Sunday's Hymn

George Herbert at Bremerton from the painting by W. Dyce
(click on photo for larger view)

Following hymns written by William Cowper and John Donne, I’m posting another one written by a poet.

The God of Love My Shepherd Is

The God of love my Shepherd is,
And He that doth me feed;
While He is mine and I am His,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass:
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, He doth convert,
And bring my mind in frame,
And all this not for my desert,
But for His holy Name.

Yea, in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
To guard, Thy staff to bear.

Surely Thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove
So neither shall my praise.

—George Herbert (1593-1633)

Other George Herbert poetry posted here:

• The Agonie
• The Storm
• The Holdfast
• Sin’s Round
• Sweet

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

• Lord’s Day 25, 2009 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Rise Up, O Men of God at The Happy Wonderer
• Around the Throne of God in Heaven at Hiraeth
• O God, the Rock of Ages atFieldstone Cottage
• The Great Discovery from The Valley of Vision at The Upward Call.
• Jesus Loves Me at Tapestry of Graces
• Update: Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: The Folly of Toning Down Hard Truths
• Update: Comfort, Comfort Ye My Children at JoythruChrist

Have you posted a hymn 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.

Saturday's Old Photo

This is a picture of my Grandma Vogt taken in the summer of 1979. You saw a photo of her when she was much younger in the old photo posted two weeks ago.

The occasion is an anniversary celebration for her son (my uncle) Elton and his wife Marty. Those are their gifts in the background. This light peach dress (or maybe you’d call it flesh colored) was the dress she also wore to my sister’s wedding a couple of months earlier.

By now my grandma had been a widow for 3 years. She’d lost her first husband when she was in her twenties, so this would be her second time as a widow. She would pass away less than two years after this photo was taken.

Can you tell she was a quiet and kind woman?

The Primary Article of the Christian Religion

Or The Other Five Points of Calvinism.

From Michael Horton’s chapter in John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology, a 5-point survey following the logic of Calvin’s argument on justification found in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

1. To save us from judgment, the Son became flesh and merited our salvation (2.15-17).
2. Thus, the righteousness by which we are saved is alien to us (3.1.1; 3.1.4; 3.2.24; 4.7.11).
3. Yet Christ must not only be given for us; He must be given to us. (3.1.1).
4. We are recipients not only of Christ’s gifts but of Christ himself. (3.1.1; 3.1.4; 3.2.24; 4.17.11).
5. Faith unites us to Christ (3.1.1), but it is the Holy Spirit who gives faith, and it is Christ who always remains the sole ground of salvation rather than faith itself. In other words, faith is nothing in itself; it receives Christ and with Him all treasures. (3.11.7; 3.18.8).

Look for a review of this book to be posted here sometime before Calvin’s 500th birthday, which is coming up in

You can get your own John Calvin birthday clock at Calvin 500.