Sunday's Hymn

Many of Isaac Watts’ hymns are paraphrases of Psalms. For instance, last week’s hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 147, and the one before that, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, is a paraphrase of Psalm 90.

Before Watts wrote his hymns, the churches descending from Calvin’s branch of the Reformation sang only metrical psalms. From Center for Church Music:

At 20 years of age, [Watts] complained that the metrical psalms they had to sing at Above Bar Chapel in Southampton were grim and ponderous. But to sing anything other than the actual words of Scripture was said to insult to God.

Watts’ father heard Isaac’s complaining and challenged him to “write something better for us to sing.” In 1719, he published an important hymnal titled The Psalms of David in the Language of the New Testament. In it he paraphrased the entire Psalter with the exception of twelve Psalms he felt were unsuited for usage.

Today’s hymn is a paraphrase of the last part of Psalm 118:

This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made

This is the day the Lord hath made;
He calls the hours His own;
Let Heav’n rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.

Today He rose and left the dead,
And Satan’s empire fell;
Today the saints His triumphs spread,
And all His wonders tell.

Hosanna to th’anointed King,
To David’s holy Son;
Help us, O Lord; descend and bring
Salvation from Thy throne.

Blest be the Lord, who comes to men
With messages of grace;
Who comes in God His Father’s Name,
To save our sinful race.

Hosanna in the highest strains
The Church on earth can raise;
The highest heav’ns, in which He reigns,
Shall give Him nobler praise.

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

• Lord’s Day 42, 2009 at The Thirsty Theologian
• The Cross of Jesus at The Happy Wonderer
• To Be Fit for God from The Valley of Vision at The Upward Call
• Let Us With A Gladsome Mind at Hiraeth
• Conquering Kings Their Titles Take at Tapestry of Graces
• O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee at Fieldstone Cottage
• What Thanks and Praise to Thee We Owe at Conjubilant With Song
• Update: Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: Out of the Mouths of Babes—not the Academic Elite

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 emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Round the Sphere Again

Is It A Trick Question?
Won’t a good moral life get me to heaven? (Kingdom People)

Why the Dark Providences?
The soverign purpose of God and Ruth. 

There were great purposes of grace at work even during days of dark providences. There was a mighty hand guiding all events according to the counsel of God even when the coming of Christ appeared to hang by a thread, and rested on the turn of a conversation (1:7-17).

(Against Heresies)

Is It Wise?
Justin Taylor on transracial adoption.

As long as sin remains—this side of the return of Christ and the ushering in of the news heavens and the new earth—racism will remain. There is virtue neither in overstating or unstating this reality. But the idea of having qualms about transracial adoption (or interracial marriage) because it will create opportunities for more racial prejudice doesn’t ultimately make a lot of sense.

Where’s the Big Story?
Chris Brauns reviews Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. The problem, says Brauns, is that Miller “stays altogether with the ‘small’ stories” and never gets to the grand one—the big story of Christ and redemption that makes sense of all our small ones. (Reformation 21)

Did You Forget the Top 100 Hymns?
Of course not. Here are the next ones on Sherry’s countdown list.

• And Can It Be That I Should Gain? (9)
• Holy, Holy, Holy (8)
• How Great Thou Art (7)
• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (6)

Do You Like This As Much As I Do?
This is the very first issue of the new online design magazine, Lonny Magazine.

Cold or Flu?
A handy-dandy chart to help you figure out how best to treat your symptoms. (FamilyDoctor.org)

Off-Beat or Stupid or Both?
I’m going with really stupid for some, but you judge for yourself: 11 Offbeat College Application Essay Topics. (mental_floss Blog)   

¿Habla Inglés?
It’s certainly not perfect, but Google Translate works better than you might think.

Having It Both Ways

The conversation with Godlessons goes on.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that our decisions matter since they really aren’t our decisions. God intended for us to make them, so they are God’s decisions.

It depends on what you mean by “matter”. You seem to define decisions that matter as “decisions that can change the future.” I define decisions that matter as “decisions that bring about the future God has planned.” God intended for us to make them, so yes, they are God’s decisions. And based on God’s decisions, we decide. We look at the alternatives, weigh them, choose as seems best or most desirable to us, and our decisions bring God’s plan to fruition.

The idea that we are responsible for our decisions when we have no free will to do otherwise is ludicrous. You don’t punish a machine for functioning exactly as it was designed to function. That would make no sense.

Machines don’t have motives or desires. Machines don’t have wills. Machines don’t consider alternatives.

Let’s cut to the chase: You are willing to see God as a God without omniscience or omnipotence in order to preserve autonomous human choice—in order to have our choices determine the future. You are willing to make God smaller so that we can be bigger.

In your conception of God, human beings rule the future rather than God. Or you might say that human beings rule God rather than him ruling us.

I’m not willing to go there, because that’s not the way God reveals himself in scripture.