Sunday's Hymn: There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood

I’ve been posting and tweeting from Williiam Cowper hymns lately. This one, which is titled Praise for the Fountain Opened in Olney Hymns, is probably his most well-known. We don’t sing the last two verses anymore—at least they’re not in my hymnals—but I wish we did. 

There is a fountain fill’d with blood,

Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there have I, as vile as he,

Wash’d all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransom’d church of God

Be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,

I’ll sing Thy power to save;

When this poor lisping stammering tongue

Lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared

(Unworthy though I be)

For me a blood-bought free reward,

A golden harp for me!

‘Tis strung and tuned for endless years,

And form’d by power divine,

To sound in God the Father’s ears

No other name but Thine.

There are pages and pages of YouTube videos featuring this hymn. It wasn’t easy, but I’ve finally chose this one by Bob Kauflin to post, but I’ve listed others I liked below.

• Selah
• Shane Clark with Charlie Daniels (I wasn’t born in Tennesee for nothing.)
• In Swahili at a Baptist church in Tanzania
• Trio
• Red Montain Church (I love Red Mountain Church music, but I think I prefer the traditional tune with this hymn.)
• A Celtic band
• Piano
• Philadelphia Mass Choir, complete with record scratches.

You’ll appreciate Cowpers’s hymns more if you read (or listen to) this biography by John Piper.

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

• Update: Awake My Soul, Stretch Ev’ry Nerve at Fieldstone Cottage
• O Worship the King at Jam and Books
• Praise Ye Jehovah at Whatever Things
• Rescue the Perishing at The Happy Wonderer
• I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say at Rosemary at Home
• Lord’s Day 9 at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 9, 2012 at The Thirsty Theologian
• A Sunday Psalm: The Treasury of David - Psalm 2:8-9 at Theology for Girls
• Faith Alone - February 27, 2012 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.

The New Convert

The new-born child of gospel grace,

Like some fair tree when summer’s nigh,

Beneath Emmanuel’s shining face

Lifts up his blooming branch on high.

No fears he feels, he sees no foes,

No conflict yet his faith employs,

Nor has he learnt to whom he owes

The strength and peace his soul enjoys.

But sin soon darts its cruel sting,

And comforts sinking day by day,

What seem’d his own, a self-fed spring,

Proves but a brook that glides away.

When Gideon arm’d his numerous host,

The Lord soon made his numbers less;

And said, “Lest Israel vainly boast,

My arm procured me this success!”

Thus will He bring our spirits down,

And draw our ebbing comforts low,

That saved by grace, but not our own,

We may not claim the praise we owe.

—William Cowper in Olney Hymns

Round the Sphere Again: Understanding Scripture

What Was the Author’s Intent?
Kim Shay has one more post in her series on studying the Bible:

We cannot interpret something out of a passage that was never there. Sometimes, we have a tendency to read the Bible as if it was written in our own times, and we assume things about it that are not there.  That is a mistake. 

Read all of  Training in Righteousness - 4.

Why Numbers?
From an introduction to the book of Numbers at Ligonier Ministries Blog: 

Numbers was evidently written as a warning to the generation of Israelites born in the wilderness, that they should persevere in faith and obedience where their parents had not. For future generations of God’s people, the book would speak a similar message.

Just a One Way Street?
Yes, our exegesis should inform our theology, but Kevin DeYoung argues that our theology should inform our exegesis, too. 

Theology … can help provide guardrails for the interpretive process, honor the unity of Scripture, and throw a spotlight on the most important and most difficult issues arising from the Word of God.

Read the whole post.