class on the Reformation and my sermon study in Colossians have been good, so it doesn’t feel like I’m overly thirsty.  When things are dry in your spiritual life, what do you do?  Comments on this one are welcome!

One more thought on dry times:  Not every meal you eat is a memorable meal, but you continue to eat regularly because you need it.  You won’t remember every time you open the Bible, but you should do it anyway because you need it!  The cumulative effect of consistent forgettable times in the Word has a far greater impact than a few memorable ones.  Without forgettable meals, you will die.

A related miscellaneous thought:  I thought sharing a little more on my own devotional plan might be instructive to some people.  I read through the entire Bible in a year, about every other year.  I often read a translation that I’m not very familiar with, because the unfamiliarity makes me pay more attention to what I’m reading, and because I’m just interested in what’s out there.  (I have a fascination with English translations of the New Testament and have over 50 translations and partial translations in my collection!)  This year I am reading through the TNIV for that very reason (more on that later as well).   I divided all the pages in this Bible, minus Psalms, by 50, and aim to read that many pages each week (in this case 21-1/3 pages).  I also divided the pages in Psalms by 50 and am reading that many pages in Psalms as well (1-2/3).  I separated the Psalms out because I love to spend time in them, but I don’t enjoy just reading quickly through them, they deserve more devotional thought than a quick read.  Some years I do the same with the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), breaking them up to read one each quarter.  This year I am reading straight through the Gospels, and that may be part of the reason for the dry period I’m currently in.  I am reading Luke this week and next.  It can seem monotonous after reading Matthew and Mark just prior to it.

During years I don’t read through the entire Bible, I read the New Testament at least twice, and spend more time in the Psalms.  Those years require less reading and allow more ponder/study time.

POSTSCRIPT Now a word on the TNIV:  This translation was blasted by some conservatives when it first came out, because of some changes from the NIV, which the translators made.  I had heard some from both sides and found myself philosophically more in agreement with the pro-TNIV argument; I also found some charges by the anti-TNIV group to be unfounded.  For example, it was said by some that the translation waters down the masculinity of Jesus.  Jesus is always called “he” and “man” except for the passage in First Timothy where he is called “human,” and Jesus being man as human, not man as male, is clearly the intent of that passage.  Mostly I think they did a fair job with the changes.  What I haven’t liked about the TNIV is the tiresome use of “them” and “they” for singular pronouns.  I know this is the common usage today, but it still drives me nuts.  This verse in Mark was enough to convince me not to use the TNIV after this year’s reading:  “Whoever (singular) wants to be my disciple (singular) must deny themselves (plural) and take up their (plural) cross (singular) and follow me.  For whoever (singular) wants to save their (plural) life (singular) will lose it, but whoever (singular) loses their (plural) life (singular) for me and for the gospel will save it.  Wow!  That seems like a lot of unnecessary verbal gymnastics to avoid using “he” and “his” as generic pronouns.

         The last few mornings I’ve noticed the amount of joyous celebration, sometimes loud noisy celebration, in Ezra and Nehemiah.  When, after years of exile, the new temple foundation was laid, the people celebrated with trumpets, cymbals and shouts of joy (Ezra 3:10f).  When the temple was completed, after many delays, the people again celebrated with joy.  In this account the word joy is repeated three times (Ezra 6:16ff).  When the people came together and Ezra read the Law of God, they celebrated with choice food and great joy.  It is in this context that we read those great words of Nehemiah, “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10ff).  When the new wall was completed around the city, they again celebrated with two choirs, cymbals, trumpets, harps and other instruments.  In this last celebration, Ezra led the procession of one choir, and the “sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away” (Nehemiah 12:43).

            I am amused that Ezra, a teacher of the Law, usually thought of as the quiet theological-thinker type, would be involved in so much praise.  In my stereotypical thinking, the studious theological types are not the loud praising-God types.  In my own Christian experience, the churches that tend toward the theological, especially those of us from the Reformed perspective, have the least and quietest praise.  But it shouldn’t be this way.  If we really believed what we say we believe about God, sin and grace, we would be praising God the loudest.  It’s ironic to me that those who seem to praise God the loudest are those who believe they somehow have a part in their salvation!  Certainly Ezra was an “all-about-God” kind of theologian.  For example, he constantly reminds his readers that the good hand of God was on him in all that was accomplished (e.g. Ezra 7:27-28).  Yet for that very reason he leads out in praise – a good lesson for Reformed theologians like me.

As a side note, many believe Ezra wrote 2 Chronicles, and loud praise is recorded throughout that book also.  One instance is found in 2 Chronicles 30.