Hymns4Him

Jesus has called me to serve Him by being a patient with pancreatic cancer.  A part of me finds it hard to believe I just wrote that, but I did.  For my own sake, and hopefully for the benefit of others, I want to use one more hymn study to address this and convey the perspective that the Lord is growing in my heart as I process this new reality in my life. At the very beginning, I want folks to see my two prayer requests.  1. Pray with and for me that the Lord will guide me and my wife in the days ahead with wisdom and endurance as we learn what will be involved in the best medical steps for dealing with this cancer.  2. Pray with and for me that the Lord will bless my efforts to use this cancer to glorify Him in ways that enable others to see how different it is when a Christian is called to walk this path.

In recent days, the Lord has brought to my mind the concept of His “calling.”  A friend of mine who grew up Roman Catholic tells me how in high school and college, the nuns encouraged students to pray for a “calling” or a “vocation.” By that was meant that boys might hope to become priests and that girls might hope to become nuns.  The church taught that this is what it meant to be “called” by God to have a “vocation.”  I guess any other kind of career path would have been second class at best, or maybe even a selfish refusal to follow God’s call!

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This wonderful prayer is part of the Anglican liturgy for a service of worship at the time of the death of one of God’s saints as earthly life comes to an end. From the Book of Common Prayer:

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.  He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.

In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and merciful Savior, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not Thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Savior, Thou most worthy judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from Thee.  Amen

It has become common in the 21^st century for a funeral or memorial service for believers (and even for unbelievers) to be called a “Celebration of Life.”  There is certainly legitimacy for this, since such a service for one who has trusted in Christ for salvation could be viewed as a graduation celebration, as long as the focus is not on the person who has graduated into glory based on his or her accomplishments, as with an academic graduation ceremony.  No, the graduation is realized only because of what Jesus has accomplished on behalf of a sinner who repented and believed the gospel.

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At the center of the Christian faith is giving praise to God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is the ultimate purpose for which we were created (“to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”), and should come naturally to us as beings hard-wired for this very purpose.  As John Piper has so often said and written, it is both our duty and our delight.  When we look at something that is inherently beautiful and awe-inspiring, it is our natural instinctive response to admire it, praise it, and to call those around us to join us in that celebration of its greatness. And what could be more beautiful, more awe-inspiring, more deeply enthralling than to gaze on the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4)?

In fact, this is one of the most prominent themes given to us by God in the inspired hymn-book His Spirit has composed for us: the 150 Psalms.  They are filled with both personal and corporate calls to praise Him, and give us God-breathed words to use in doing so.  This is especially so in latter Psalms in Book Five of the Psalter.

• Psalm 95:1-3 – “Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.” 
• Psalm 100:1-4 – “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God; it is He who made us, and we are His people; His name is the LORD.” 
• Psalm 136:1-3 – “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.” 
• Psalm 138:1-3 – “I will praise You, Lord, with all my heart; before the gods I will sing Your praise. I will bow down toward Your holy temple and will praise Your name for Your unfailing love and Your faithfulness.” 
• Psalm 150:1-6 – “Praise the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the lyre and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and the flute. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Hallelujah!” 

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As our nation celebrates its 250^th anniversary on July 4, 2026, we Christians turn our minds and hearts toward biblical passages about honoring the rulers God has ordained for us (Romans 13:4 –  “he is God’s servant for your good”) and praying for the well-being of the land in which we live (Jeremiah 29:7 – “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare”).  And on patriotic occasions we are often reminded of Psalm 33:12 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Of course, no nation today can claim that the way Israel could in the Old Testament, but is there not an abiding dimension of blessing for us today when our culture (or at least the Christian “remnant” in our culture) honors the Lord?

With the challenge of the unacceptable excesses of “Christian Nationalism” (which almost all evangelical denominations have categorically rejected), we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water (so-to-speak) by being reluctant to enthusiastically celebrate a patriotic spirit at this historic semi sesquicentennial (250^th), a once in a lifetime event.  In contrast to the radical liberal “wokeists” who scream that America is a terrible nation, we should be in the front line of those who point to the biblical principles that were openly embraced by our founding fathers and the impressive list of things with which God, in His providence, has blessed us.  We do so proudly, not because of what we have done, but proud of what our God has done!  

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As we celebrate the royal majesty of the Son of God seated on His throne in heaven, how wonderful it is to celebrate at the same time the fact that this divine sovereign has also joyfully condescended to become the friend of sinners.  He said to His disciples (and to us today) in John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants ….  Instead I have called you friends.”  How amazing that the second person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus, the Son of God, identifies those of us who have been united to Him by faith as His friends!  Imagine that He were actually speaking about you by name in a public address, and said, “(insert your name here) is My friend.”

Think of how many times in His earthly ministry Jesus acted to demonstrate that He was the friend of sinners. There was the woman caught in adultery.  There was Zacchaeus the tax collector.  There was the woman at the well.  And let’s don’t forget Saul of Tarsus! The Scribes and Pharisees looked down on Jesus for this very reason.  They were disgusted that Jesus was the friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19).  But what great hope that gives us when we recognize ourselves as sinners (the first step in embracing the gospel), to realize that Jesus comes to us as a friend.  He is the one we should immediately think of when we read Proverbs 18:24 about a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  And of course, we should also recall John 15:13, where Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  And that’s exactly what He has done for us.

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While “The Star Spangled Banner” is not technically a hymn of praise to God, since it is found in many hymnals in America and sung or played on so many occasions (baseball games being among them!), it is being including here in this collection of studies.  It is the national anthem of the United States of America and will be heard across the nation on this July 4^th, 2026, as the country celebrates its 250^th anniversary, our semiquincentennial (try saying that quickly five times!).

The lyrics come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.  Key was inspired by the large U. S. flag with its 15 stars and 15 stripes, that star-spangled banner, flying triumphantly above the fort after the battle.

His poem was set to the music of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen’s club in London.  Smith’s song, “The Anacreontic Song,” with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States.  This setting, renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” soon became a popular patriotic song.  With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing, in part because the melody stretches so far into higher notes that other voices than a soprano find it challenging to reach.

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A hymnal without any hymns by Isaac Watts (1674-1748) would be a hymnal ….  Well, such a hymnal would not exist!  Known as “the father of English hymnody,” we are deeply indebted to him for the songs we bring to the Lord in worship. Look at the index of authors in any hymnal, and you will find Isaac Watts well-represented. Here are just a few: “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “I Sing the Almighty Power of God,” “Joy to the World,” “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed,” “Join All the Glorious Names,” “Come We That Love the Lord,” and even a setting of “The Beatitudes!”

Beginning with Psalms that he “re-wrote” to make Jesus and New Testament content more explicit (like “Jesus Shall Reign” – Psalm 72) to original hymns of the Savior (like “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”), we can sing all the Scriptures with depth and joy. He is one of the finest hymn  writers in the history of Christian hymnody, combining rich doctrinal substance with splendid poetic excellence.  He is recognized as one of the primary agents in the move from exclusive psalmody to “hymns of human composure,” as English hymnody came to be known.

Watts carefully chose the texts for his hymns.  They were comprehensive in scope. For example, in “Joy to the World” we sing of events that affect all of creation: the world, earth, every heart, fields and floods, etc.  Watts was totally committed to the Reformed faith and his hymns reflect this doctrinal perspective.  He always directed attention to the person and work of Jesus Christ and was not content to speak in general terms about God and mercy.

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Graduates of our military academies carry along with their memories, a life-long pride in and high regard and deep love for that institution.  Such was true of a man who became a good friend of mine why I was serving as senior chaplain at Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in SE Pennsylvania.  Sam Larsen was a proud graduate of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.  He subsequently served in the Navy, including time on river boats in Vietnam, where he was among those exposed to Agent Orange, a highly toxic and carcinogenic chemical sprayed to defoliate areas that could have been concealing enemy positions.

After the war, Sam entered Covenant Theological Seminary and was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America.  He returned to active service as a Navy chaplain, achieving his doctorate from Covenant.  When his beloved wife began to show some signs of approaching dementia, he chose to retire early and move to a retirement community where he could find the assistance that she would need in coming years.  That was where I got to know him as a friend and appreciated his fine preaching as one of the regulars in our chapel services.

We enjoyed special times together there in ministry partnership.  As I got to know him better, I learned how that Naval Academy ring on his finger meant so much to him.  He didn’t just wear it with pride, he was also deeply moved by pictures of the Academy and especially of the magnificent chapel there where he had attended worship on so many occasions.  Hearing “The Navy Hymn,” “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” always touched his heart very deeply.

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My wife and I have enjoyed a very special friendship here in our Christian Retirement Community with a lady who served for many years in East Africa as a nurse/midwife missionary with the PCA’s Mission to the World committee.  She grew up as a “cradle catholic” (from childhood) and attended college and vocational post-graduate training in Roman Catholic institutions.  She came to saving faith in Jesus (and left her Roman Catholic connections initially over the doctrine of transubstantiation) shortly before heading to the mission field, so did not have an opportunity to become well-grounded in evangelical Protestantism, let alone the Reformed faith.  The daily demands of medical duties left very little time for in-depth Bible study.

Now in retirement, she has been experiencing the excitement of discovering biblical truths that had for some many decades elided her.  In her Catholic university education, she had many courses in theology, but it had all been in classic Catholic doctrine, without a single course in Bibe content.  In fact, none of her courses even used a Bible as a text, and she did not even own a Bible.  Even after many years as a Protestant, one Catholic doctrine that had remained unexamined was that of purgatory.  As so, years after leaving the Roman Catholic Church, she still had the idea of purgatory in her mind, even thinking that it made sense to her that before people could go to heaven, they ought to spend some time in purgatory “to get cleaned up!”

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There are many images in Scripture to communicate concepts about the Lord’s goodness to us.  The Psalms are filled with references to the Lord as shepherd, refuge, fortress, lamp to our feet, the shade at our right hand, a mother hen, judge, and king. And in addition to those, in the New Testament, with the “I ams” in the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus described Himself as being like a vine, a door, the light of the world, the bread of life, as well as the Good Shepherd.

And so, it’s neither surprising nor without biblical warrant that we find hymn writers over the centuries who have provided poetic images of the Lord that enable us to have heightened appreciation of His goodness to us.  One of those is found in the hymn “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me,” written in 1870 by Presbyterian minister Edward Hopper (1818-1888), using vivid maritime imagery to portray Jesus as the guide who leads believers through life’s storms. We know of the pilot who helps steer a ship into port in the harbor, but this is the pilot who takes control of the ship still at sea as the winds and waves threaten her and her crew. This hymn was written especially for sailors in language they knew well: charts, compasses, and the absolute need for a competent pilot to guide their crafts over the tempestuous seas.

While few who sing this hymn today are literally on board ships at sea, every person, including Christians, live in a world filled with storms of many kinds, not to mention the tempests that arise in individual lives.  Those storms that threaten all of us include wars on the international stage, persecution of Christians in regions hostile to the faith, and the uncertainties of economic upheavals. On an individual level, diseases, broken relationships, the challenges that come from the aging process, and financial shrinkage are all very real.   How are we to navigate those dangers?  We need a pilot to take the helm of our lives to not only settle our anxious hearts, but also to chart a course to lead us through them to safety and calm seas.

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