Hymns for Sunday - Our God Our Help in Ages Past

A hymn that is not sung often enough, yet is one of my favorite hymns would have to be Our God Our Help in Ages Past. Written in 1719 by Isaac Watts it is a paraphrase of Psalm 90. Watts was an author who believed Christians should sing about the doctrine of their religion. He definitely did not shy away from that in this particular hymn. This is just one of his over 600 hymns.

One interesting fact about the history of this song is in 1738 Methodist John Wesley published the hymn in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns. However, before publishing Wesley altered some of the text. The most noticeable was changing the "Our" in the opening line to "O". It is said "Wesley felt that “Our” was a possessive adjective referring to the Calvinist doctrine of election. The Wesleyan all-inclusive perspective was satisfied by changing “Our” to the more ambiguous “O.” "1

Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by the flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

1 http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=7576

Hymns for Sunday - A Mighty Fortress is Our God

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is probably one of the most familiar hymns regularly sung in worship services, written around 1529 by one of the greatest reformers, Martin Luther. It also happens to be one of my favorite hymns.

I don't know the specific history of this song, but we do know it was based on Psalm 46. I love this hymn for the deep, thoughtful truth it contains.

Take a close look at the words of this hymn:

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Look now at Psalm 46:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Hymns for Sunday - Let Us Love and Sing And Wonder

Not having grown up in the church I was familiar with just a few hymns. When the Lord saved me I took on a new appreciation for hymns, the old, theologically rich hymns from the 1800's and before (yes I realize there are great hymns written in the last century and I'm not saying I'm not a fan). One hymn originally written by the great hymn writer John Newton, brought back into Christian mainstream popularity by Jars of Clay, has definitely become one of my favorite hymns.

"Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder" is a call to worship, to respond to what God has revealed about Himself, His Word, and His Works. Newton shares in this hymn great truths about what the Lord attributes and what He has done.

Let us love and sing and wonder,
Let us praise the Savior’s Name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.
He has washed us with His blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord Who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by His grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with His blood,
He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation
Threaten hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong Salvation,
Holds in view the conqueror’s crown:
He Who washed us with His blood
Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder; grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles and asks no more:
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted Him before us,
Now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou hast washed us with Your blood;
Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!”

Hark! the Name of Jesus, sounded
Loud, from golden harps above!
Lord, we blush, and are confounded,
Faint our praises, cold our love!
Wash our souls and songs with blood,
For by Thee we come to God.

Below is a video put together with the Jars of Clay version of "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder" as the background music.

Hymns for Sunday - Reformed Praise

ReformedPraise.org is a website I enjoy and is a great collection of theologically rich songs centered on the gospel of grace. The contributors to this site have updated some hymns, written new tunes to hymns, and written new songs to promote singing old and new hymns in corporate worship and provide hymns that are theologically rich and centered around the gospel.

I have a few favorite songs from the site, click the name of the song to go to the lyrics and listen to them.

The Fury of the Wind
The Lord Is King
Merciful to Me

Hymns on Sunday - Rock of Ages

Over the years the hymn Rock of Ages has become one of my favorite hymns. Honestly, I never knew much about Augustus Toplady, the author of the hymn. I definitely had no idea he and John Wesley spatted back and forth like they did. Well spat may be an understatement...

Toplady decided that Wesley and his preachers were the greatest danger to the church of Jesus Christ since, well, Satan.

I came across a great blog post from The Scriptorium highlighting the Wesley and Toplady relationship and the story behind the hymn Rock of Ages.

“Rock of Ages” is a great hymn, one of the best.

Here is the bad news: It was written out of spite, by a bitter and narrow-minded young man who couldn’t keep his personal hatred from over-flowing into his prayers and songs.

Here is the good news: God rescued the hymn from the defects of its author and his worst intentions, and Rock of Ages is every bit as good as you think it is. If you skip the rest of this blog post, remember that

Hymns on Sunday - How Sweet the Sound

Another album available for free download on noisetrade.com is a series of hymns, How Sweet the Sound, put together by Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. The church did this project a couple years ago not just for listening but for memorizing these ten hymns. This is their explanation of the project:

In 2008 and 2009, our church family spent 10 months devoted to learning great hymns of the faith. Memorizing hymns is one of the ways we can obey Scripture’s command to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” Colossians 3:16.

We did this project because we want to benefit not only from the songs written in our lifetime, but also from hymns that have served the people of God for generations and will endure long after we’re gone. They are time-tested and true. They speak to every circumstance of life and point us to the wisdom, love and power of our gracious God and Savior.

Hymns on Sunday - Red Mountain Church and Indelible Grace

This week I want to make you aware, if you are not already, of noisetrade.com This is a website that is any artist can put up and freely distribute their music online. Noisetrade.com has a variety of music genres including Christian music and hymns. To get the music you must provide a little info (email address and zip code) - your download link/code will be emailed to you, but that's it. Oh an it provides a way to share what you are downloading on facebook and twitter to share with your friends.

Anyway, now that I have plugged noisetrade, I want to commend to you a couple of albums available. The first is a group from Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL. I became familiar with them a few years ago and totally got into the music they were putting out. I bought this album a while back but now it is available in it's entirety

It is "Help my Unbelief" by Red Mountain Church

Another album that I'd like to commend to you is Arise my Soul by Indelible Grace. What is offered on noisetrade is just a sampler, but it has several great songs that I hope wet your appetite for other Indelible Grace albums. Indelible Grace have put out several cds over the last few years that take many old hymns and put them to a new tune or bring a not so familiar hymn back into light.

Hymns on Sunday - Page CXVI Hymns I & II

There are so many great hymns and I am thinking about beginning a new idea for blog posts on Sundays that will highlight hymns, share the stories behind the hymns, or put resources in your hands to hear, learn, and enjoy hymns of old and the not so old. We'll see if I stick with it, but I have some ideas to get me started.

So to kick off this blog idea I want to share with you hymns from Page CXVI. I've enjoyed listening to Page CXVI hymns put to and they have just made them available for streaming on blogs and I would like to share them to you.

From Page CXVI Hymns I



Chord charts for Hymns I can be found on the Page CXVI blog

From Page CXVI Hymns II



Chord Charts for Hymns II can also be found on the Page CXVI blog