How welcome to the saints, when pressedWith six days noise, and care, and toil,Is the returning day of rest,Which hides them from the world awhile! Now, from the throng withdrawn away,They seem to breathe a different air;Composed and softened by the day,All things another aspect wear. How happy if their lot is castWhere statedly the gospel sounds!The word is honey to their taste,Renews their strength, and heals their wounds! Though pinched with poverty at home,With sharp afflictions daily fed,It makes amends, if they can comeTo God’s own…
We are continuing to work through some psalms/hymns to listen to/sing at home in this strange season when so many of us in so many nations are social distancing, sheltering in home, facing work and school disruptions and abatement. I wrote a little article that lists around a hundred great psalms and hymns, ancient and modern. Today, I want to recommend All Creatures of Our God and King. It is a hymn translated by an Anglican rector, W. H. Draper in the early twentieth century that became very popular in hymnals in the second half of the…
Some folks have ask for some psalms/hymns to listen to/sing at home in this strange season when so many of us in so many nations are social distancing, sheltering in home, facing work and school disruptions and abatement. I wrote a little article (here: https://ligonduncan.com/hymns-for-every-congregation/ ) and listed some of the best hymns that we all should know, but I’ll try to do some posts here that may help and encourage you. By the way, you should always have a hymnal at home! Let’s start with “A Mighty…
Congratulations to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and United Reformed Churches (URCNA) and Great Commission Publications on the new Trinity Psalter Hymnal (2018). I have only had my copy for a couple of weeks or so, but I want to offer a few…
This is one of my very favorite hymns. I love its true and moving words. It is a glorious and realistic and emphatically Christian and spiritual meditation on God’s providence. This one is worth memorizing. “It was composed in 1641 with the…
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (based Psalm 103/150), 1680 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty is one of the very best hymns (thinking of the combination of text and tune) written in the last three hundred fifty years, and it is no surprise that it is…
One of the best-known and loved metrical psalms still in wide use today is this setting of Psalm 100. Metrical psalms used to be the core of what was sung in Protestant worship services (by Presbyterians, Anglicans, congregationalists and others).…