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less the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his
holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his
benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy
diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee
with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who
satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:1-5)
How
very often do our prayers include a plea for the Lord’s blessing on us, first
of all; and then on others! We petition for a blessing of good health,
prosperity, safety, travel, etc. Do we really trust in the Lord’s will to bless
us. Suppose it is not the Lord’s will that He grant us excellent health in His
omniscient predilection – then what? Of course, we should know better since we,
with passing regularity, pray in the Lord’s Prayer, Thy Will be done! Too
often, we expect only that OUR will be done; and only His will be done when it
happens to coincide with our own. Whatever the Lord’s will be – either health
or sickness, wealth or humble holdings – it will always be the best result for
His elect children.
Today’s
hymn selection is of a hymn of the Reformation age acknowledging God as the
Holder of the Keys of Time and Eternity. It was composed by Johann Steurlein of
Erfurt, Germany, in 1588 – the same year the Spanish ‘Invincible’ Armada was
launched, with great futility, against Protestant England by Philipp II. The
tune is the anonymous work of a German composer entitled, Herr Jesu Christ
(appearing in Dresden in 1628 at first observation). This is an excellent hymn
selection for the Coming New Year.
Old Year Now Hath Passed Away
The old year now hath
passed away;
We thank Thee, O our God,
today
That Thou hast kept us
through the year
When danger and distress
were near.
We pray Thee, O eternal
Son,
Who with the Father
reign’st as One,
To guard and rule Thy
Christendom
Through all the ages yet to
come.
Take not Thy saving Word
away,
Our souls’ true comfort,
staff, and stay.
Abide with us and keep us
free
From errors, following only
Thee.
Oh, help us to forsake all
sin,
A new and holier course
begin!
Mark not what once was done
amiss;
A happier, better year be
this,
Wherein as Christians we
may live
Or die in peace that Thou
canst give,
To rise again when Thou
shalt come
And enter Thine eternal
home.
There shall we thank Thee
and adore
With all the angels
evermore.
Lord Jesus Christ, increase
our faith
To praise Thy Name through
life and death
The old year now hath passed away; We thank
Thee, O our God, today That Thou hast kept us through the year When danger and
distress were near. Danger and distress is always a razor’s edge away from us. It is
the Lord’s sustaining power that keeps those dangers and distresses at bay. The
old gospel hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour sums up well that sustaining
need of Christ in our daily lives. The old year passes on the scale of time,
but its realities remain fixed in eternity. Our records of conduct and memories
of events may fade, but they are forever recorded in God’s Book of Life.
We
pray Thee, O eternal Son, Who with the Father reign’st as One, To guard and
rule Thy Christendom Through all the ages yet to come. There are
ages ahead that are registered in time, but there is also an eternity to come.
It is this eternity with which our concerns should be most focused. Every soul
is eternal, and will spend eternity at some destination – but which? We
struggle in the Kingdom of Heaven on this sphere – the Church; and this
struggle will continue throughout the ages to come. However, there lies before
us a moment when those struggles shall cease, and time will be no more; and
this present age will cease. We shall then be safely ensconced in the Ark of
our Salvation (Jesus Christ), or desperately and hopelessly bemoaning our
predicament in the darkness without the Ark.
Take not
Thy saving Word away, Our souls’ true comfort, staff, and stay.
Abide with us and keep us free From errors, following only Thee. God has pronounced to His
chosen ones that same pronouncement He gave to Noah, Come thou
and all thy house into the ark; Gen 7:1 (KJV) Please note that God did not
say to Noah,, Go thou into the Ark but rather Come thou into the ark.
There is an important distinction in those two terms. God said Come into the
Ark because that was the security of God. He says the same to us today. He is
not outside the Ark of Safety, but HE IS the ARK of SAFETY!
Oh,
help us to forsake all sin, A new and holier course begin! Mark not what once
was done amiss; A happier, better year be this, How does God
help us to forsake all sin? He does not do so by touching our heads with
a magic scepter! He gives us His Word to study and to thoroughly digest through
meditation and faith. We fill our hearts and souls with His Word in believing
faith, and our lives are changed thereby. Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119:11) God does
not forget our sins, but He refuses (a conscious act) to remember them if we
have repented thereof. You may have undertaken the futility of making up a list
of New Year’s resolutions. How long did these remain unviolated in the past? We
cannot remain faithful to our own laws, much less those of God. But those two
Commandments that God gave as a summary of the larger Ten are kept in love –
and only by the means of our echoed love of Christ.
Wherein
as Christians we may live Or die in peace that Thou canst give, To rise again
when Thou shalt come And enter Thine eternal home. The peace of
God is not conditional on our present or future environment – it is an internal
peace of the soul. His grant of peace is a product of His munificent Grace. It
is not native to our hearts, but an imputed benefit of having our Lord as our
Savior and Redeemer. Furthermore, if we have been obedient to His command in
the Gospel of St. Luke 9:23, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. He will have followed the
Lord, not only on the placid shores of Galilee, but also down the Via Dolorosa
to Calvary. We will have died a thousand deaths to self, and risen a multitude
of times in Christ. We will have followed in self-denial, and in a habitual
charity toward our fellow man. We do not simply follow Christ when the way
seems beautiful and convenient, but in the hard a dreary moments through that
valley of the ‘shadow of death knowing that death is not a
reality to the elect of the Lord, but merely a shadow only, and a transient
state.
Perhaps
this year, or the next, or even ten years hence – we shall close our eyes in
the sleep of the saints only to open them immediately beyond the Gates of
Splendor and behold the Face of Christ whose Light will brighten and extinguish
any lingering memory of loss.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, now, and FOREVER!
