I will trust and not be afraid
Though painful at present, ‘Twill cease before long,
And then O how pleasant the conqueror’s song!
How sweet and awful is the place
6. We long to see Thy churches full
That all the chosen race
May with one voice and heart and soul
Sing Thy redeeming grace
We were once as you are
‘…It is our highest pleasure, no less than duty’s call;
To love him beyond measure, and serve him with our all.’
Amazing Grace (verse 9)
Just because I love oddities of hymn history!
Well may the accuser roar
Some days it doesn’t feel like it as we listen to the accusers roar, but there is a louder roar from one who has taken on himself our sin and shame and all the deathly consequences.
Sometimes a light surprises
I love the way Cowper uses light and shining, to speak of the Lord’s healing work in the dark storms of life. Verse 4 smacks of the reality unpacked in Habakkuk 3:17-18.
Jesus I my cross have taken
Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favour, loss is gain
But I shall be above them all
‘There comes the moaning and the sighing,
There comes the hot tear’s heavy fall,
The thousand agonies of dying—
But I shall be beyond them all.’
“"One of the finest and noblest gifts of God is music. This is very hateful to the devil, and with it we may drive off temptations and evil thoughts. After theology I give the next place and highest honour to music. It has often aroused and moved me so that I have won a desire to preach. We ought not to ordain young men to the office of preacher if they have not trained themselves and practised singing in the schools.”
— in ‘The Minstrel’ by C H Spurgeon (August 7, 1881)
“Echoing through our congregational singing is the communication the divine Author has written into this world. Melodies matter. Words matter. Our songs always say something. We have been created to use language, to reflect and meditate on His words, to remember over and over again His voice. Singing together organizes notes and words in beautiful ways to shine God’s dazzling truths into the relativistic grays of our culture.”