From The Hidden Smile of God by John Piper:

The fruit of William Cowper’s affliction is a call to free ourselves from trite and chipper worship. If the Christian life has become the path of ease and fun in the modern West, then corporate worship is the place of increasing entertainment. The problem is not a battle between contemporary worship music and hymns; the problem is that there aren’t enough martyrs during the week. If no solders are perishing, what you want on a Sunday is Bob Hope and some pretty girls, not the army chaplain and a surgeon.
   Cowper was sick. But in his sickness he saw things that we so desperately need to see. He saw hell. And sometimes he saw heaven. He knew terror. And sometimes he know ecstasy. When I stand to welcome the people to worship on Sunday morning, I know that there are William Cowpers in the congregation. There are spouses who can barely talk. There are sullen teenagers living double lives at home and school. There are widows who still feel the amputation of a fifty-year partner,. There are single people who have not been hugged for twenty years. There are men in the prime of their lives with cancer. There are moms who have risked all for Jesus and bear the scars. There are tired and discouraged and lonely struggles. Shall we come to them with a joke?
   They can read the comics every day. What they need from me is not more bouncy, frisky smiles and stories. What they need is a kind of a joyful earnestness that makes the broken heart feel hopeful and helps the ones who are drunk with trifles sober up for greater joys.

—John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God, 167.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

HYMN III
Walking with GOD. Genesis v. 24.
by William Cowper (1731-1800)

! for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heav’nly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus, and his word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void,
The world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
And drove thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.

—from Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.

salme 115
(Geneva Bible)

1 Not vnto vs, O Lord, not vnto vs, but vnto thy Name giue the glorie, for thy louing mercie and for thy truethes sake.
2 Wherefore shall the heathen say, Where is nowe their God?
3 But our God is in heauen: he doeth what so euer he will.
4 Their idoles are siluer and golde, euen the worke of mens hands.
5 They haue a mouth and speake not: they haue eyes and see not.
6 They haue eares and heare not: they haue noses and smelll not.
7 They haue handes and touche not: they haue feete and walke not: neither make they a sound with their throte.
8 They that make them are like vnto them: so are all that trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: for he is their helpe and their shielde.
10 O house of Aaron, trust ye in the Lord: for he is their helpe and their shielde.
11 Ye that feare the Lord, trust in the Lord: for he is their helper and their shield.
12 The Lord hath bene mindfull of vs: he will blesse, he will blesse the house of Israel, he will blesse the house of Aaron.
13 He will blesse them that feare the Lord, both small and great.
14 The Lord will increase his graces towarde you, euen toward you and toward your children.
15 Ye are blessed of the Lord, which made the heauen and the earth.
16 The heauens, euen the heauens are the Lordes: but he hath giuen the earth to the sonnes of men.
17 The dead prayse not the Lord, neither any that goe downe into the place of silence.
18 But we will prayse the Lord from henceforth and for euer. Prayse ye the Lord.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge

David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

HYMN VI
JEHOVAH–JIREH, The Lord will provide. Genesis xxii. 14.
by William Cowper (1731-1800)

he saints should never be dismayed,
Nor sink in hopeless fear;
For when they least expect his aid,
The Savior will appear.

This Abraham found, he raised the knife,
God saw, and said, “Forbear;”
Yon ram shall yield his meaner life,
Behold the victim there.

Once David seemed Saul’s certain prey,
But hark! the foe’s at hand;
Saul turns his arms another way,
To save th’ invaded land.

When Jonah sunk beneath the wave
He thought to rise no more;
But God prepared a fish to save,
And bear him to the shore.

Blest proofs of pow’r and grace divine,
That meet us in his word!
May every deep–felt care of mine
Be trusted with the Lord.

Wait for his seasonable aid,
And though it tarry wait:
The promise may be long–delayed,
But cannot come too late.

—from Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.

salme 89
(Geneva Bible)
A Psalme to give instruction, of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1 I will sing the mercies of the Lord for euer: with my mouth will I declare thy trueth from generation to generation.
2 For I said, Mercie shalbe set vp for euer: thy trueth shalt thou stablish in ye very heauens.
3 I haue made a couenant with my chosen: I haue sworne to Dauid my seruant,
4 Thy seede will I stablish for euer, and set vp thy throne from generation to generation. Selah.
5 O Lord, euen the heauens shall prayse thy wonderous worke: yea, thy trueth in the Congregation of the Saints.
6 For who is equall to the Lord in the heauen? and who is like the Lord among the sonnes of the gods?
7 God is very terrible in the assemblie of the Saints, and to be reuerenced aboue all, that are about him.
8 O Lord God of hostes, who is like vnto thee, which art a mightie Lord, and thy trueth is about thee?
9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waues thereof arise, thou stillest them.
10 Thou hast beaten downe Rahab as a man slaine: thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy mightie arme.
11 The heauens are thine, the earth also is thine: thou hast layde the foundation of the world, and all that therein is.
12 Thou hast created the North and the South: Tabor and Hermon shall reioyce in thy Name.
13 Thou hast a mightie arme: strong is thine hand, and high is thy right hand.
14 Righteousnesse and equitie are the stablishment of thy throne: mercy and trueth goe before thy face.
15 Blessed is the people, that can reioyce in thee: they shall walke in the light of thy countenance, O Lord.
16 They shall reioyce continually in thy Name, and in thy righteousnes shall they exalt them selues.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength, and by thy fauour our hornes shall be exalted.
18 For our shield apperteineth to the Lord, and our King to the holy one of Israel.
19 Thou spakest then in a vision vnto thine Holy one, and saydest, I haue layde helpe vpon one that is mightie: I haue exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I haue found Dauid my seruant: with mine holy oyle haue I anoynted him.
21 Therefore mine hande shall be established with him, and mine arme shall strengthen him.
22 The enemie shall not oppresse him, neither shall the wicked hurt him.
23 But I will destroy his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
24 My trueth also and my mercie shall be with him, and in my Name shall his horne be exalted.
25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the floods.
26 He shall cry vnto mee, Thou art my Father, my God and the rocke of my saluation.
27 Also I wil make him my first borne, higher then the Kings of the earth.
28 My mercie will I keepe for him for euermore, and my couenant shall stande fast with him.
29 His seede also will I make to endure for euer, and his throne as the dayes of heauen.
30 But if his children forsake my Lawe, and walke not in my iudgements:
31 If they breake my statutes, and keepe not my commandements:
32 Then will I visite their transgression with the rod, and their iniquitie with strokes.
33 Yet my louing kindnesse will I not take from him, neither will I falsifie my trueth.
34 My couenant wil I not breake, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 I haue sworne once by mine holines, that I will not fayle Dauid, saying,
36 His seede shall endure for euer, and his throne shalbe as the sunne before me.
37 He shalbe established for euermore as the moone, and as a faythfull witnes in the heauen. Selah.
38 But thou hast reiected and abhorred, thou hast bene angry with thine Anoynted.
39 Thou hast broken the couenant of thy seruant, and profaned his crowne, casting it on the ground.
40 Thou hast broken downe all his walles: thou hast layd his fortresses in ruine.
41 All that goe by the way, spoyle him: he is a rebuke vnto his neighbours.
42 Thou hast set vp the right hand of his enemies, and made all his aduersaries to reioyce.
43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sworde, and hast not made him to stand in the battell.
44 Thou hast caused his dignitie to decay, and cast his throne to the ground.
45 The dayes of his youth hast thou shortned, and couered him with shame. Selah.
46 Lord, howe long wilt thou hide thy selfe, for euer? shall thy wrath burne like fire?
47 Remember of what time I am: wherefore shouldest thou create in vaine all the children of men?
48 What man liueth, and shall not see death? shall hee deliuer his soule from the hande of the graue? Selah.
49 Lord, where are thy former mercies, which thou swarest vnto Dauid in thy trueth?
50 Remember, O Lord, the rebuke of thy seruants, which I beare in my bosome of all the mightie people.
51 For thine enemies haue reproched thee, O Lord, because they haue reproched the footesteps of thine Anointed.
52 Praised be the Lord for euermore. So be it, euen so be it.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge

David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.