Tag: Worship

Sermon Songs: Hebrews Overview

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

Jesus is better than angel beings
Better than Adam and Moses too
A better hope of salvation brings
Better promise and covenant new

Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

A better sacrifice once for all
By His own blood He offers mercy
Proclaims a better reward for all
A better life in God’s own country

Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

© 2022 Brian Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Singing Psalm 5 with Isaac Watts

On By BrianIn Hymns

Here is Psalm 5 paraphrased into Common Meter by Isaac Watts – along with a few adaptations. We sang it to the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past.”

Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear
My voice ascending high;
To thee will I direct my prayer,
To thee lift up mine eye….

Thou art a God, before whose sight
The wicked shall not stand;
Sinners shall ne’er be thy delight,
Nor dwell at thy right hand.

But to thy house will I resort,
To taste thy mercies there;
I will frequent thine holy court,
And worship in thy fear.

O may thy Spirit guide my feet
In ways of righteousness!
Make every path of duty straight,
And plain before my face.

My watchful enemies combine
To tempt my feet astray;
They flatter, with a base design
To make my soul their prey.

Lord, crush the serpent in the dust,
And all his plots destroy;
While those that in thy mercy trust,
For ever shout for joy.

The ones that love and fear thy name
Shall see their hopes fulfilled;
The mighty God will cover them
With favor as a shield.

Singing Psalm 3 with Isaac Watts

On By BrianIn Hymns

Here is Psalm 3 paraphrased in Common Meter by Isaac Watts. We sang this one to the tun of “We Sing the Greatness of Our God.”

My God, how many are my fears!
How fast my foes increase!
Consp’ring my eternal death,
They break my present peace.
The lying tempter would persuade
There’s no relief in heav’n;
And all my swelling sins appear
Too big to be forgiv’n.

But thou, my glory and my strength,
Shalt on the tempter tread,
Shalt silence all my threatening guilt,
And raise my drooping head.
I cried, and from his holy hill
He bowed a listening ear;
I called my Father, and my God,
And he subdued my fear.

He shed soft slumbers on mine eyes,
In spite of all my foes;
I woke, and wondered at the grace
That guarded my repose.
What though the hosts of death and hell
All armed against me stood,
Terrors no more shall shake my soul;
My refuge is my God.

Arise, O Lord, fulfil thy grace,
While I thy glory sing;
My God has broke the serpent’s teeth,
And death has lost his sting.
Salvation to the Lord belongs;
His arm alone can save:
Blessings attend thy people here,
And reach beyond the grave.

Singing Psalm 2 with Isaac Watts

On By BrianIn Hymns

Here is Psalm 2 paraphrased in Common Meter by Isaac Watts. We sang it to the tune of “We Sing the Greatness of our God.”

Why did the nations join to slay
The Lord’s anointed Son?
Why did they cast his laws away,
And tread his gospel down?
The Lord, that sits above the skies,
Derides their rage below;
He speaks with vengeance in his eyes,
And strikes their spirits through.

“I call him my Eternal Son,
And raise him from the dead;
I make my holy hill his throne,
And wide his kingdom spread.
“Ask me, my Son, and then enjoy
The utmost heathen lands:
Thy rod of iron shall destroy
The rebel that withstands.”

Be wise, ye rulers of the earth,
Obey th’ anointed Lord,
Adore the King of heav’nly birth,
And tremble at his word.
With humble love address his throne;
For if he frown, ye die:
Those are secure, and those alone,
Who on his grace rely.

Singing Psalm 1 with Isaac Watts

On By BrianIn Hymns

Our church just started a sermon series on the Book of Psalms. After the sermon, we are singing the psalm as paraphrased by Isaac Watts who added meter and rhyme. Psalm 1 was written in Common Meter, and we sang it to the tune of one of his more familiar hymns – “We Sing the Greatness of Our God.”

Blest is the man who shuns the place
Where sinners love to meet;
Who fears to tread their wicked ways,
And hates the scoffer’s seat:
But in the statutes of the Lord
Has placed his chief delight;
By day he reads or hears the word,
And meditates by night.

Green as the leaf, and ever fair,
Shall his profession shine
While fruits of holiness appear
Like clusters on the vine.
Not so the impious…unjust;
What vain designs they form!
Their hopes are blown away like dust,
Or chaff before the storm.

Sinners in judgment shall not stand
Amongst the sons of grace,
When Christ, the Judge, at his right hand
Appoints his saints a place.
His eye beholds the path they tread,
His heart approves it well
But crooked ways of sinners lead
Down to the gates of hell.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Why We Grow So Slowly – Ray Ortlund
In his Thoughts on Religious Experience, Archibald Alexander asked why we grow so slowly as Christians….

Let’s Just Be Honest and Admit We Hate One Another – Mike Leake
…hatred does four things. First, it keeps alive ill feelings towards others. It keeps stoking the flames. Secondly, it continually finds faults at the infirmities of others. Thirdly, it turns the least little slip into a big deal. And lastly, it has deep bitterness toward the most trifling or even imaginary thing—it wants to be mad.

Six Steps Out of Disappointment – David Murray (DG)
Our hopes are dashed. Our dreams are shattered. Our expectations are unfulfilled. External events and the decisions of others produce the agony of disappointment….how do we recover from it?

The Key To Making the Most Out of Congregational Singing – Tim Challies
When you know the people, you know their song. While you sing with them, you sing for them. You sing not as fifty or a hundred individuals, but as a single community. You sing to minister and you sing to be ministered to.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Cumulative Effect of Our Little Choices – Randy Alcorn (EPM)
Following Christ isn’t magic. It requires repeated actions on our part, which develop into habits and life disciplines. Our spirituality hinges on the development of these little habits, such as Bible reading and memorization and prayer. In putting one foot in front of the other day after day, we become the kind of person who grows in Christlikeness.

Your Sin Begins with a Felt Need – David Bowden (DG)
The more we put our faith in the truth of who God is for us in Christ, the more he fills in the places within us that are lacking. As he does this, the Holy Spirit creates new desires within our hearts (Romans 8:1–11). These new desires cut temptation’s legs out from under it and lead us away from sin and toward holiness.

Who Was Saint Patrick and Should Christians Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? – Stephen Nichols (Ligonier)
Perhaps we remember him best by reflecting on the “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” which has traditionally been attributed to him. The word breastplate is a translation of the Latin word lorica, a prayer, especially for protection. These prayers would be written out and at times placed on shields of soldiers and knights as they went out to battle. St. Patrick’s Lorica points beyond himself and his adventurous life. It points to Christ, the one he proclaimed to the people who had taken him captive….

Instructive Worship – Andrew Roycroft
The beauty of true worship is that we address ourselves to God, but we also address one another with who God is and what he has said. We worship in our spirits, by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also with deep intellectual investment, with an eye fixed on the glory of the gospel as well as a heart tuned to its sentiments. Such worship is deeply didactic, it retrains the flagging disciple, it prohibits empty sentiment, it draws our attention and our affection towards the God in whose presence and power we are meeting.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Why You’ll Never Be Free Until You Start Obeying God – Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
We sometimes define freedom as the ability to do whatever we want to do, but that’s not really how the Bible understands freedom. Freedom is the ability to do what we ought to do—that’s real freedom.

God’s Hidden Purposes in Your Suffering – Leah Baugh (Core Christianity)
God is often working not just for our good but for the good of others through us. Sometimes in our American context, we can get a little wrapped up in our own little world. We can think that our suffering is just all about us and God, that God is only doing something in my life. But as Dr. Ferguson also points out in his sermon, the truth is that God is always working in multiple lives and in multiple ways all at once. ​

How Evangelism Is Kind of Like Fishing – Tim Challies
The great work God is accomplishing in this world is catching people for himself. He’s saving them by his grace and for his glory. What’s amazing is that he uses people like you and me to help accomplish that. He saves people through the good news of the gospel and he tells you and me to speak out that news. He calls us to be fishers of men, to catch people alive.

Desperately Seeking Transcendence – Own Strachan
When we gather for the weekly worship service, we gather as those starved for God, and starved for transcendence. We have been swimming all week in the normal, trivial, earthly, ordinary, and natural. We need the abnormal. We need the essential. We need the heavenly. We need the extraordinary. We need what is above nature. We need the supernatural. This is what weekly worship gives us. It does not fundamentally give us a little “touch from the Lord,” as if all we need is a divine pat on the shoulder, a quick grin from a hall-crossing deity. It gives us a brush with God. We hide besides Moses in the cleft of the rock, expectantly and reverently awaiting the passing-by of the radiance of the appearing of God’s glory.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with the Lord!