A Hymn Devotion for 12 May 2020 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
(Job 38:7; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
“Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.”
(Psalm 148:2)
“Rejoice evermore.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:16)
A great and classical hymn of praise whose author is unknown this side of Heaven. It illustrates the highest level of praise which is devoted solely to the upper spheres of heavens. The tune is a Welch work entitled, HYFRYDOL, by Rowland Hugh Pritchard in 1830 when he was only nineteen years old – uncommon for that day, but amazingly uncommon for our own. Background information is provided below by Petersen, William. The Complete Book of Hymns . Tyndale House Publisher:
“One Sunday morning in the eighteenth century, Thomas Corin, a retired captain of the Merchant Navy, found an abandoned baby on the steps of St. Andrews Church in the Holborn section of London. He and his wife took the baby home and cared for it. Later he discovered that there were many abandoned babies in London, and most of them were left to die. Because of his efforts and his Christian commitment, a hospital for destitute and abandoned children was established. It was called the Foundling Hospital in High Holborn. Children in the hospital were all taught to sing, and soon their singing caught public attention. The great composer George Frideric Handel presented the hospital with an organ and conducted a special performance of Messiah each year on the hospital’s behalf. Eventually the hospital published its own collection of hymns, called the Foundling Hospital.”
PRAISE THE LORD! YE HEAVENS ADORE HIM
1 Praise the Lord! ye heav’ns, adore him;
Praise him angels, in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him;
Praise him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord! for he has spoken;
Worlds his mighty voice obeyed;
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance he has made.
2 Praise the Lord! for he is glorious;
Never shall his promise fail;
God has made his saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation!
Hosts on high his pow’r proclaim;
Heav’n, and earth, and all creation,
Laud and magnify his name.
3 Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto thee;
Young and old, thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heav’n adore thee,
We would bow before thy throne;
As thine angels serve before thee,
So on earth thy will be done.
1 Praise the Lord! ye heav’ns, adore him; Praise him angels, in the height; Sun and moon, rejoice before him; Praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise the Lord! for he has spoken; Worlds his mighty voice obeyed; Laws which never shall be broken For their guidance he has made. The Almighty Lord encompasses all of His physical Creation and all of His creatures in Glory. He is the ultimate in multi-dimensions. He not only encompasses the infinite scale in the three dimensions of time (Past, Present Future) but exceeds these dimensions in infinity. He not only encompasses the three dimensions of space (Height, Width, depth) but exceeds them in infinity. And He not only encompasses the dimensions of Matter (Solid, Liquid, Gas), but exceeds them in infinity to include dimensions of spirit which we cannot now comprehend. The Angels are creatures much like unto us; and they behold His face in Awe and Reverence. Not only did He create the stars and heavenly bodies of light but created the Light itself. His Word alone created all things both seen and unseen. He set the limits and decreed the orbits of every object in space by His Natural Law, and He decreed the spiritual laws which are likewise immutable for us in our obedience.
2 Praise the Lord! for he is glorious; Never shall his promise fail; God has made his saints victorious; Sin and death shall not prevail. Praise the God of our salvation! Hosts on high his pow’r proclaim; Heav’n, and earth, and all creation, Laud and magnify his name. Not a single promise of the Lord has failed thus far, and never can fail. If we boast of our success in ‘growing the church’ or ‘saving souls’ our work has not been the Lord’s work. We can save no soul or grow any church – that remains the work of the Lord. One error many ministers and laity make is presuming that it is the Lord’s will that the church MUST grow exponentially or it is not blessed. That is not our concern. We sow the seed on all soils (hearts) and it is the work of the Holy Ghost to germinate and bring the fruit to the light of day. The Lord calls men and women to His Church, and there are times when those whom the Lord would call are very few. So worry not about results – simply sow the seed and water the garden. The Lord is not concerned with numbers and neither should we be. The beauty of a glorious sunrise, the stillness of the fresh fallen snow, the clean fragrance following the spring rains – all are signs of His love made especially for our joy. These are symbols also of praise in nature to their Maker. Death is a shadow without substance or power to those of His called out Elect. In the end, all sin will be vanquished from His sanctified and chosen.
3 Worship, honor, glory, blessing, Lord, we offer unto thee; Young and old, thy praise expressing, In glad homage bend the knee. All the saints in heav’n adore thee, We would bow before thy throne; As thine angels serve before thee, So on earth thy will be done. The young and old are alike the same with the Lord – the Author of our days under the sun. We measure our lives in years, but He measures our days in eternity. Many meaningful characteristics of true worship are sometimes missing in modern worship – reverence, honor (to God, not man), adoration and then humbly bending of the knee. If we bend not the knee today, the day will come at the sound of the trump when all who have rejected Him will certainly bend the knee in sorrowful acknowledgement of the Lord as ‘Lord of Lord’ and ‘King of Kings’. “9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
Jerry
