Sunday's Hymn

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.

—Isaac Watts

My favorite YouTube video of this hymn has embedding disabled, but I like this, too:

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• How Watchful Is the Loving Lord at Tried With Fire
• All the Way My Savior Leads Me at Rosemary at Home
• Stand Up for Jesus at Wordwise Hymns
• As with Gladness Men of Old at Field Stone Cottage
• Forever Settled in the Heavens at Hiraeth
• Come and Rejoice with Me at Conjubilant With Song
• Lord’s Day 1, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Psalm 62 at Daily On My Way to Heaven
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: A Rebuke to Our Cold-Hearted Calvinsim
• Sabbath Keeping at Thistle Grove Farm
• Voices of the Past - January 2, 2011 at The Upward Call

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Round the Sphere Again: Reading

The Bible
Do you have a plan for your Bible reading in the coming year? Nathan Bingham posted a long list of Bible reading plans you could use. I’ve done the whole Bible plans in the past, and I acknowledge their benefits for showing the big picture, but I find them excruciating. I hate doing the kind of fast reading/skimming of the text that I have to do to get through the daily readings. Last year I covered just the gospel of John and Romans in my reading/studying/poring over the text. Most people would find my pace painfully slow, but it works for me. This year I’ll be tackling Ephesians first, and after that I’ll move on to an Old Testament book,  maybe Leviticus. 

Update: Justin Taylor also has a list of Bible reading plans, including a Bible reading record by Don Whitney that would be useful for someone who is reading through the Bible the way I am.

Other Books
There’ve been more than a few top 10 of 2010 lists posted by others. If I did one of those, it’d include almost every book I read during 2010. (I told you I read slowly.) But here’s a shorter list of books I read in 2010 that were particularly valuable to me and that I recommend to you.

• 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer. Easy to read and extremely useful for anyone who wants to understand the Bible better. 
• Always Ready by Greg Bahnsen. An intro to presuppositional apologetics. As I wrote in my review, “If you desire to ‘be ready to give a defense for the hope’—and shouldn’t every believer want this?—you will surely benefit from the substance of this book.”
• The God Who Is There by D. A. Carson. I didn’t get around to reviewing this one but I’m putting it on my list anyway. Read this to gain an understanding God’s purpose in history.
• Unleasing the Word by Max Mclean and Warren Bird. I didn’t review this one, either, but if you ever read scripture out loud in public and you want to do the text justice (and who wouldn’t?), this little gem will be invaluable. (And speaking of Max McLean, did you know his whole performance of the gospel of Mark is available online? (Justin Taylor))

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful that I (finally!) have a car again. I’m thankful that the problem has been diagnosed correctly (finally!) and temporarily fixed until a new hose arrives. I’m thankful that I have people around me who are willing to let me borrow their car or run errands for me when I need it.

I’m thankful that it’s warmed up a little and may warm up even more if the forecast is to be believed. (Can you tell I’m a weather warming sceptic?)

I’m thankful for the hope of spring…and new life.

I’m thankful that God’s mercies are new every morning.

On Thursdays throughout this year, I’m posting a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others.