Isaac Watts
(55 posts)I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 38. Part 1. (c. m.)
The atonement of Christ. Rom. iii. 25.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
How is our nature spoil’d by sin!
Yet nature ne’er hath found
The way to make the conscience clean,
Or heal the painful wound.
In vain we seek for peace with God
By methods of our own:
Jesus, there’s nothing but thy blood
Can bring us near the throne.
The threat’nings of thy broken law
Impress our souls with dread;
If God his sword of vengeance draw,
It strikes our spirits dead.
But thine illustrious sacrifice
Hath answer’d these demands:
And peace and pardon from the skies
Came down by Jesus’ hands.
Here all the ancient types agree,
The altar and the lamb;
And prophets in their visions see
Salvation through his name.
’Tis by thy death we live, O Lord,
’Tis on thy cross we rest;
For ever be thy love ador’d,
Thy name for ever bless’d.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 12:34–43
The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light “
These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. 37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. 42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.
We may learn, from these verses, the duty of using present opportunities. The Lord Jesus says to us all, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. While you have light believe in the light.” Let us not think that these things were only spoken for the sake of the Jews. They were written for us also, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The lesson of the words is generally applicable to the whole professing Church of Christ. Its time for doing good in the world is short and limited. The throne of grace will not always be standing: it will be removed one day, and the throne of judgment will be set up in its place. The door of salvation by faith in Christ will not always be open: it will be shut one day forever, and the number of God’s elect will be completed. The fountain for all sin and uncleanness will not always be accessible; the way to it will one day be barred, and there will remain nothing but the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.
These are solemn thoughts; but they are true. They cry aloud to sleeping Churchmen and drowsy congregations, and ought to arouse great searchings of heart. “Can nothing more be done to spread the Gospel at home and abroad? Has every means been tried for extending the knowledge of Christ crucified? Can we lay our hands on our hearts, and say that the Churches have left nothing undone in the matter of missions? Can we look forward to the Second Advent with no feelings of humiliation, and say that the talents of wealth, and influence, and opportunities have not been buried in the ground?”—Such questions may well humble us, when we look, on one side, at the state of professing Christendom, and, on the other, at the state of the heathen world. We must confess with shame that the Church is not walking worthy of its light.
But the lesson of the words is specially applicable to ourselves as individuals. Our own time for getting good is short and limited; let us take heed that we make good use of it. Let us “walk while we have the light.” Have we Bibles? Let us not neglect to read them.—Have we the preached Gospel? Let us not linger halting between two opinions, but believe to the saving of our souls.—Have we Sabbaths? Let us not waste them in idleness, carelessness, and indifference, but throw our whole hearts into their sacred employments, and turn them to good account.—Light is about us and around us and near us on every side. Let us each resolve to walk in the light while we have it, lest we find ourselves at length cast out into outer darkness forever. It is a true saying of an old divine, that the recollection of lost and misspent opportunities will be the very essence of hell.
We may learn, secondly, from these verses, the desperate hardness of the human heart. It is written of our Lord’s hearers at Jerusalem, that, “though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him.”
We err greatly if we suppose that seeing wonderful miraculous things will ever convert souls. Thousands live and die in this delusion. They fancy if they saw some miraculous sight, or witnessed some supernatural exercise of Divine grace, they would lay aside their doubts, and at once become decided Christians. It is a total mistake. Nothing short of a new heart and a new nature implanted in us by the Holy Ghost, will ever make us real disciples of Christ. Without this, a miracle might raise within us a little temporary excitement; but, the novelty once gone, we would find ourselves just as cold and unbelieving as the Jews.
The prevalence of unbelief and indifference in the present day ought not to surprise us. It is just one of the evidences of that mighty foundation-doctrine, the total corruption and fall of man. How feebly we grasp and realize that doctrine is proved by our surprise at human incredulity. We only half believe the heart’s deceitfulness. Let us read our Bibles more attentively, and search their contents more carefully. Even when Christ wrought miracles and preached sermons, there were numbers of His hearers who remained utterly unmoved. What right have we to wonder if the hearers of modern sermons in countless instances remain unbelieving? “The disciple is not greater than his Master.” If even the hearers of Christ did not believe, how much more should we expect to find unbelief among the hearers of His ministers! Let the truth be spoken and confessed. Man’s obstinate unbelief is one among many indirect proofs that the Bible is true. The clearest prophecy in Isaiah begins with the solemn question, “Who hath believed?” (Isai. liii. 1.)
We may learn, thirdly, from these verses, the amazing power which the love of the world has over men. We read that “among the chief rulers many believed on Christ; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
These unhappy men were evidently convinced that Jesus was the true Messiah. Reason, and intellect, and mind, and conscience, obliged them secretly to admit that no one could do the miracles which He did, unless God was with Him, and that the preacher of Nazareth really was the Christ of God. But they had not courage to confess it. They dared not face the storm of ridicule, if not of persecution, which confession would have entailed. And so, like cowards, they held their peace, and kept their convictions to themselves.
Their case, it may be feared, is a sadly common one. There are thousands of people who know far more in religion then they act up to. They know they ought to come forward as decided Christians. They know that they are not living up to their light. But the fear of man keeps them back. They are afraid of being laughed at, jeered at, and despised by the world. They dread losing the good opinion of society, and the favourable judgment of men and women like themselves. And so they go on from to year to year, secretly ill at ease and dissatisfied with themselves,—knowing too much of religion to be happy in the world, and clinging too much to the world to enjoy any religion.
Faith is the only cure for soul ailments like this. A believing view of an unseen God, an unseen Christ, an unseen heaven, and an unseen judgment-day,—this is the grand secret of overcoming the fear of man. The expulsive power of a new principle is required to heal the disease. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” (1 John v. 4.) Let us pray for faith, if we would conquer that deadly enemy of souls, the fear of man and the love of man’s praise. And if we have any faith, let us pray for more. Let our daily cry be, “Lord, increase our faith.” We may easily have too much money, or too much worldly prosperity; but we can never have too much faith.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 36. (C. M.)
A lovely carriage. Matt. x. 16.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
O ’tis a lovely thing to see
A man of prudent heart,
Whose thoughts, and lips, and life agree
To act a useful part.
When envy, strife, and wars begin
In little angry souls,
Mark how the sons of peace come in,
And quench the kindling coals.
Their minds are humble, mild, and meek,
Nor let their fury rise;
Nor passion moves their lips to speak,
Nor pride exalts their eyes.
Their frame is prudence mix’d with love,
Good works fulfil their day;
They join the serpent with the dove,
But cast the sting away.
Such was the Savior of mankind,
Such pleasures he pursued;
His flesh and blood were all refin’d,
His soul divinely good.
Lord, can these plants of virtue grow
In such a heart as mine?
Thy grace my nature can renew,
And make my soul like thine.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 10:19–30
A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?”
The Opposition at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem
22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. 24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Let us never be surprised if we see the same thing in our own day. Human nature never changes. So long as the heart of man is without grace, so long we must expect to see it dislike the Gospel of Christ. Just as oil and water, acids and alkalies, cannot combine, so in the same way unconverted people cannot really like the people of God.—“The carnal mind is enmity against God.”—“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” (Rom. viii. 7; 1 Cor. ii. 14.)
The servant of Christ must think it no strange thing if he goes through the same experience as his Master. He will often find his ways and opinions in religion the cause of strife in his own family. He will have to endure ridicule, harsh words, and petty persecution, from the children of this world. He may even discover that he is thought a fool or a madman on account of his Christianity. Let none of these things move him. The thought that he is a partaker of the afflictions of Christ ought to steel him against every trial. “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household.” (Matt. x. 25.)
One thing, at any rate, should never be forgotten. We must not allow ourselves to think the worse of religion because of the strifes and dissensions to which it gives rise. Whatever men may please to say, it is human nature, and not religion, which is to blame. We do not blame the glorious sun because its rays draw forth noxious vapors from the marsh. We must not find fault with the glorious Gospel, if it stirs up men’s corruptions, and causes the “thoughts of many hearts to be revealed.” (Luke ii. 35.)
We should notice, secondly, the name which Christ gives to true Christians. He uses a figurative expression which, like all His language, is full of deep meaning. He calls them, “My sheep.”
The word “sheep,” no doubt, points to something in the character and ways of true Christians. It would be easy to show that weakness, helplessness, harmlessness, usefulness, are all points of resemblance between the sheep and the believer. But the leading idea in our Lord’s mind was the entire dependence of the sheep upon its Shepherd. Just as sheep hear the voice of their own shepherd, and follow him, so do believers follow Christ. By faith they listen to His call. By faith they submit themselves to His guidance. By faith they lean on Him, and commit their souls implicitly to His direction. The ways of a shepherd and his sheep are a most useful illustration of the relation between Christ and the true Christian.
The expression, “My sheep,” points to the close connection that exists between Christ and believers. They are His by gift from the Father, His by purchase, His by calling and choice, and His by their own consent and heart-submission. In the highest sense they are Christ’s property; and just as a man feels a special interest in that which he has bought at a great price and made his own, so does the Lord Jesus feel a peculiar interest in His people.
Expressions like these should be carefully treasured up in the memories of true Christians. They will be found cheering and heart-strengthening in days of trial. The world may see no beauty in the ways of a godly man, and may often pour contempt on him. But he who knows that he is one of Christ’s sheep has no cause to be ashamed. He has within him a “well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John iv. 14.)
We should notice, lastly, in this passage, the vast privileges which the Lord Jesus Christ bestows on true Christians. He uses words about them of singular richness and strength. “I know them.—I give unto them eternal life.—They shall never perish,—neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” This sentence is like the cluster of grapes which came from Eshcol. A stronger form of speech perhaps can hardly be found in the whole range of the Bible.
Christ “knows” his people with a special knowledge of approbation, interest, and affection. By the world around them they are comparatively unknown, uncared for, or despised. But they are never forgotten or overlooked by Christ.
Christ “gives” his people “eternal life.” He bestows on them freely a right and title to heaven, pardoning their many sins, and clothing them with a perfect righteousness. Money, and health, and worldly prosperity He often wisely withholds from them. But He never fails to give them grace, peace, and glory.
Christ declares that His people “shall never perish.” Weak as they are they shall all be saved. Not one of them shall be lost and cast away: not one of them shall miss heaven. If they err, they shall be brought back; if they fall, they shall be raised. The enemies of their souls may be strong and mighty, but their Saviour is mightier; and none shall pluck them out of their Saviour’s hands.
A promise like this deserves the closest attention. If words mean anything, it contains that great doctrine, the perseverance, or continuance in grace, of true believers. That doctrine is literally hated by worldly people. No doubt, like every other truth of Scripture, it is liable to be abused. But the words of Christ are too plain to be evaded. He has said it, and He will make it good,—“My sheep shall never perish.”
Whatever men may please to say against this doctrine, it is one which God’s children ought to hold fast, and defend with all their might. To all who feel within them the workings of the Holy Ghost, it is a doctrine full of encouragement and consolation. Once inside the ark, they shall never be cast out. Once converted and joined to Christ, they shall never be cut off from His mystical body. Hypocrites and false professors shall doubtless make shipwreck forever, unless they repent. But true “sheep” shall never be confounded. Christ has said it, and Christ cannot lie: “they shall never perish.”
Would we get the benefit of this glorious promise? Let us take care that we belong to Christ’s flock. Let us hear His voice and follow Him. The man who, under a real sense of sin, flees to Christ and trusts in Him, is one of those who shall never be plucked out of Christ’s hand.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007).
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 33. (C. M.)
Absurdity of infidelity. 1 Cor. i. 26—31.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Shall atheists dare insult the cross
Of our Redeemer, God?
Shall infidels reproach his laws,
Or trample on his blood?
What if he choose mysterious ways
To cleanse us from our faults?
May not the works of sov’reign grace
Transcend our feeble thoughts?
What if his gospel bids us fight
With flesh, and self, and sin,
The prize is most divinely bright
That we are call’d to win.
What if the foolish and the poor
His glorious grace partake,
This but confirms his truth the more,
For so the prophets spake.
Do some that own his sacred name
Indulge their souls in sin?
Jesus should never bear the blame,
His laws are pure and clean.
Then let our faith grow firm and strong,
Our lips profess his word;
Nor blush nor fear to walk among
The men that love the Lord.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 8:48–59
The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Nicknames, insulting epithets, and violent language, are favourite weapons with the devil. When other means of carrying on his warfare fail, he stirs up his servants to smite with the tongue. Grievous indeed are the sufferings which the saints of God have had to endure from the tongue in every age. Their characters have been slandered. Evil reports have been circulated about them. Lying stories have been diligently invented, and greedily swallowed, about their conduct. No wonder that David said, “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.” (Psalm cxx. 2.)
he true Christian in the present day must never be surprised to find that he has constant trials to endure from this quarter. Sinful human nature never changes. So long as he serves the world, and walks in the broad way, little perhaps will be said against him. Once let him take up the cross and follow Christ, and there is no lie too monstrous, and no story too absurd, for some to tell against him, and for others to believe. But let him take comfort in the thought that he is only drinking the cup which his blessed Master drank before him. The lies of his enemies do him no injury in heaven, whatever they may on earth. Let him bear them patiently, and not fret, or lose his temper. When Christ was reviled, “He reviled not again.” (1 Peter ii. 23.) Let the Christian do likewise.
We should observe, secondly, what glorious encouragement our Lord holds out to His believing people. We read that He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.”
Of course these words do not mean that true Christians shall never die. On the contrary, we all know that they must go down to the grave, and cross the river just like others. But the words do mean, that they shall not be hurt by the second death,—that final ruin of the whole man in hell, of which the first death is only a faint type or figure. (Rev. xxi. 8.) And they do mean that the sting of the first death shall be removed from the true Christian. His flesh may fail, and his bones may be racked with strong pain; but the bitter sense of unpardoned sins shall not crush him down. This is the worst part of death,—and in this he shall have the “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. xv. 57.)
This blessed promise, we must not forget to notice, is the peculiar property of the man who “keeps Christ’s sayings.” That expression, it is clear, can never be applicable to the mere outward professing Christian, who neither knows nor cares anything about the Gospel. It belongs to him who receives into his heart, and obeys in his life, the message which the Lord Jesus brought from heaven. It belongs, in short, to those who are Christians, not in name and form only, but in deed and in truth. It is written,—”He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” (Rev. ii. 11.)
We should observe, thirdly, in this passage, what clear knowledge of Christ Abraham possessed. We read that our Lord said to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it and was glad.”
When our Lord used these remarkable words, Abraham had been dead and buried at least 1850 years! And yet he is said to have seen our Lord’s day! How wonderful that sounds! Yet it was quite true. Not only did Abraham “see” our Lord and talk to Him when He “appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre,” the night before Sodom was destroyed, (Gen. xviii. 1,) but by faith he looked forward to the day of our Lord’s incarnation yet to come, and as he looked he “was glad.” That he saw many things, through a glass darkly, we need not doubt. That he could have explained fully the whole manner and circumstances of our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary, we are not obliged to suppose. But we need not shrink from believing that he saw in the far distance a Redeemer, whose advent would finally make all the earth rejoice. And as he saw it, he “was glad.”
The plain truth is, that we are too apt to forget that there never was but one way of salvation, one Saviour, and one hope for sinners, and that Abraham and all the Old Testaments saints looked to the same Christ that we look to ourselves. We shall do well to call to mind the Seventh Article of the Church of England: “The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered through Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises.” This is truth that we must never forget in reading the Old Testament. This is sound speech that cannot be condemned.
We should observe, lastly, in this prophecy, how distinctly our Lord declares His own pre-existence. We read that He said to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
Without a controversy, these remarkable words are a great deep. They contain things which we have no eyes to see through, or mind to fathom. But if language means anything, they teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ existed long before He came into the world. Before the days of Abraham He was. Before man was created He was. In short, they teach us that the Lord Jesus was no mere man like Moses or David. He was One whose goings forth were from everlasting,—the same yesterday, today, and forever,—very and eternal God.
Deep as these words are, they are full of practical comfort. They show us the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of that great foundation, on which sinners are invited to rest their souls. He to whom the Gospel bids us come with our sins, and believe for pardon and peace, is no mere man. He is nothing less than very God, and therefore “able to save to the uttermost” all who come to Him. Then let us begin coming to Him with confidence. Let us continue leaning on Him without fear. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, and our eternal life is secure.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007).
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 32. (C. M.)
Strength from heaven. Isa. xl. 27—30.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Whence do our mournful thoughts arise?
And where’s our courage fled?
Have restless sin and raging hell
Struck all our comforts dead?
Have we forgot th’ almighty name
That formed the earth and sea?
And can an all-creating arm
Grow weary or decay?
Treasures of everlasting might
In our Jehovah dwell;
He gives the conquest to the weak
And treads their foes to hell.
Mere mortal power shall fade and die,
And youthful vigour cease:
But we that wait upon the Lord
Shall feel our strength increase.
The saints shall mount on eagles’ wings,
And taste the promis’d bliss,
Till their unwearied feet arrive
Where perfect pleasure is.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 7:37–39
Christ Reveals the “Living Water”
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We have, first, in these verses, a case supposed. The Lord Jesus says, “If any man thirst.” These words no doubt were meant to have a spiritual meaning. The thirst before us is of a purely spiritual kind. It means anxiety of soul,—conviction of sin,—desire of pardon,—longing after peace of conscience. When a man feels his sins, and wants forgiveness—is deeply sensible of his soul’s need, and earnestly desires help and relief—then he is in that state of mind which our Lord had in view, when he said, “If any man thirst.” The Jews who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost, and were “pricked in their hearts,”—the Philippian jailer who cried to Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” are both examples of what the expression means. In both cases there was “thirst.”
Such thirst as this, unhappily, is known by few. All ought to feel it, and all would feel it if they were wise. Sinful, mortal, dying creatures as we all are, with souls that will one day be judged and spend eternity in heaven or hell, there lives not the man or woman on earth who ought not to “thirst” after salvation. And yet the many thirst after everything almost except salvation. Money, pleasure, honor, rank, self-indulgence,—these are the things which they desire. There is no clearer proof of the fall of man, and the utter corruption of human nature, than the careless indifference of most people about their souls. No wonder the Bible calls the natural man “blind,” and “asleep,” and “dead,” when so few can be found who are awake, alive, and athirst about salvation.
Happy are those who know something by experience of spiritual “thirst.” The beginning of all true Christianity is to discover that we are guilty, empty, needy sinners. Until we know that we are lost, we are not in the way to be saved. The very first step toward heaven is to be thoroughly convinced that we deserve hell. That sense of sin which sometimes alarms a man and makes him think his own case desperate, is a good sign. It is in fact a symptom of spiritual life: ”Blessed indeed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt. v. 6.)
We have, secondly, in these verses, a remedy proposed. The Lord Jesus says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” He declares that He is the true fountain of life, the supplier of all spiritual necessities, the reliever of all spiritual needs. He invites all who feel the burden of sin heavy, to apply to Him, and proclaims Himself their helper.
Those words “let him come unto me,” are few and very simple. But they settle a mighty question which all the wisdom of Greek and Roman philosophers could never settle; they show how man can have peace with God. They show that peace is to be had in Christ by trusting in Him as our mediator and substitute,—in one word, by believing. To “come” to Christ is to believe on Him, and to “believe” on Him is to come. The remedy may seem a very simple one, too simple to be true. But there is no other remedy than this; and all the wisdom of the world can never find a flaw in it, or devise a better.
To use this grand prescription of Christ is the secret of all saving Christianity. The saints of God in every age have been men and women who drank of this fountain by faith, and were relieved. They felt their guilt and emptiness, and thirsted for deliverance. They heard of a full supply of pardon, mercy, and grace in Christ crucified for all penitent believers. They believed the good news and acted upon it. They cast aside all confidence in their own goodness and worthiness, and came to Christ by faith as sinners. So coming they found relief. So coming daily they lived. So coming they died. Really to feel the sinfulness of sin and to thirst, and really to come to Christ and believe, are the two steps which lead to heaven. But they are mighty steps. Thousands are too proud and careless to take them. Few, alas! think, and still fewer believe.
We have, lastly, in these verses, a promise held out. The Lord Jesus says, “He that believeth on me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” These words of course were meant to have a figurative sense. They have a double application. They teach, for one thing, that all who come to Christ by faith shall find in Him abundant satisfaction. They teach, for another thing, that believers shall not only have enough for the needs of their own souls, but shall also become fountains of blessings to others.
The fulfillment of the first part of the promise could be testified by thousands of living Christians in the present day. They would say, if their evidence could be collected, that when they came to Christ by faith, they found in Him more than they expected. They have tasted peace, and hope, and comfort, since they first believed, which, with all their doubts and fears, they would not exchange for anything in this world. They have found grace according to their need, and strength according to their days. In themselves and their own hearts they have often been disappointed; but they have never been disappointed in Christ.
The fulfillment of the other half of the promise will never be fully known until the judgment-day. That day alone shall reveal the amount of good that every believer is made the instrument of doing to others, from the very day of his conversion. Some do good while they live, by their tongues; like the Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel. Some do good when they are dying; like Stephen and the penitent thief, and our own martyred Reformers at the stake. Some do good long after they are dead, by their writings; like Baxter and Bunyan and M’Cheyne. But in one way or another, probably, almost all believers will be found to have been fountains of blessings. By word or by deed, by precept or by example, directly or indirectly, they are always leaving their marks on others. They know it not now; but they will find at last that it is true. Christ’s saying shall be fulfilled.
Do we ourselves know anything of “coming to Christ?” This is the question that should arise in our hearts as we leave this passage. The worst of all states of soul is to be without feeling or concern about eternity,—to be without “thirst.” The greatest of all mistakes is to try to find relief in any other way than the one before us,—the way of simply “coming to Christ.” It is one thing to come to Christ’s Church, Christ’s ministers, and Christ’s ordinances. It is quite another thing to come to Christ Himself. Happy is he who not only knows these things, but acts upon them!—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007).
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 60. (L. M.)
The Virgin Mary’s song. Luke i. 46, &c.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Our souls shall magnify the Lord,
In God the Saviour we rejoice:
While we repeat the Virgin’s song,
May the same Spirit tune our voice!
[The Highest saw her low estate,
And mighty things his hand hath done:
His overshadowing power and grace
Makes her the mother of his Son.
Let ev’ry nation call her bless’d,
And endless years prolong her fame;
But God alone must be ador’d:
Holy and reverend is his name.]
To those that fear and trust the Lord,
His mercy stands for ever sure:
From age to age his promise lives,
And the performance is secure.
He spake to Abra’m and his seed,
“In thee shall all the earth be bless’d;”
The memory of that ancient word
Lay long in his eternal breast.
But now no more shall Isr’el wait,
No more the Gentiles lie forlorn:
Lo, the desire of nations comes;
Behold, the promised seed is born!
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 6:52–59
Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
Let us first consider carefully, what these verses do not mean. The “eating and drinking” of which Christ speaks do not mean any literal eating and drinking. Above all, the words were not spoken with any reference to the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We may eat the Lord’s Supper, and yet not eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. We may eat and drink Christ’s body and blood, and yet not eat the Lord’s Supper. Let this never be forgotten.
The opinion here expressed may startle some who have not looked closely into the subject. But it is an opinion which is supported by three weighty reasons.—For one thing, a literal “eating and drinking” of Christ’s body and blood would have been an idea utterly revolting to all Jews, and flatly contradictory to an often-repeated precept of their law.—For another thing, to take a literal view of “eating and drinking,” is to interpose a bodily act between the soul of man and salvation. This is a thing for which there is no precedent in Scripture. The only things without which we cannot be saved are repentance and faith.—Last, but not least, to take a literal view of “eating and drinking,” would involve most blasphemous and profane consequences. It would shut out of heaven the penitent thief. He died long after these words were spoken, without any literal eating and drinking. Will any dare to say he had “no life” in Him?—It would admit to heaven thousands of ignorant, godless communicants in the present day. They literally eat and drink, no doubt! But they have no eternal life, and will not be raised to glory at the last day. Let these reasons be carefully pondered.
The plain truth is, there is a morbid anxiety in fallen man to put a carnal sense on Scriptural expressions, wherever he possibly can. He struggles hard to make religion a matter of forms and ceremonies,—of doing and performing,—of sacraments and ordinances,—of sense and of sight. He secretly dislikes that system of Christianity which makes the state of the heart the principal thing, and labours to keep sacraments and ordinances in the second place. Happy is that Christian who remembers these things, and stands on his guard! Baptism and the Lord’s supper, no doubt, are holy sacraments, and mighty blessings, when rightly used. But it is worse than useless to drag them in everywhere, and to see them everywhere in God’s Word.
Let us next consider carefully, what these verses do mean. The expressions they contain are, no doubt, very remarkable. Let us try to get some clear notion of their meaning.
The “flesh and blood of the Son of man” mean that sacrifice of His own body, which Christ offered up on the cross, when He died for sinners. The atonement made by His death, the satisfaction made by his sufferings, as our Substitute, the redemption effected by His enduring the penalty of our sins in His own body on the tree,—this seems to be the true idea that we should set before our minds.
The “eating and drinking,” without which there is no life in us, means that reception of Christ’s sacrifice which takes place when a man believes on Christ crucified for salvation. It is an inward and spiritual act of the heart, and has nothing to do with the body. Whenever a man, feeling his own guilt and sinfulness, lays hold on Christ, and trusts in the atonement made for him by Christ’s death, at once he “eats the flesh of the Son of man, and drinks His blood.” His soul feeds on Christ’s sacrifice, by faith, just as his body would feed on bread. Believing, he is said to “eat.” Believing, he is said to “drink.” And the special thing that he eats, and drinks, and gets benefit from, is the atonement made for his sins by Christ’s death for him on Calvary.
The practical lessons which may be gathered from the whole passage are weighty and important. The point being once settled, that “the flesh and blood” in these verses means Christ’s atonement, and the “eating and drinking” mean faith, we may find in these verses great principles of truth, which lie at the very root of Christianity.
We may learn, that faith in Christ’s atonement is a thing of absolute necessity to salvation. Just as there was no safety for the Israelite in Egypt who did not eat the passover-lamb, in the night when the first-born were slain, so there is no life for the sinner who does not eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood.
We may learn that faith in Christ’s atonement unites us by the closest possible bonds to our Saviour, and entitles us to the highest privileges. Our souls shall find full satisfaction for all their wants:—”His flesh is food indeed, and His blood is drink indeed.” All things are secured to us that we can need for time and eternity:—”Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Last, but not least, we may learn that faith in Christ’s atonement is a personal act, a daily act, and an act that can be felt. No one can eat and drink for us, and no one, in like manner, can believe for us.—We need food every day, and not once a week or once a month,—and, in like manner, we need to employ faith every day.—We feel benefit when we have eaten and drunk, we feel strengthened, nourished, and refreshed; and, in like manner, if we believe truly, we shall feel the better for it, by sensible hope and peace in our inward man.
Let us take heed that we use these truths, as well as know them. The food of this world, for which so many take thought, will perish in the using, and not feed our souls. He only that eats of “the bread that came down from heaven” shall live forever.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007), 3:393–396
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
HYMN 30. (L. M.)
Prayer for deliverance answered. Isa. xxvi. 8—12, 20, 21.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
In thine own ways, O God of love,
We wait the visits of thy grace,
Our soul’s desire is to thy name,
And the remembrance of thy face.
My thoughts are searching, Lord, for thee
’Mongst the black shades of lonesome night;
My earnest cries salute the skies
Before the dawn restore the light.
Look, how rebellious men deride
The tender patience of my God!
But they shall see thy lifted hand,
And feel the scourges of thy rod.
Hark! the Eternal rends the sky,
A mighty voice before him goes;
A voice of music to his friends,
But threat’ning thunder to his foes.
Come, children, to your Father’s arms,
Hide in the chambers of my grace,
Till the fierce storms be overblown,
And my revenging fury cease.
My sword shall boast its thousands slain,
And drink the blood of haughty kings,
While heav’nly peace around my flock
Stretches its soft and shady wings.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
John 5:40–47
and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Let us mark, in this passage, the reason why many souls are lost. The Lord Jesus says to the unbelieving Jews,—“Ye will not come to me that ye might have life.”
These words are a golden sentence, which ought to be engraved in our memories, and treasured up in our minds. It is lack of will to come to Christ for salvation that will be found, at last, to have shut the many out of heaven.—It is not men’s sins. All manner of sin may be forgiven.—It is not any decree of God. We are not told in the Bible of any whom God has only created to be destroyed.—It is not any limit in Christ’s work of redemption. He has paid a price sufficient for all mankind.—It is something far more than this. It is man’s own innate unwillingness to come to Christ, repent, and believe. Either from pride, or laziness, or love of sin, or love of the world, the many have no mind, or wish, or heart, or desire to seek life in Christ. “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (1 John v. 11.) But men stand still, and will not stir hand or foot to get life. And this is the whole reason why many of the lost are not saved.
This is a painful and solemn truth, but one that we can never know too well. It contains a first principle in Christian theology. Thousands, in every age, are constantly labouring to shift the blame of their condition from off themselves. They talk of their inability to change. They tell you complacently, that they cannot help being what they are! They know, forsooth, that they are wrong, but they cannot be different! It will not do. Such talk will not stand the test of the Word of Christ before us. The unconverted are what they are because they have no will to be better. “Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.” (John iii. 19.) The words of the Lord Jesus will silence many: “I would have gathered you, and ye would not be gathered.” (Matt. xxiii. 37.)
Let us mark, secondly, in this passage, one principal cause of unbelief. The Lord Jesus says to the Jews,—“How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh of God only?” He meant by that saying, that they were not honest in their religion. With all their apparent desire to hear and learn, they cared more in reality for pleasing man than God. In this state of mind they were never likely to believe.
A deep principle is contained in this saying of our Lord’s, and one that deserves special attention. True faith does not depend merely on the state of man’s head and understanding, but on the state of his heart. His mind may be convinced. His conscience may be pierced. But so long as there is anything the man is secretly loving more than God, there will be no true faith. The man himself may be puzzled, and wonder why he does not believe. He does not see that he is like a child sitting on the lid of his box, and wishing to open it, but not considering that his own weight keeps it shut. Let a man make sure that he honestly and really desires first the praise of God. It is the lack of an honest heart which makes many stick fast in their false religion all their days, and die at length without peace. Those who complain that they hear, and approve, and assent, but make no progress, and cannot get any hold on Christ, should ask themselves this simple question, “Am I honest?—Am I sincere?—Do I really desire first the praise of God?”
Let us mark, lastly, in this passage, the manner in which Christ speaks of Moses. He says to the Jews,—“Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.”
These words demand our special attention in these latter days. That there really was such a person as Moses,—that he really was the author of the writings commonly ascribed to him,—on both these points our Lord’s testimony is distinct. “He wrote of me.” Can we suppose for a moment that our Lord was only accommodating Himself to the prejudices and traditions of His hearers, and that He spoke of Moses as a writer, though He knew in His heart that Moses never wrote at all? Such an idea is profane. It would make out our Lord to have been dishonest.—Can we suppose for a moment that our Lord was ignorant about Moses, and did not know the wonderful discoveries which learned men, falsely so called, have made in the nineteenth century? Such an idea is ridiculous blasphemy. To imagine the Lord Jesus speaking ignorantly in such a chapter as the one before us, is to strike at the root of all Christianity.—There is but one conclusion about the matter. There was such a person as Moses. The writings commonly ascribed to him were written by him. The facts recorded in them are worthy of all credit. Our Lord’s testimony is an unanswerable argument. The skeptical writers against Moses and the Pentateuch have greatly erred.
Let us beware of handling the Old Testament irreverently, and allowing our minds to doubt the truth of any part of it, because of alleged difficulties. The simple fact that the writers of the New Testament continually refer to the Old Testament, and speak even of the most miraculous events recorded in it as undoubtedly true, should silence our doubts. Is it at all likely, probable, or credible, that we of the nineteenth century are better informed about Moses than Jesus and His Apostles? God forbid that we should think so! Then let us stand fast, and not doubt that every word in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, was given by inspiration of God.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007), 3:313–316
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
HYMN 29. (C. M.)
The ruin of Antichrist. Isa. lxiii. 4—7.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
I lift my banner,” saith the Lord,
“Where Antichrist has stood;
The city of my gospel foes
Shall be a field of blood.
“My heart has studied just revenge,
And now the day appears;
The day of my redeem’d is come
To wipe away their tears.
“Quite weary is my patience grown,
And bids my fury go;
Swift as the lightning it shall move,
And be as fatal too.
“I call for helpers, but in vain;
Then has my gospel none?
Well, mine own arm has might enough
To crush my foes alone.
“Slaughter and my devouring sword
Shall walk the streets around,
Babel shall reel beneath my stroke,
And stagger to the ground.”
Thy honours, O victorious King!
Thine own right hand shall raise,
While we thy awful vengeance sing,
And our deliv’rer praise.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures
John 4:31–42
Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
Christ witnesses to the Samaritans
39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Do we do any work for God? Do we try, however feebly, to set forward His cause on earth,—to check that which is evil, to promote that which is good? If we do, let us never be ashamed of doing it with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. Whatsoever our hand finds to do for the souls of others, let us do it with our might. (Eccles. ix. 10.) The world may mock and sneer, and call us enthusiasts. The world can admire zeal in any service but that of God, and can praise enthusiasm on any subject but that of religion. Let us work on unmoved. Whatever men may say and think, we are walking in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us, beside this, take comfort in the thought that Jesus Christ never changes. He that sat by the well of Samaria, and found it “food and drink” to do good to an ignorant soul, is always in one mind. High in heaven at God’s right hand, He still delights to save sinners, and still approves zeal and labour in the cause of God. The work of the missionary and the evangelist may be despised and ridiculed in many quarters. But while man is mocking, Christ is well pleased! Thanks be to God, Jesus is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.
We have, for another thing, in these verses, strong encouragement held out to those who labour to do good to souls. We read, that our Lord described the world as a “field white for the harvest;” and then said to His disciples, “He that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.”
Work for the souls of men, is undoubtedly attended by great discouragements. The heart of natural man is very hard and unbelieving. The blindness of unsaved men to their own lost condition and peril of ruin, is something past description. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” (Rom. viii. 7.) No one can have any just idea of the desperate hardness of men and women, until he has tried to do good. No one can have any conception of the small number of those who repent and believe, until he has personally endeavoured to “save some.” (1 Cor. ix. 22.) To suppose that everybody will become a true Christian, who is told about Christ, and entreated to believe, is mere childish ignorance. “Few there be that find the narrow way!” The labourer for Christ will find the vast majority of those among whom he labours, unbelieving and impenitent, in spite of all that he can do. “The many” will not turn to Christ. These are discouraging facts. But they are facts, and facts that ought to be known.
The true antidote against despondency in God’s work, is an abiding recollection of such promises as that before us. There are “wages” laid up for faithful reapers. They shall receive a reward at the last day, far exceeding anything they have done for Christ,—a reward proportioned not to their success, but to the quantity of their work.—They are gathering “fruit,” which shall endure when this world has passed away,—fruit, in some souls saved, if many will not believe, and fruit in evidences of their own faithfulness, to be brought out before assembled worlds. Do our hands ever hang down, and our knees wax faint? Do we feel disposed to say, “my labour is in vain and my words without profit.” Let us lean back at such seasons on this glorious promise. There are “wages” yet to be paid. There is “fruit” yet to be exhibited. “We are a sweet savour of Christ, both in those who are saved and in those who perish.” (2 Cor. ii. 15.) Let us work on. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalm cxxvi. 6.) One single soul saved, shall outlive and outweigh all the kingdoms of the world.
We have, lastly, in these verses, a most teaching instance of the variety of ways by which men are led to believe Christ. We read that “many of the Samaritans believed on Christ for the saying of the woman.” But this is not all. We read again, “Many more believed because of Christ’s own word.” In short, some were converted trough the means of the woman’s testimony, and some were converted by hearing Christ Himself.
The words of Paul should never be forgotten, “There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” (1 Cor. xii. 6.) The way in which the Spirit leads all God’s people is always one and the same. But the paths by which they are severally brought into that road are often widely different. There are some in whom the work of conversion is sudden and instantaneous. There are others in whom it goes on slowly, quietly, and by imperceptible degrees. Some have their hearts gently opened, like Lydia. Others are aroused by violent alarm, like the jailor at Philippi. All are finally brought to repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and holiness of conversation. But all do not begin with the same experience. The weapon which carries conviction to one believer’s soul, is not the one which first pierces another. The arrows of the Holy Spirit are all drawn from the same quiver. But He uses sometimes one and sometimes another, according to His own sovereign will.
Are we converted ourselves? This is the one point to which our attention ought to be directed. Our experience may not tally with that of other believers. But that is not the question. Do we feel sin, hate it, and flee from it? Do we love Christ, and rest solely on Him for salvation? Are we bringing forth fruits of the Spirit in righteousness and true holiness? If these things are so we may thank God, and take courage.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007), 3:238–241
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
HYMN 28 (C. M.)
The triumph of Christ over the enemies of his church. Isa. lxi. 1—3, &c.
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
WHAT mighty man, or mighty God,
Comes travelling in state,
Along the Idumean road,
Away from Bozrah’s gate?
The glory of his robes proclaim
’Tis some victorious king:
“’Tis I, the Just, th’ Almighty One,
That your salvation bring.”
“Why, mighty Lord,” thy saints inquire,
“Why thine apparel’s red?
And all thy vesture stain’d like those
Who in the wine-press tread?”
“I by myself have trod the press,
And crush’d my foes alone;
My wrath has struck the rebels dead,
My fury stamp’d them down.
“’Tis Edom’s blood that dyes my robes
With joyful scarlet stains;
The triumph that my raiment wears
Sprung from their bleeding veins.
“Thus shall the nations be destroy’d
That dare insult my saints;
I have an arm t’ avenge their wrongs,
An ear for their complaints.”
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures
The Gospel According to John
Christ Witnesses to Nicodemus
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
We should notice, firstly, in these verses, what a weak and feeble beginning a man may make in religion, and yet finally prove a strong Christian. We are told of a certain Pharisee, named Nicodemus, who feeling concerned about his soul, “came to Jesus by night.”
There can be little doubt that Nicodemus acted as he did on this occasion from the fear of man. He was afraid of what man would think, or say, or do, if his visit to Jesus was known. He came “by night,” because he had not faith and courage enough to come by day. And yet there was a time afterwards when this very Nicodemus took our Lord’s part in open day in the council of the Jews. “Doth our law judge any man,” he said, “before it hear him, and know what he doeth.” (John vii. 51.)—Nor was this all. There came a time when this very Nicodemus was one of the only two men who did honour to our Lord’s dead body. He helped Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus, when even the apostles had forsaken their Master and fled. His last things were more than his first. Though he began badly, he ended well.
The history of Nicodemus is meant to teach us that we should never “despise the day of small things” in religion. (Zec. iv. 10.) We must not set down a man as having no grace, because his first steps towards God are timid and wavering, and the first movements of his soul are uncertain, hesitating, and stamped with much imperfection. We must remember our Lord’s reception of Nicodemus. He did not “break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax,” which He saw before Him. (Matt. xii. 20.) Like Him, let us take inquirers by the hand, and deal with them gently and lovingly. In everything there must be a beginning. It is not those who make the most flaming profession of religion at first, who endure the longest and prove the most steadfast. Judas Iscariot was an apostle when Nicodemus was just groping his way slowly into full light, Yet afterwards, when Nicodemus was boldly helping to bury his crucified Saviour, Judas Iscariot had betrayed Him, and hanged himself! This is a fact which ought not to be forgotten.
We should notice, secondly, in these verses, what a mighty change our Lord declares to be needful to salvation, and what a remarkable expression He uses in describing it. He speaks of a new birth. He says to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He announces the same truth in other words, in order to make it more plain to his hearer’s mind: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” By this expression He meant Nicodemus to understand that “no one could become His disciple, unless his inward man was as thoroughly cleansed and renewed by the Spirit, as the outward man is cleansed by water.” To possess the privileges of Judaism a man only needed to be born of the seed of Abraham after the flesh. To possess the privileges of Christ’s kingdom, a man must be born again of the Holy Spirit.
The change which our Lord here declares needful to salvation is evidently no slight or superficial one. It is not merely reformation, or amendment, or moral change, or outward alteration of life. It is a thorough change of heart, will, and character. It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is a passing from death to life. It is the implanting in our dead hearts of a new principle from above. It is the calling into existence of a new creature, with a new nature, new habits of life, new tastes, new desires, new appetites, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, and new fears. All this, and nothing less than this is implied, when our Lord declares that we all need a “new birth.”
This change of heart is rendered absolutely necessary to salvation by the corrupt condition in which we are all, without exception, born. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Our nature is thoroughly fallen. The carnal mind is enmity against God. (Rom. viii. 7.) We come into the world without faith, or love, or fear toward God. We have no natural inclination to serve Him or obey Him, and no natural pleasure in doing His will. Left to himself, no child of Adam would ever turn to God. The truest description of the change which we all need in order to make us real Christians, is the expression, “new birth.”
This mighty change, it must never be forgotten, we cannot give to ourselves. The very name which our Lord gives to it is a convincing proof of this. He calls it “a birth.” No man is the author of his own existence, and no man can quicken his own soul. We might as well expect a dead man to give himself life, as expect a natural man to make himself spiritual. A power from above must be put in exercise, even that same power which created the world. (2 Cor. iv. 6.) Man can do many things; but he cannot give life either to himself or to others. To give life is the peculiar prerogative of God. Well may our Lord declare that we need to be “born again!”
This mighty change, we must, above all, remember, is a thing without which we cannot go to heaven, and could not enjoy heaven if we went there. Our Lord’s words on this point are distinct and express. “Except a man be born again, he can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God.” Heaven may be reached without money, or rank, or learning. But it is clear as daylight, if words have any meaning, that nobody can enter heaven without a “new birth.”
We should notice, lastly, in these verses, the instructive comparison which our Lord uses in explaining the new birth. He saw Nicodemus perplexed and astonished by the things he had just heard. He graciously helped his wondering mind by an illustration drawn from “the wind.” A more beautiful and fitting illustration of the work of the Spirit it is impossible to conceive.
There is much about the wind that is mysterious and inexplicable. “You can not tell,” says our Lord, “whence it comes and where it goes.” We cannot handle it with our hands, or see it with our eyes. When the wind blows, we cannot point out the exact spot where its breath first began to be felt, and the exact distance to which its influence shall extend. But we do not on that account deny its presence.—It is just the same with the operations of the Spirit, in the new birth of man. They may be mysterious, sovereign, and incomprehensible to us in many ways. But it is foolish to stumble at them because there is much about those who we cannot explain.
But whatever mystery there may be about the wind, its presence may always be known by its sound and effects. “Thou hearest the sound thereof,” says our Lord. When our ears hear it whistling in the windows, and our eyes see the clouds driving before it, we do not hesitate to say, “There is wind.”—It is just the same with the operations of the Holy Spirit in the new birth of man. Marvelous and incomprehensible as His work may be, it is work that can always be seen and known. The new birth is a thing that “cannot be hid.” There will always be visible “fruits of the Spirit” in every one that is born of the Spirit.
Would we know what the marks of the new birth are?—We shall find them already written for our learning in the First Epistle of St. John. The man born of God “believes that Jesus is the Christ,”—“doth not commit sin,”—“doeth righteousness,”—“loves the brethren,”—“overcomes the world,”—“keepeth himself from the wicked one.”—This is the man born of the Spirit! Where these fruits are to be seen, there is the new birth of which our Lord is speaking. He that lacks these marks, is yet dead in trespasses and sins. (1 John v. 1; iii. 9; ii. 29; iii. 14; v. 4; v. 18.)
And now let us solemnly ask ourselves whether we know anything of the mighty change of which we have been reading? Have we been born again? Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us? Can the sound of the Spirit be heard in our daily conversation? Is the image and superscription of the Spirit to be discerned in our lives?—Happy is the man who can give satisfactory answers to these questions! A day will come when those who are not born again will wish that they had never been born at all.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007), 3:118–123
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
HYMN 27 (C. M.)
Assurance of heaven. 2 Tim. iv. 6—8, 18.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Death may dissolve my body now,
And bear my spirit home;
Why do my minutes move so slow,
Nor my salvation come?
With heav’nly weapons I have fought
The battles of the Lord;
Finished my course, and kept the faith,
And wait the sure reward.]
God has laid up in heav’n for me
A crown which cannot fade;
The righteous Judge at that great day
Shall place it on my head.
Nor hath the King of grace decreed
This prize for me alone;
But all that love and long to see
Th’ appearance of his Son.
Jesus the Lord shall guard me safe
From every ill design;
And to his heav’nly kingdom keep
This feeble soul of mine.
God is my everlasting aid,
And hell shall rage in vain;
To him be highest glory paid
And endless praise—Amen.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures
John 1:19–28
19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
We have, for one thing, in these verses, an instructive example of true humility. That example is supplied by John the Baptist himself.
John the Baptist was an eminent saint of God. There are few names which stand higher than his in the Bible calendar of great and good men. The Lord Jesus Himself declared that “Among those who are born of woman there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” (Matt. xi. 11.) The Lord Jesus Himself declared that he was “a burning and a shining light.” (John v. 35.) Yet here in this passage we see this eminent saint lowly, self-abased, and full of humility. He puts away from himself the honor which the Jews from Jerusalem were ready to pay him. He declines all flattering titles. He speaks of himself as nothing more than the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” and as one who “baptized with water.” He proclaims loudly that there is One standing among the Jews far greater than himself, One whose shoe-latchet he is not worthy to unloose. He claims honor not for himself but for Christ. To exalt Christ was his mission, and to that mission he steadfastly adheres.
The greatest saints of God in every age of the Church have always been men of John the Baptist’s spirit. In gifts, and knowledge, and general character they have often differed widely. But in one respect they have always been alike;—they have been “clothed with humility.” (1 Pet. v. 5.) They have not sought their own honor. They have thought little of themselves. They have been ever willing to decrease if Christ might only increase, to be nothing if Christ might be all. And here has been the secret of the honor God has put upon them. “He that humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Luke xiv. 11.)
If we profess to have any real Christianity, let us strive to be of John the Baptist’s spirit. Let us study humility. This is the grace with which all must begin, who would be saved. We have no true religion about us, until we cast away our high thoughts, and feel ourselves sinners.—This is the grace which all saints may follow after, and which none have any excuse for neglecting. All God’s children have not gifts, or money, or time to work, or a wide sphere of usefulness; but all may be humble.—This is the grace, above all, which will appear most beautiful in our latter end. Never shall we feel the need of humility so deeply, as when we lie on our deathbeds, and stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. Our whole lives will then appear a long catalogue of imperfections, ourselves nothing, and Christ all.
We have, for another thing, in these verses, a mournful example of the blindness of unconverted men. That example is supplied by the state of the Jews who came to question John the Baptist.
These Jews professed to be waiting for the appearance of Messiah. Like all the Pharisees they prided themselves on being children of Abraham, and possessors of the covenants. They rested in the law, and made their boast of God. They professed to know God’s will, and to believe God’s promises. They were confident that they themselves were guides of the blind, and lights of those who sat in darkness. (Rom. ii. 17—19.) And yet at this very moment their souls were utterly in the dark. “There was standing among them,” as John the Baptist told them, “One whom they knew not.” Christ Himself, the promised Messiah, was in the midst of them, and yet they neither knew Him, nor saw Him, nor received Him, nor acknowledged Him, nor believed Him. And worse than this, the vast majority of them never would know Him! The words of John the Baptist are a prophetic description of a state of things which lasted during the whole of our Lord’s earthly ministry. Christ “stood among the Jews,” and yet the Jews knew Him not, and the greater part of them died in their sins.
It is a solemn thought that John the Baptist’s words in this place apply strictly to thousands in the present day. Christ is still standing among many who neither see, nor know, nor believe. Christ is passing by in many a parish and many a congregation, and the vast majority have neither an eye to see Him, nor an ear to hear Him. The spirit of slumber seems poured out upon them. Money, and pleasure, and the world they know; but they know not Christ. The kingdom of God is close to them; but they sleep. Salvation is within their reach; but they sleep. Mercy, grace, peace, heaven, eternal life, are so near that they might touch them; and yet they sleep. “Christ stands among them and they know him not.” These are sorrowful things to write down. But every faithful minister of Christ can testify, like John the Baptist, that they are true. What are we doing ourselves? This, after all, is the great question that concerns us. Do we know the extent of our religious privileges in this country, and in these times? Are we aware that Christ is going to and fro in our land, inviting souls to join Him and to be His disciples? Do we know that the time is short and that the door of mercy will soon be closed for evermore? Do we know that Christ rejected will soon be Christ withdrawn? Happy are they who can give a good account of these inquiries and who “know the day of their visitation!” (Luke xix. 44.) It will be better at the last day never to have been born, than to have had Christ “standing among us” and not to have known Him.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007), 3:43–46
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 26 (C. M.)
Hope of heaven by the resurrection of Christ. 1 Pet. i. 3—5.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Bless’d be the everlasting God,
The Father of our Lord;
Be his abounding mercy prais’d,
His majesty ador’d.
When from the dead he rais’d his Son,
And call’d him to the sky,
He gave our souls a lively hope
That they should never die.
What though our inbred sins require
Our flesh to see the dust,
Yet as the Lord our Savior rose,
So all his followers must.
There’s an inheritance divine
Reserved against that day;
’Tis uncorrupted, undefil’d,
And cannot waste away.
Saints by the power of God are kept
Till the salvation come;
We walk by faith as strangers here,
Till Christ shall call us home.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures
Psalme 119:161–168
(Geneva Bible)
Schin.
161 Princes haue persecuted mee without cause, but mine heart stood in awe of thy wordes.
162 I reioyce at thy worde, as one that findeth a great spoyle.
163 I hate falshoode and abhorre it, but thy Lawe doe I loue.
164 Seuen times a day doe I praise thee, because of thy righteous iudgements.
165 They that loue thy Law, shall haue great prosperitie, and they shall haue none hurt.
166 Lord, I haue trusted in thy saluation, and haue done thy commandements.
167 My soule hath kept thy testimonies: for I loue them exceedingly.
168 I haue kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my wayes are before thee.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 25 (L. M.)
A vision of the Lamb. Rev. v. 6—9.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
All mortal vanities, begone,
Nor tempt my eyes, nor tire my ears;
Behold, amidst th’ eternal throne,
A vision of the Lamb appears.
[Glory his fleecy robe adorns,
Mark’d with the bloody death he bore;
Seven are his eyes, and seven his horns,
To speak his wisdom and his power.
Lo! he receives a sealed book
From him that sits upon the throne;
Jesus, my Lord, prevails to look
On dark decrees and things unknown.]
All the assembling saints around
Fall worshipping before the Lamb,
And in new songs of gospel sound
Address their honours to his name.
[The joy, the shout, the harmony,
Flies o’er the everlasting hills
“Worthy art thou alone,” they cry,
“To read the book, to loose the seals.”]
Our voices join the heav’nly strain,
And with transporting pleasure sing—
“Worthy the Lamb that once was slain,
To be our Teacher and our King!”
His words of prophecy reveal
Eternal counsels, deep designs;
His grace and vengeance shall fulfil
The peaceful and the dreadful lines.
Thou hast redeem’d our souls from hell
With thine invaluable blood;
And wretches that did once rebel
Are now made fav’rites of their God.
Worthy for ever is the Lord,
That died for treasons not his own,
By ev’ry tongue to be ador’d,
And dwell upon his Father’s throne!
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures
Psalme 119:113–120
(Geneva Bible)
Samech.
113 I hate vaine inuentions: but thy Lawe doe I loue.
114 Thou art my refuge and shield, and I trust in thy worde.
115 Away from mee, yee wicked: for I will keepe the commandements of my God.
116 Stablish me according to thy promise, that I may liue, and disappoint me not of mine hope.
117 Stay thou mee, and I shall be safe, and I will delite continually in thy statutes.
118 Thou hast troden downe all them that depart from thy statutes: for their deceit is vaine.
119 Thou hast taken away all ye wicked of the earth like drosse: therefore I loue thy testimonies.
120 My flesh trembleth for feare of thee, and I am afraide of thy iudgements.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 24 (L. M.)
The rich sinner dying. Psa. xlix. 6, 9; Eccl. viii. 8; Job iii. 14, 15.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
In vain the wealthy mortals toil,
And heap their shining dust in vain,
Look down and scorn the humble poor,
And boast their lofty hills of gain.
Their golden cordials cannot ease
Their pained hearts or aching heads,
Nor fright nor bribe approaching death
From glitt’ring roofs and downy beds.
The ling’ring, the unwilling soul
The dismal summons must obey,
And bid a long, a sad farewell
To the pale lump of lifeless clay.
Thence they are huddled to the grave,
Where kings and slaves have equal thrones;
Their bones without distinction lie
Amongst the heap of meaner bones.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 119:65–72
(Geneva Bible)
Teth.
65 O Lord, thou hast delt graciously with thy seruant according vnto thy woorde.
66 Teach me good iudgement and knowledge: for I haue beleeued thy commandements.
67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray: but nowe I keepe thy woorde.
68 Thou art good and gracious: teach me thy statutes.
69 The proud haue imagined a lie against me: but I wil keepe thy precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is fatte as grease: but my delite is in thy Lawe.
71 It is good for me that I haue beene afflicted, that I may learne thy statutes.
72 The Lawe of thy mouth is better vnto me, then thousands of golde and siluer.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 23 Part 2. (L. M.)
A hopeful youth falling short of heaven. Mark x. 21.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
MUST all the charms of nature, then,
So hopeless to salvation prove?
Can hell demand, can heav’n condemn,
The man whom Jesus deigns to love?
The man who sought the ways of truth,
Paid friends and neighbors all their due;
A modest, sober, lovely youth,
And thought he wanted nothing new.
But mark the change; thus spake the Lord—
“Come, part with earth for heav’n today:”
The youth, astonished at the word,
In silent sadness went his way.
Poor virtues that he boasted so,
This test unable to endure;
Let Christ, and grace, and glory go,
To make his land and money sure!
Ah, foolish choice of treasures here!
Ah, fatal love of tempting gold!
Must this base world be bought so dear?
Are life and heav’n so cheaply sold?
In vain the charms of nature shine,
If this vile passion govern me:
Transform my soul, O love divine!
And make me part with all for thee.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 119:17–24
(Geneva Bible)
Gimmel.
18 Open mine eies, that I may see the wonders of thy Lawe.
19 I am a stranger vpon earth: hide not thy commandements from me.
20 Mine heart breaketh for the desire to thy iudgements alway.
21 Thou hast destroied the proud: cursed are they that doe erre from thy commandements.
22 Remoue from mee shame and contempt: for I haue kept thy testimonies.
23 Princes also did sit, and speake against me: but thy seruant did meditate in thy statutes.
24 Also thy testimonies are my delite, and my counsellers.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 19. (C. M.)
The song of Simeon; or, Death made desirable. Luke ii. 27, &c.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
LORD, at thy temple we appear,
As happy Simeon came,
And hope to meet our Savior here;
O make our joys the same!
With what divine and vast delight
The good old man was filled,
When fondly in his withered arms
He clasped the holy child!
“Now I can leave this world,” he cried,
“Behold, thy servant dies;
I've seen thy great salvation, Lord,
And close my peaceful eyes.
“This is the light prepared to shine
Upon the Gentile lands,
Thine Isr’el’s glory, and their hope
To break their slavish bands.”
[Jesus! the vision of thy face
Hath overpowering charms;
Scarce shall I feel death’s cold embrace,
If Christ be in my arms.
Then while ye hear my heart-strings break,
How sweet my minutes roll!
A mortal paleness on my cheek,
And glory in my soul.]
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
Psalme 91
Geneva Bible.
1 Who so dwelleth in the secrete of the most High, shall abide in the shadowe of the Almightie.
2 I will say vnto the Lord, O mine hope, and my fortresse: he is my God, in him will I trust.
3 Surely he will deliuer thee from the snare of the hunter, and from the noysome pestilence.
4 Hee will couer thee vnder his winges, and thou shalt be sure vnder his feathers: his trueth shall be thy shielde and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraide of the feare of the night, nor of the arrowe that flyeth by day:
6 Nor of the pestilence that walketh in the darkenesse: nor of the plague that destroyeth at noone day.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and tenne thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come neere thee.
8 Doubtlesse with thine eyes shalt thou beholde and see the reward of the wicked.
9 For thou hast said, The Lord is mine hope: thou hast set the most High for thy refuge.
10 There shall none euill come vnto thee, neither shall any plague come neere thy tabernacle.
11 For hee shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes.
12 They shall beare thee in their handes, that thou hurt not thy foote against a stone.
13 Thou shalt walke vpon the lyon and aspe: the yong lyon and the dragon shalt thou treade vnder feete.
14 Because he hath loued me, therefore will I deliuer him: I will exalt him because hee hath knowen my Name.
15 He shall call vpon me, and I wil heare him: I will be with him in trouble: I will deliuer him, and glorifie him.
16 With long life wil I satisfie him, and shew him my saluation.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 23 Part 1. (L. M.)
Absent from the body, and present with the Lord. 2 Cor. v. 8.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ABSENT from flesh! O blissful thought!
What unknown joys this moment brings!
Freed from the mischiefs sin has brought,
From pains, and fears, and all their springs.
Absent from flesh! illustrious day!
Surprising scene! triumphant stroke
That rends the prison of my clay;
And I can feel my fetters broke.
Absent from flesh! then rise, my soul,
Where feet nor wings could never climb,
Beyond the heav’ns, where planets roll,
Measuring the cares and joys of time.
I go where God and glory shine,
His presence makes eternal day:
My all that’s mortal I resign,
For angels wait and point my way.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 70
Geneva Bible.
To him excelleth. A Psalme of David to put in remembrance.
1 O God, haste thee to deliuer mee: make haste to helpe me, O Lord.
2 Let them be confounded and put to shame, that seeke my soule: let them bee turned backewarde and put to rebuke, that desire mine hurt.
3 Let them be turned backe for a rewarde of their shame, which said, Aha, aha.
4 But let all those that seeke thee, be ioyfull and glad in thee, and let all that loue thy saluation, say alwaies, God be praised.
5 Nowe I am poore and needie: O God, make haste to me: thou art mine helper, and my deliuerer: O Lord, make no tarying.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 22 Part 2. (C. M.)
Flesh and spirit. Rom. xiii. 1.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
WHAT vain desires and passions vain
Attend this mortal clay!
Oft have they pierced my soul with pain,
And drawn my heart astray.
How have I wander‘d from my God!
And, following sin and shame,
In this vile world of flesh and blood
Defiled my nobler frame!
For ever blessed be thy grace
That form‘d my soul anew,
And made it of a heav‘n-born race,
Thy glory to pursue.
My spirit holds perpetual war,
And wrestles and complains;
But views the happy moment near
That shall dissolve its chains.
Cheerful in death I close my eyes
To part with ev‘ry lust;
And charge my flesh, whene‘er it rise,
To leave them in the dust.
My purer spirit shall not fear
To put this body on;
Its tempting powers no more are there,
Its lusts and passions gone!
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 28
Geneva Bible.
A Psalme of David.
1 Unto thee, O Lord, doe I crie: O my strength, be not deafe toward mee, lest, if thou answere me not, I be like them that goe downe into the pit.
2 Heare the voyce of my petitions, when I crie vnto thee, when I holde vp mine handes towarde thine holy Oracle.
3 Drawe mee not away with the wicked, and with the woorkers of iniquitie: which speake friendly to their neighbours, when malice is in their hearts.
4 Reward them according to their deedes, and according to the wickednes of their inuentions: recompense them after the woorke of their handes: render them their reward.
5 For they regarde not the woorkes of the Lord, nor the operation of his handes: therefore breake them downe, and builde them not vp.
6 Praised be the Lord, for he hath heard the voyce of my petitions.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shielde: mine heart trusted in him, and I was helped: therfore mine heart shall reioyce, and with my song will I praise him.
8 The Lord is their strength, and he is the strength of the deliuerances of his anointed.
9 Saue thy people, and blesse thine inheritance: feede them also, and exalt them for euer.
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Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 22 Part 1. (L. M.)
Christ the eternal life. Rom. ix. 5.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
JESUS, our Savior and our God,
Array’d in majesty and blood,
Thou art our life; our souls in thee
Possess a full felicity.
All our immortal hopes are laid
In thee, our surety and our head;
Thy cross, thy cradle, and thy throne,
Are big with glories yet unknown.
Let atheists scoff, and Jews blaspheme
Th’ eternal life and Jesus’ name;
A word of thy almighty breath
Dooms the rebellious world to death.
But let my soul for ever lie
Beneath the blessings of thine eye;
’Tis heav’n on earth, ’tis heav’n above,
To see thy face and taste thy love.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 150
(Geneva Bible)
1 Praise ye the Lord, because he is good: for his mercie endureth for euer.
2 Praise ye the God of gods: for his mercie endureth for euer.
3 Praise ye the Lord of Lords: for his mercie endureth for euer:
4 Which onely doeth great wonders: for his mercie endureth for euer:
5 Which by his wisedome made the heauens: for his mercie endureth for euer:
6 Which hath stretched out the earth vpon the waters: for his mercie endureth for euer:
7 Which made great lightes: for his mercie endureth for euer:
8 As the sunne to rule the day: for his mercie endureth for euer:
9 The moone and the starres to gouerne the night: for his mercie endureth for euer:
10 Which smote Egypt with their first borne, (for his mercie endureth for euer)
11 And brought out Israel from among them (for his mercie endureth for euer)
12 With a mightie hande and stretched out arme: for his mercie endureth for euer:
13 Which deuided the red Sea in two partes: for his mercie endureth for euer:
14 And made Israel to passe through the mids of it: for his mercie endureth for euer:
15 And ouerthrewe Pharaoh and his hoste in the red Sea: for his mercie endureth for euer:
16 Which led his people through the wildernes: for his mercie endureth for euer:
17 Which smote great Kings: for his mercie endureth for euer:
18 And slewe mightie Kings: for his mercie endureth for euer:
19 As Sihon King of the Amorites: for his mercie endureth for euer:
20 And Og the King of Bashan: for his mercie endureth for euer:
21 And gaue their land for an heritage: for his mercie endureth for euer:
22 Euen an heritage vnto Israel his seruant: for his mercie endureth for euer:
23 Which remembred vs in our base estate: for his mercie endureth for euer:
24 And hath rescued vs from our oppressours: for his mercie endureth for euer:
25 Which giueth foode to all flesh: for his mercie endureth for euer.
26 Praise ye the God of heauen: for his mercie endureth for euer.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 21. (C. M.)
A vision of the kingdom of Christ among men. Rev. xxi. 1–4.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
LO! what a glorious sight appears
To our believing eyes!
The earth and sea are passed away,
And the old rolling skies.
From the third heav’n, where God resides,
That holy, happy place,
The new Jerusalem comes down,
Adorned with shining grace.
Attending angels shout for joy,
And the bright armies sing—
“Mortals, behold the sacred seat
Of your descending King.
“The God of glory down to men
Removes his blest abode;
Men, the dear objects of his grace,
And he the loving God.
“His own soft hand shall wipe the tears
From every weeping eye,
And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,
And death itself, shall die.”
How long, dear Savior! O how long
Shall this bright hour delay?
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time,
And bring the welcome day.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 123
Geneva Bible.
A song of degrees.
1 I lift vp mine eyes to thee, that dwellest in the heauens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of seruants looke vnto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a mayden vnto the hand of her mistres: so our eyes waite vpon the Lord our God vntil he haue mercie vpon vs.
3 Haue mercie vpon vs, O Lord, haue mercie vpon vs: for we haue suffered too much contempt.
4 Our soule is filled too full of ye mocking of the wealthy, and of the despitefulnes of the proude.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 20. (C. M.)
Spiritual apparel. Isa. lxi. 10.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
WAKE, my heart; arise, my tongue,
Prepare a tuneful voice;
In God, the life of all my joys,
Aloud will I rejoice.
’Tis he adorned my naked soul,
And made salvation mine;
Upon a poor polluted worm
He makes his graces shine.
And lest the shadow of a spot
Should on my soul be found,
He took the robe the Savior wrought,
And cast it all around.
How far the heav’nly robe exceeds
What earthly princes wear
These ornaments, how bright they shine!
How white the garments are!
The Spirit wrought my faith, and love,
And hope, and every grace;
But Jesus spent his life to work
The robe of righteousness.
Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed
By the great Sacred Three!
In sweetest harmony of praise
Let all thy powers agree.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 81 Geneva Bible.
To him that excelleth upon Gittith.
A Psalme committed to Asaph.
1 Sing ioyfully vnto God our strength: sing loude vnto the God of Iaakob.
2 Take the song and bring forth the timbrel, the pleasant harpe with the viole.
3 Blowe the trumpet in the newe moone, euen in the time appointed, at our feast day.
4 For this is a statute for Israel, and a Law of the God of Iaakob.
5 Hee set this in Ioseph for a testimonie, when hee came out of the land of Egypt, where I heard a language, that I vnderstoode not.
6 I haue withdrawen his shoulder from the burden, and his handes haue left the pots.
7 Thou calledst in affliction and I deliuered thee, and answered thee in the secret of the thunder: I prooued thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
8 Heare, O my people, and I wil protest vnto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken vnto me,
9 Let there bee no strange god in thee, neither worship thou any strange god.
10 For I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not heare my voyce, and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gaue them vp vnto the hardnesse of their heart, and they haue walked in their owne cousels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened vnto me, and Israel had walked in my wayes.
14 I would soone haue humbled their enemies, and turned mine hand against their aduersaries.
15 The haters of the Lord should haue bene subiect vnto him, and their time should haue endured for euer.
16 And God would haue fedde them with the fatte of wheat, and with honie out of the rocke would I haue sufficed thee.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 18. (C. M.)
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Rev. xiv. 13.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
EAR what the voice from heav’n proclaims,
For all the pious dead;
Sweet is the savor of their names,
And soft their sleeping bed.
They die in Jesus, and are blest;
How kind their slumbers are!
From suff’rings and from sins released,
And freed from every snare.
Far from this world of toil and strife,
They’re present with the Lord;
The labors of their mortal life
End in a large reward.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 46 Geneva Bible.
To him that excelleth upon Alamoth.
A song committed to the sonnes of Korah.
1 God is our hope and strength, and helpe in troubles, ready to be found.
2 Therefore will not we feare, though the earth be moued, and though the mountaines fall into the middes of the sea.
3 Though the waters thereof rage and be troubled, and the mountaines shake at the surges of the same. Selah,
4 Yet there is a Riuer, whose streames shall make glad the citie of God: euen the Sanctuarie of the Tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the middes of it: therefore shall it not be moued: God shall helpe it very earely.
6 When the nations raged, and the kingdomes were moued, God thundred, and the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hostes is with vs: the God of Iaakob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, and behold the workes of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh warres to cease vnto the endes of the world: he breaketh the bowe and cutteth the speare, and burneth the chariots with fire.
10 Be still and knowe that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, and I wil be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hostes is with vs: the God of Iaakob is our refuge. Selah.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 16. (C. M.)
Hosannah to Christ. Matt. xxi. 9; Luke xix. 38, 40.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
OSANNAH to the royal Son
Of David‘s ancient line!
His natures two, his person one,
Mysterious and divine.
The root of David here, we find,
And offspring is the same:
Eternity and time are joined
In our Immanuel's name.
Blest he that comes to wretched men
With peaceful news from heav‘n!
Hosannahs of the highest strain
To Christ the Lord be giv‘n!
Let mortals ne‘er refuse to take
Th‘ hosannah on their tongues,
Lest rocks and stones should rise and break
Their silence into songs.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 39
Geneva Bible
To the excellent musician Ieduthun.
1 I thought, I will take heede to my wayes, that I sinne not with my tongue: I will keepe my mouth brideled, while the wicked is in my sight.
2 I was dumme and spake nothing: I kept silece euen from good, and my sorow was more stirred.
3 Mine heart was hote within me, and while I was musing, the fire kindeled, and I spake with my tongue, saying,
4 Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue.
5 Beholde, thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth, and mine age as nothing in respect of thee: surely euery man in his best state is altogether vanitie. Selah.
6 Doubtlesse man walketh in a shadowe, and disquieteth himselfe in vaine: he heapeth vp riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.
7 And now Lord, what wait I for? mine hope is euen in thee.
8 Deliuer me from all my transgressions, and make me not a rebuke vnto the foolish.
9 I should haue bene dumme, and not haue opened my mouth, because thou didest it.
10 Take thy plague away from mee: for I am consumed by the stroke of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes doest chastise man for iniquitie, thou as a mothe makest his beautie to consume: surely euery man is vanitie. Selah.
12 Heare my prayer, O Lord, and hearken vnto my cry: keepe not silence at my teares, for I am a strager with thee, and a soiourner as all my fathers.
13 Stay thine anger from me, that I may recouer my strength, before I go hence and be not.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 15. (L. M.)
Our own weakness, and Christ our strength. 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9, 10.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
et me but hear my Savior say,
“Strength shall be equal to thy day,”
Then I rejoice in deep distress,
Leaning on all-sufficient grace.
I glory in infirmity,
That Christ’s own power may rest on me:
When I am weak, then am I strong,
Grace is my shield, and Christ my song.
I can do all things, or can bear
All suff’rings, if my Lord be there;
Sweet pleasures mingle with the pains,
While his left hand my head sustains.
But if the Lord be once withdrawn,
And we attempt the work alone,
When new temptations spring and rise,
We find how great our weakness is.
[So Samson, when his hair was lost,
Met the Philistines to his cost;
Shook his vain limbs with sad surprise,
Made feeble fight, and lost his eyes.]
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 133
Geneva Bible
A song of degrees or Psalme of David.
1 Behold, howe good and howe comely a thing it is, brethren to dwell euen together.
2 It is like to the precious oyntment vpon the head, that runneth downe vpon the beard, euen vnto Aarons beard, which went downe on the border of his garments:
3 And as the dew of Hermon, which falleth vpon the mountaines of Zion: for there the Lord appointed the blessing and life for euer.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 14. (L. M.)
The triumph of faith or, Christ's unchangeable love. Romans viii. 13 &c.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ho shall the Lord’s elect condemn?
’Tis God that justifies their souls;
And mercy, like a mighty stream,
O’er all their sins divinely rolls.
Who shall adjudge the saints to hell?
’Tis Christ that suffered in their stead;
And, the salvation to fulfil,
Behold him rising from the dead!
He lives! he lives and sits above,
For ever interceding there:
Who shall divide us from his love?
Or what should tempt us to despair?
Shall persecution, or distress,
Famine, or sword, or nakedness?
He that hath loved us bears us through,
And makes us more than conquerors too.
Faith hath an overcoming power;
It triumphs in the dying hour:
Christ is our life, our joy, our hope,
Nor can we sink with such a prop.
Not all that men on earth can do,
Nor powers on high, nor powers below,
Shall cause his mercy to remove,
Or wean our hearts from Christ our love.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 108
Geneva Bible
A song or Psalme of David.
1 O God, mine heart is prepared, so is my tongue: I will sing and giue praise.
2 Awake viole and harpe: I will awake early.
3 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people, and I wil sing vnto thee among the nations.
4 For thy mercy is great aboue the heauens, and thy trueth vnto the clouds.
5 Exalt thy self, O God, aboue the heauens, and let thy glorie be vpon all the earth,
6 That thy beloued may be deliuered: helpe with thy right hand and heare me.
7 God hath spoken in his holinesse: therefore I will reioyce, I shall deuide Shechem and measure the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead shalbe mine, and Manasseh shalbe mine: Ephraim also shalbe the strength of mine head: Iuda is my lawgiuer.
9 Moab shalbe my washpot: ouer Edom wil I cast out my shoe: vpon Palestina wil I triumph.
10 Who will leade mee into the strong citie? who will bring me vnto Edom?
11 Wilt not thou, O God, which haddest forsaken vs, and diddest not goe foorth, O God, with our armies?
12 Giue vs helpe against trouble: for vaine is the helpe of man.
13 Through God we shall doe valiantly: for he shall treade downe our enemies.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 13. (L. M.)
The Son of God incarnate. Isaiah ix. 2, 6, 7.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
he lands that long in darkness lay
Now have beheld a heav'nly light;
Nations that sat in death's cold shade
Are blessed with beams divinely bright.
The virgin's promised Son is born,
Behold th' expected child appear:
What shall his names or titles be?
“The Wonderful, the Counsellor.”
[This infant is the mighty God,
Come to be suckled and adored;
Th’ eternal Father, Prince of Peace,
The Son of David, and his Lord.]
The government of earth and seas
Upon his shoulders shall be laid;
His wide dominions still increase,
And honors to his name be paid.
Jesus, the holy child, shall sit
High on his father David's throne;
Shall crush his foes beneath his feet,
And reign to ages yet unknown.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 73 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme committed to Asaph.
1 Yet God is good to Israel: euen, to the pure in heart.
2 As for me, my feete were almost gone: my steps had well neere slipt.
3 For I feared at the foolish, when I sawe the prosperitie of the wicked.
4 For there are no bandes in their death, but they are lustie and strong.
5 They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued with other men.
6 Therefore pride is as a chayne vnto them, and crueltie couereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes stande out for fatnesse: they haue more then heart can wish.
8 They are licentious, and speake wickedly of their oppression: they talke presumptuously.
9 They set their mouth against heauen, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turne hither: for waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, Howe doeth God know it? or is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Lo, these are the wicked, yet prosper they alway, and increase in riches.
13 Certainely I haue clensed mine heart in vaine, and washed mine hands in innocencie.
14 For dayly haue I bene punished, and chastened euery morning.
15 If I say, I will iudge thus, beholde the generation of thy children: I haue trespassed.
16 Then thought I to know this, but it was too painefull for me,
17 Vntill I went into the Sanctuarie of God: then vnderstoode I their ende.
18 Surely thou hast set them in slipperie places, and castest them downe into desolation.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed, perished and horribly consumed,
20 As a dreame when one awaketh! O Lord, when thou raisest vs vp, thou shalt make their image despised.
21 Certainely mine heart was vexed, and I was pricked in my reines:
22 So foolish was I and ignorant: I was a beast before thee.
23 Yet I was alway with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
24 Thou wilt guide me by thy counsell, and afterward receiue me to glory.
25 Whom haue I in heauen but thee? and I haue desired none in the earth with thee.
26 My flesh fayleth and mine heart also: but God is the strength of mine heart, and my portion for euer.
27 For loe, they that withdrawe themselues from thee, shall perish: thou destroyest all them that goe a whoring from thee.
28 As for me, it is good for me to draw neere to God: therefore I haue put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy workes.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 12. (L. M.)
The gospel feast. Luke xiv. 16, &c.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ow rich are thy provisions, Lord!
Thy table furnished from above!
The fruits of life o’erspread the board,
The cup o’erflows with heav’nly love.
Thine ancient family, the Jews,
Were first invited to the feast:
We humbly take what they refuse,
And Gentiles thy salvation taste.
We are the poor, the blind, the lame,
And help was far, and death was nigh;
But at the gospel-call we came,
And every want received supply.
From the highway that leads to hell,
From paths of darkness and despair,
Lord, we are come with thee to dwell,
Glad to enjoy thy presence here.]
[What shall we pay th’ eternal Son,
That left the heav’n of his abode,
And to this wretched earth came down,
To bring us wand’rers back to God?
It cost him death to save our lives;
To buy our souls it cost his own;
And all the unknown joys he gives
Were bought with agonies unknown.
Our everlasting love is due
To him that ransomed sinners lost
And pitied rebels, when he knew
The vast expense his love would cost.]
From The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 45
Geneva Bible
1 Mine heart will vtter forth a good matter: I wil intreat in my workes of the King: my tongue is as the pen of a swift writer.
2 Thou art fayrer then the children of men: grace is powred in thy lips, because God hath blessed thee for euer.
3 Gird thy sword vpon thy thigh, O most mightie, to wit, thy worship and thy glory,
4 And prosper with thy glory: ride vpon the worde of trueth and of meekenes and of righteousnes: so thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
5 Thine arrowes are sharpe to pearce the heart of the Kings enemies: therefore the people shall fall vnder thee.
6 Thy throne, O God, is for euer and euer: the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousnesse.
7 Thou louest righteousnes, and hatest wickednesse, because God, euen thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnes aboue thy fellowes.
8 All thy garments smelll of myrrhe and aloes, and cassia, when thou commest out of the yuorie palaces, where they haue made thee glad.
9 Kings daugthers were among thine honorable wiues: vpon thy right hand did stand the Queene in a vesture of golde of Ophir.
10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine eare: forget also thine owne people and thy fathers house.
11 So shall the King haue pleasure in thy beautie: for he is thy Lord, and reuerence thou him.
12 And the daughter of Tyrus with the rich of the people shall doe homage before thy face with presents.
13 The Kings daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of broydred golde.
14 She shalbe brought vnto the King in raiment of needle worke: the virgins that follow after her, and her companions shall be brought vnto thee.
15 With ioy and gladnes shall they be brought, and shall enter into the Kings palace.
16 In steade of thy fathers shall thy children be: thou shalt make them princes through all the earth.
17 I will make thy Name to be remembred through all generations: therefore shall the people giue thanks vnto thee world without ende.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 12. (C. M.)
Christ is the substance of the Levitical priesthood.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
he true Messiah now appears,
The types are all withdrawn;
So fly the shadows and the stars
Before the rising dawn.
No smoking sweets, nor bleeding lambs,
Nor kid nor bullock slain;
Incense and spice of costly names
Would all be burnt in vain.
Aaron must lay his robes away,
His mitre and his vest,
When God himself comes down to be
The offering and the priest.
He took our mortal flesh, to show
The wonders of his love;
For us he paid his life below,
And prays for us above.
“Father,” he cries, “forgive their sins,
For I myself have died;”
And then he shows his opened veins,
And pleads his wounded side.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 24 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme of David.
1 The earth is the Lords, and all that therein is: the worlde and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it vpon the seas: and established it vpon the floods.
3 Who shall ascende into the mountaine of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?
4 Euen he that hath innocent handes, and a pure heart: which hath not lift vp his minde vnto vanitie, nor sworne deceitfully.
5 He shall receiue a blessing from the Lord, and righteousnesse from the God of his saluation.
6 This is the generation of them that seeke him, of them that seeke thy face, this is Iaakob. Selah.
7 Lift vp your heads ye gates, and be ye lift vp ye euerlasting doores, and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glorie? the Lord, strong and mightie, euen the Lord mightie in battell.
9 Lift vp your heads, ye gates, and lift vp your selues, ye euerlasting doores, and the King of glorie shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? the Lord of hostes, he is the King of glorie. Selah.
|
Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge |
David Strain
John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley Paul Lamey |
Paul W. Martin
Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile |
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 12. (C. M.)
Free grace in revealing Christ. Luke x. 21.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
esus, the man of constant grief,
A mourner all his days;
His spirit once rejoiced aloud,
And tuned his joy to praise:
“Father, I thank thy wondrous love,
That hath revealed thy Son
To men unlearned, and to babes
Has made thy gospel known.
“The mysteries of redeeming grace
Are hidden from the wise,
While pride and carnal reasonings join
To swell and blind their eyes.”
Thus doth the Lord of heav’n and earth
His great decrees fulfil,
And orders all his works of grace
By his own sovereign will.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 3 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme of Dauid, when he fled from his sonne Absalom.
1 Lord, howe are mine aduersaries increased? howe many rise against me?
2 Many say to my soule, There is no helpe for him in God. Selah.
3 But thou Lord art a buckler for me: my glory, and the lifter vp of mine head.
4 I did call vnto the Lord with my voyce, and he heard me out of his holy mountaine. Selah.
5 I layed me downe and slept, and rose vp againe: for the Lord susteined me.
6 I will not be afrayde for ten thousand of the people, that should beset me round about.
7 O Lord, arise: helpe me, my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies vpon the cheeke bone: thou hast broken the teeth of the wicked.
8 Saluation belongeth vnto the Lord, and thy blessing is vpon thy people. Selah.
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Bret Capranica
David Legge
David Strain
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Mark Loughridge
Michael Beasley
Phil Johnson
Phillip M. Way
R.C. Sproul
Steve Weaver
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 11, C. M.
Pardon brought to our senses.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ord, how divine thy comforts are!
How heav’nly is the place
Where Jesus spreads the sacred feast
Of his redeeming grace!
There the rich bounties of our God,
And sweetest glories shine;
There Jesus says that “I am his,
And my Beloved's mine.”
“Here,” says the kind, redeeming Lord,
And shows his wounded side;
“See here the spring of all your joys
That opened when I died.”
[He smiles, and cheers my mournful heart,
And tells of all his pain;
“All this,” says he, “I bore for thee;”
And then he smiles again.]
What shall we pay our heav’nly King
For grace so vast as this?
He brings our pardon to our eyes,
And seals it with a kiss.
[Let such amazing loves as these
Be sounded all abroad;
Such favors are beyond degrees,
And worthy of a God.]
To him that washed us in his blood
Be everlasting praise;
Salvation, honor, glory, power,
Eternal as his days.]
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 132 (Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees.
1 Lord, remember Dauid with all his affliction.
2 Who sware vnto the Lord, and vowed vnto the mightie God of Iaakob, saying,
3 I will not enter into the tabernacle of mine house, nor come vpon my pallet or bed,
4 Nor suffer mine eyes to sleepe, nor mine eye lids to slumber,
5 Vntill I finde out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mightie God of Iaakob.
6 Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah, and found it in the fieldes of the forest.
7 We will enter into his Tabernacles, and worship before his footestoole.
8 Arise, O Lord, to come into thy rest, thou, and the Arke of thy strength.
9 Let thy Priests be clothed with righteousnesse, and let thy Saints reioyce.
10 For thy seruant Dauids sake refuse not the face of thine Anointed.
11 The Lord hath sworne in trueth vnto Dauid, and he wil not shrinke from it, saying, Of the fruite of thy body will I set vpon thy throne.
12 If thy sonnes keepe my couenant, and my testimonies, that I shall teach them, their sonnes also shall sit vpon thy throne for euer.
13 For the Lord hath chosen Zion, and loued to dwell in it, saying,
14 This is my rest for euer: here will I dwell, for I haue a delite therein.
15 I will surely blesse her vitailes, and will satisfie her poore with bread,
16 And will clothe her Priests with saluation, and her Saints shall shoute for ioye.
17 There will I make the horne of Dauid to bud: for I haue ordeined a light for mine Anoynted.
18 His enemies will I clothe with shame, but on him his crowne shall florish.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 11, L. M.
Parting with carnal joys.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
send the joys of earth away;
Away, ye tempters of the mind!
False as the smooth, deceitful sea,
And empty as the whistling wind.
Your streams were floating me along
Down to the gulf of black despair,
And whilst I listened to your song,
Your streams had e’en conveyed me there.
Lord, I adore thy matchless grace,
That warned me of that dark abyss,
That drew me from those treach’rous seas,
And bid me seek superior bliss.
Now to the shining realms above
I stretch my hands and glance mine eyes;
O for the pinions of a dove,
To bear me to the upper skies!
There, from the bosom of my God,
Oceans of endless pleasure roll;
There would I fix my last abode,
And drown the sorrows of my soul.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 111 (Geneva Bible)
1 Praise ye the Lord. I will prayse the Lord with my whole heart in the assemblie and Congregation of the iust.
2 The workes of the Lord are great, and ought to be sought out of al them that loue them.
3 His worke is beautifull and glorious, and his righteousnesse endureth for euer.
4 He hath made his wonderfull workes to be had in remembrance: the Lord is mercifull and full of compassion.
5 He hath giuen a portion vnto them that feare him: he wil euer be mindfull of his couenant.
6 He hath shewed to his people the power of his workes in giuing vnto them the heritage of the heathen.
7 The workes of his handes are trueth and iudgement: all his statutes are true.
8 They are stablished for euer and euer, and are done in trueth and equitie.
9 He sent redemption vnto his people: he hath commanded his couenant for euer: holy and fearefull is his Name.
10 The beginning of wisedome is the feare of the Lord: all they that obserue them, haue good vnderstanding: his praise endureth for euer.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 11, L. M.
The humble enlightened, and carnal reason humbled.
Luke x. 21,22.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
here was an hour when Christ rejoiced,
And spoke his joy in words of praise:
"Father, I thank thee, mighty God,
Lord of the earth, and heav'ns, and seas.
"I thank thy sovereign power and love
That crowns my doctrine with success,
And makes the babes in knowledge learn
The heights, and breadths, and lengths of grace.
"But all this glory lies concealed
From men of prudence and of wit;
The prince of darkness blinds their eyes,
And their own pride resists the light.
"Father, 'tis thus, because thy will
Chose and ordained it should be so;
'Tis thy delight t' abase the proud,
And lay the haughty scorner low.
"There's none can know the Father right
But those who learn it from the Son;
Nor can the Son be well received
But where the Father makes him known."
Then let our souls adore our God,
Who deals his graces as he please;
Nor gives to mortals an account
Or of his actions or decrees.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 90 (Geneva Bible)
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, thou hast bene our habitation from generation to generation.
2 Before the mountaines were made, and before thou hadst formed the earth, and the world, euen from euerlasting to euerlasting thou art our God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction: againe thou sayest, Returne, ye sonnes of Adam.
4 For a thousande yeeres in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5 Thou hast ouerflowed them: they are as a sleepe: in the morning he groweth like the grasse:
6 In the morning it florisheth and groweth, but in the euening it is cut downe and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, and our secret sinnes in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our dayes are past in thine anger: we haue spent our yeeres as a thought.
10 The time of our life is threescore yeeres and ten, and if they be of strength, fourescore yeeres: yet their strength is but labour and sorowe: for it is cut off quickly, and we flee away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thy wrath? for according to thy feare is thine anger.
12 Teach vs so to nomber our dayes, that we may apply our heartes vnto wisdome.
13 Returne (O Lord, howe long?) and be pacified toward thy seruants.
14 Fill vs with thy mercie in the morning: so shall we reioyce and be glad all our dayes.
15 Comfort vs according to the dayes that thou hast afflicted vs, and according to the yeeres that we haue seene euill.
16 Let thy worke bee seene towarde thy seruants, and thy glory vpon their children.
17 And let the beautie of the Lord our God be vpon vs, and direct thou the worke of our hands vpon vs, euen direct the worke of our handes.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 10, L. M.
Christ crucified, the wisdom and power of God.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ature with open volume stands,
To spread her Maker’s praise abroad;
And every labor of his hands
Shows something worthy of a God.
But in the grace that rescued man
His brightest form of glory shines;
Here, on the cross, ’tis fairest drawn,
In precious blood and crimson lines.
[Here his whole name appears complete;
Nor wit can guess, nor reason prove,
Which of the letters best is writ,
The power, the wisdom, or the love.]
Here I behold his inmost heart,
Where grace and vengeance strangely join,
Piercing his Son with sharpest smart,
To make the purchased pleasure mine.
O! the sweet wonders of that cross,
Where God the Savior loved and died
Her noblest life my spirit draws
From his dear wounds and bleeding side.
I would for ever speak his name,
In sounds to mortal ears unknown;
With angels join to praise the Lamb,
And worship at his Father’s throne.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 69 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth upon Shoshannim. A Psalme of David.
1 Save mee, O God: for the waters are entred euen to my soule.
2 I sticke fast in the deepe myre, where no staie is: I am come into deepe waters, and the streames runne ouer me.
3 I am wearie of crying: my throte is drie: mine eyes faile, whiles I waite for my God.
4 They that hate mee without a cause, are moe then the heares of mine heade: they that would destroy mee, and are mine enemies falsly, are mightie, so that I restored that which I tooke not.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishnesse, and my fautes are not hid from thee.
6 Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord God of hostes, be ashamed for me: let not those that seeke thee, be confounded through mee, O God of Israel.
7 For thy sake haue I suffred reproofe: shame hath couered my face.
8 I am become a stranger vnto my brethren, euen an aliant vnto my mothers sonnes.
9 For the zeale of thine house hath eaten mee, and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee, are fallen vpon me.
10 I wept and my soule fasted, but that was to my reproofe.
11 I put on a sacke also: and I became a prouerbe vnto them.
12 They that sate in the gate, spake of mee, and the drunkards sang of me.
13 But Lord, I make my praier vnto thee in an acceptable time, euen in the multitude of thy mercie: O God, heare me in the trueth of thy saluation.
14 Deliuer mee out of the myre, that I sinke not: let me be deliuered from them that hate me, and out of the deepe waters.
15 Let not the water flood drowne mee, neither let the deepe swallowe me vp: and let not the pit shut her mouth vpon me.
16 Heare me, O Lord, for thy louing kindnes is good: turne vnto me according to ye multitude of thy tender mercies.
17 And hide not thy face from thy seruant, for I am in trouble: make haste and heare me.
18 Draw neere vnto my soule and redeeme it: deliuer me because of mine enemies.
19 Thou hast knowen my reproofe and my shame, and my dishonour: all mine aduersaries are before thee.
20 Rebuke hath broken mine heart, and I am full of heauinesse, and I looked for some to haue pitie on me, but there was none: and for comforters, but I found none.
21 For they gaue me gall in my meate, and in my thirst they gaue me vineger to drinke.
22 Let their table be a snare before them, and their prosperitie their ruine.
23 Let their eyes be blinded that they see not: and make their loynes alway to tremble.
24 Powre out thine anger vpon them, and let thy wrathfull displeasure take them.
25 Let their habitation be voide, and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him, whome thou hast smitten: and they adde vnto the sorrowe of them, whome thou hast wounded.
27 Laie iniquitie vpon their iniquitie, and let them not come into thy righteousnesse.
28 Let them be put out of the booke of life, neither let them be written with the righteous.
29 When I am poore and in heauinesse, thine helpe, O God, shall exalt me.
30 I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnifie him with thankesgiuing.
31 This also shall please the Lord better then a yong bullocke, that hath hornes and hoofes.
32 The humble shall see this, and they that seeke God, shalbe glad, and your heart shall liue.
33 For the Lord heareth the poore, and despiseth not his prisoners.
34 Let heauen and earth praise him: the seas and all that moueth in them.
35 For God will saue Zion, and builde the cities of Iudah, that men may dwell there and haue it in possession.
36 The seede also of his seruants shall inherit it: and they that loue his name, shall dwel therein.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 10, S. M.
Parting with carnal joys.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
y soul forsakes her vain delight,
And bids the world farewell,
Base as the dirt beneath my feet,
And mischievous as hell.
No longer will I ask your love,
Nor seek your friendship more;
The happiness that I approve
Lies not within your power.
There’s nothing round this spacious earth
That suits my large desire
To boundless joy and solid mirth
My nobler thoughts aspire.
[Where pleasure rolls its living flood,
From sin and dross refined,
Still springing from the throne of God,
And fit to cheer the mind;
Th’ Almighty Ruler of the sphere,
The glorious and the great,
Brings his own all-sufficience there,
To make our bliss complete.]
Had I the pinions of a dove,
I’d climb the heav’nly road;
There sits my Savior dressed in love,
And there my smiling God.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 48 (Geneva Bible)
A song or Psalme committed to the sonnes of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praysed, in the Citie of our God, euen vpon his holy Mountaine.
2 Mount Zion, lying Northwarde, is faire in situation: it is the ioy of the whole earth, and the Citie of the great King.
3 In the palaces thereof God is knowen for a refuge.
4 For lo, the Kings were gathered, and went together.
5 When they sawe it, they marueiled: they were astonied, and suddenly driuen backe.
6 Feare came there vpon them, and sorowe, as vpon a woman in trauaile.
7 As with an East winde thou breakest the shippes of Tarshish, so were they destroyed.
8 As we haue heard, so haue we seene in the citie of the Lord of hostes, in the Citie of our God: God will stablish it for euer. Selah.
9 We waite for thy louing kindnes, O God, in the middes of thy Temple.
10 O God, according vnto thy Name, so is thy prayse vnto the worlds end: thy right hand is full of righteousnes.
11 Let mount Zion reioyce, and the daughters of Iudah be glad, because of thy iudgements.
12 Compasse about Zion, and goe round about it, and tell the towres thereof.
13 Marke well the wall thereof: beholde her towres, that ye may tell your posteritie.
14 For this God is our God for euer and euer: he shall be our guide vnto the death.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 10, S. M.
The blessedness of gospel times.
Isa. lii. 2,7—10; Matt. xiii. 16,17.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ow beauteous are their feet
Who stand on Zion’s hill!
Who bring salvation on their tongues,
And words of peace reveal!
How charming is their voice!
How sweet the tidings are!
“Zion, behold thy Savior King;
He reigns and triumphs here.”
How happy are our ears
That hear this joyful sound,
Which kings and prophets waited for,
And sought, but never found!
How blessed are our eyes
That see this heav’nly light
Prophets and kings desired it long,
But died without the sight.
The watchmen join their voice,
And tuneful notes employ;
Jerusalem breaks forth in songs,
And deserts learn the joy.
The Lord makes bare his arm
Through all the earth abroad;
Let every nation now behold
Their Savior and their God!
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 13 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 Howe long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for euer? howe long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsell within my selfe, hauing wearinesse dayly in mine heart? how long shall mine enemie be exalted aboue me?
3 Beholde, and heare mee, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, that I sleepe not in death:
4 Lest mine enemie say, I haue preuailed against him: and they that afflict me, reioyce when I slide.
5 But I trust in thy mercie: mine heart shall reioyce in thy saluation:
6 I will sing to the Lord, because he hath delt louingly with me.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 9, S. M.
The Spirit, the water, and the blood.
1 John v. 6.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
et all our tongues be one
To praise our God on high,
Who from his bosom sent his Son
To fetch us strangers nigh.
Nor let our voices cease
To sing the Savior’s name;
Jesus, th’ ambassador of peace,
How cheerfully he came!
It cost him cries and tears
To bring us near to God;
Great was our debt, and he appears
To make the payment good.
My Savior’s pierced side
Poured out a double flood;
By water we are purified,
And pardoned by the blood.
Infinite was our guilt,
But he, our Priest, atones;
On the cold ground his life was spilt,
And offered with his groans.
Look up, my soul, to him
Whose death was thy desert,
And humbly view the living stream
Flow from his breaking heart.
There, on the cursed tree,
In dying pangs he lies,
Fulfils his Father’s great decree,
And all our wants supplies.
Thus the Redeemer came
By water and by blood;
And when the Spirit speaks the same,
We feel his witness good.
While the eternal Three
Bear their record above,
Here I believe he died for me,
And seal my Savior’s love.
Lord, cleanse my soul from sin
Nor let thy grace depart;
Great Comforter, abide within,
And witness to my heart.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 142 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme of Dauid, to giue instruction, and a prayer, when he was in the caue.
1 I cryed vnto the Lord with my voyce: with my voyce I prayed vnto the Lord.
2 I powred out my meditation before him, and declared mine affliction in his presence.
3 Though my spirit was in perplexitie in me, yet thou knewest my path: in the way wherein I walked, haue they priuily layde a snare for me.
4 I looked vpon my right hand, and beheld, but there was none that would knowe me: all refuge failed me, and none cared for my soule.
5 Then cryed I vnto thee, O Lord, and sayde, thou art mine hope, and my portion in the land of the liuing.
6 Hearken vnto my crye, for I am brought very lowe: deliuer me from my persecuters, for they are too strong for me.
7 Bring my soule out of prison, that I may prayse thy Name: then shal the righteous come about me, when thou art beneficiall vnto me.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 9, C. M.
Godly sorrow arising from the sufferings of Christ.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
las! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
[Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Suff’rer stood!]
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 121 (Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees.
1 I will lift mine eyes vnto the mouuntaines, from whence mine helpe shall come.
2 Mine helpe commeth from the Lord, which hath made the heauen and the earth.
3 He wil not suffer thy foote to slippe: for he that keepeth thee, will not slumber.
4 Beholde, he that keepeth Israel, wil neither slumber nor sleepe.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shadow at thy right hand.
6 The sunne shall not smite thee by day, nor the moone by night.
7 The Lord shall preserue thee from all euil: he shall keepe thy soule.
8 The Lord shall preserue thy going out, and thy comming in from henceforth & for euer.
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Bret Capranica
Steve Weaver
Phillip M. Way
Jason Robertson
John MacArthur
Phil Johnson & Don Green
David Legge
David Strain
R.C. Sproul
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 9, C. M.
The promises of the covenant of grace.
Isa. lv. 1, 2; Zech. xiii. 1; Mic. vii.19; Ezek. xxxvi. 25, &c.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
n vain we lavish out our lives
To gather empty wind;
The choicest blessings earth can yield
Will starve a hungry mind.
Come, and the Lord shall feed our souls
With more substantial meat,
With such as saints in glory love,
With such as angels eat.
Our God will every want supply,
And fill our hearts with peace;
He gives by cov’nant and by oath
The riches of his grace.
Come, and he’ll cleanse our spotted souls,
And wash away our stains
In the dear fountain that his Son
Poured from his dying veins.
[Our guilt shall vanish all away,
Though black as hell before;
Our sins shall sink beneath the sea,
And shall be found no more.
And, lest pollution should o’erspread
Our inward powers again,
His Spirit shall bedew our souls,
Like purifying rain.]
Our heart, that flinty, stubborn thing,
That terrors cannot move,
That fears no threat’nings of his wrath,
Shall be dissolved by love.
Or he can take the flint away
That would not be refined;
And from the treasures of his grace
Bestow a softer mind.
There shall his sacred Spirit dwell,
And deep engrave his law,
And every motion of our souls
To swift obedience draw.
Thus will he pour salvation down,
And we shall render praise;
We the dear people of his love,
And he our God of grace.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 93 (Geneva Bible)
1 The Lord reigneth, and is clothed with maiestie: the Lord is clothed, and girded with power: the world also shall be established, that it cannot be mooued.
2 Thy throne is established of olde: thou art from euerlasting.
3 The floodes haue lifted vp, O Lord: the floodes haue lifted vp their voyce: the floods lift vp their waues.
4 The waues of ye sea are marueilous through the noyse of many waters, yet the Lord on High is more mightie.
5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holinesse becommeth thine House, O Lord, for euer.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 8, C. M.
The tree of life.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ome, Jet us join a joyful tune,
To our exalted Lord,
Ye saints on high around his throne,
And we around his board.
While once upon this lower ground
Weary and faint ye stood,
What dear refreshments here ye found
From this immortal food!]
The tree of life, that near the throne
In heav’n’s high garden grows,
Laden with grace, bends gently down
Its ever-smiling boughs.
[Hov’ring amongst the leaves there stands
The sweet celestial Dove;
And Jesus on the branches hangs
The banner of his love.]
[’Tis a young heav’n of strange delight
While in his shade we sit;
His fruit is pleasing to the sight,
And to the taste as sweet.
New life it spreads through dying hearts,
And cheers the drooping mind;
Vigor and joy the juice imparts,
Without a sting behind.]
Now let the flaming weapon stand,
And guard all Eden’s trees
There’s ne’er a plant in all that land
That bears such fruits as these.
Infinite grace our souls adore,
Whose wondrous hand has made
This living branch of sovereign power
To raise and heal the dead.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 72 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme for Solomon.
1 Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
16 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.
19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.
20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 8, C. M.
A hymn for morning or evening.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
osannah, with a cheerful sound,
To God’s upholding hand;
Ten thousand snares attend us round,
And yet secure we stand.
That was a most amazing power
That raised us with a word,
And every day and every hour
We lean upon the Lord.
The evening rests our weary head,
And angels guard the room;
We wake, and we admire the bed
That was not made our tomb.
The rising morning can’t assure
That we shall end the day;
For death stands ready at the door
To seize our lives away.
Our breath is forfeited by sin
To God's avenging law;
We own thy grace, immortal King,
In every gasp we draw.
God is our sun, whose daily light
Our joy and safety brings;
Our feeble flesh lies safe at night
Beneath his shady wings.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 44 (Geneva Bible)
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 8, C. M.
The safety and protection of the church.
Galatians xxvi. 1-16
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
ow honorable is the place
Where we adoring stand!
Zion, the glory of the earth,
And beauty of the land!
Bulwarks of mighty grace defend
The city where we dwell;
The walls, of strong salvation made,
Defy the assaults of hell.
Lift up the everlasting gates,
The doors wide open fling;
Enter, ye nations that obey
The statutes of our King.
Here shall you taste unmingled joys,
And live in perfect peace,
You that have known Jehovah’s name.
And ventured on his grace.
Trust in the Lord, for ever trust,
And banish all your fears;
Strength in the Lord Jehovah dwells,
Eternal as his years.
[What though the rebels dwell on high,
His arm shall bring them low;
Low as the caverns of the grave
Their lofty heads shall bow.]
[On Babylon our feet shall tread
In that rejoicing hour;
The ruins of her walls shall spread
A pavement for the poor.]
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 23 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme of Dauid.
1 The Lord is my shephearde, I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to rest in greene pasture, and leadeth me by the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soule, and leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse for his Names sake.
4 Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I will feare no euill: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staffe, they comfort me.
5 Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine aduersaries: thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle, and my cuppe runneth ouer.
6 Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercie shall followe me all the dayes of my life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 7, L. M.
Crucifixion to the world by the cross of Christ.
Galatians vi. 14
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
hen I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown!
[His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er his body on the tree:
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.]
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 2
(Geneva Bible)
1 Why doe the heathen rage, & the people murmure in vaine?
2 The Kings of the earth band themselues, and the princes are assembled together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
3 Let vs breake their bands, and cast their cordes from vs.
4 But he that dwelleth in the heauen, shall laugh: the Lord shall haue them in derision.
5 Then shall hee speake vnto them in his wrath, & vexe them in his sore displeasure, saying,
6 Euen I haue set my King vpon Zion mine holy mountaine.
7 I will declare the decree: that is, the Lord hath said vnto me, Thou art my Sonne: this day haue I begotten thee.
8 Aske of me, and I shall giue thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the endes of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt krush them with a scepter of yron, and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell.
10 Be wise nowe therefore, ye Kings: be learned ye Iudges of the earth.
11 Serue the Lord in feare, and reioyce in trembling.
12 Kisse the sonne, least he be angry, and ye perish in the way, when his wrath shall suddenly burne. blessed are all that trust in him.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 7, C. M.
An evening song.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
read Sovereign! let my evening song
Like holy incense rise;
Assist the offerings of my tongue
To reach the lofty skies.
Through all the dangers of the day
Thy hand was still my guard,
And still to drive my wants away
Thy mercy stood prepared.
Perpetual blessings from above
Encompass me around,
But O how few returns of love
Hath my Creator found!
What have I done for him that died
To save my wretched soul?
How are my follies multiplied,
Fast as my minutes roil
Lord, with this guilty heart of mine
To thy dear cross I flee;
And to thy grace my soul resign,
To be renewed by thee.
Sprinkled afresh with pard’ning blood,
I lay me down to rest,
As in th’ embraces of my God,
Or on my Savior’s breast.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salme 131 (Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees or Psalme of Dauid.
1 Lord, mine heart is not hautie, neither are mine eyes loftie, neither haue I walked in great matters and hid from me.
2 Surely I haue behaued my selfe, like one wained from his mother, and kept silence: I am in my selfe as one that is wained.
3 Let Israel waite on the Lord from hencefoorth and for euer.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 7, C. M.
The invitation of the gospel.
Isaiah lv. 1, 2, &c.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
et every mortal ear attend,
And every heart rejoice;
The trumpet of the gospel sounds
With an inviting voice.
Lo! all ye hungry, starving souls.
That feed upon the wind,
And vainly strive with earthly toys
To fill an empty mind.
Eternal Wisdom has prepared
A soul-reviving feast,
And bids your longing appetites
The rich provision taste.
Ho! ye that pant for living streams,
And pine away and die,
here you may quench your raging thirst
With springs that never dry.
Rivers of love and mercy here
In a rich ocean join;
Salvation in abundance flows,
Like floods of milk and wine.
[Ye perishing and naked poor,
Who work with mighty pain
To weave a garment of your own
That will not hide your sin,
Come naked, and adorn your souls
In robes prepared by God,
Wrought by the labors of his Son,
And dyed in his own blood.]
Dear God! the treasures of thy love
Are everlasting mines,
Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins.
The happy gates of gospel grace
Stand open night and day;
Lord, we are come to seek supplies,
And drive our wants away.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
salme 110 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme of Dauid.
1 The Lord said vnto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, vntill I make thine enemies thy footestoole.
2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Zion: be thou ruler in the middes of thine enemies.
3 Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine armie in holy beautie: the youth of thy wombe shalbe as the morning dewe.
4 The Lord sware & wil not repent, Thou art a Priest for euer after ye order of Melchi-zedek.
5 The Lord, that is at thy right hand, shall wound Kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shalbe iudge among the heathen: he shall fill all with dead bodies, and smite the head ouer great countreis.
7 He shall drinke of the brooke in the way: therefore shall he lift vp his head.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 6, L. M.
The memorial of our absent lord. John xvi. 16; Luke xxii. 19; John xiv. 3.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
esus is gone above the skies,
Where our weak senses reach him not;
And carnal objects court our eyes,
To thrust our Savior from our thought.
He knows what wand’ring hearts we have,
Apt to forget his lovely face;
And, to refresh our minds, he gave
These kind memorials of his grace.
The Lord of life this table spread
With his own flesh and dying blood;
We on the rich provision feed,
And taste the wine, and bless the God.
Let sinful sweets be all forgot,
And earth grow less in our esteem
Christ and his love fill every thought,
And faith and hope be fixed on him.
While he is absent from our sight,
’Tis to prepare our souls a place,
That we may dwell in heav'nly light,
And live for ever near his face.
[Our eyes look upwards to the hills
Whence our returning Lord shall come;
We wait thy chariot’s awful wheels,
To fetch our longing spirits home.]
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 82
Geneva Bible.
A Psalme committed to Asaph.
1 God standeth in the assemblie of gods: hee iudgeth among gods.
2 How long wil ye iudge vniustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Doe right to the poore and fatherlesse: doe iustice to the poore and needie.
4 Deliuer the poore and needie: saue them from the hand of the wicked.
5 They knowe not and vnderstand nothing: they walke in darkenes, albeit all the foundations of the earth be mooued.
6 I haue said, Ye are gods, and ye all are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die as a man, and yee princes, shall fall like others.
8 O God, arise, therefore iudge thou the earth: for thou shalt inherite all nations.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 6, C. M.
A morning song.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
nce more, my soul, the rising day
Salutes thy waking eyes;
Once more, my voice, thy tribute pay
To him that rules the skies.
Night unto night his name repeats,
The day renews the sound,
Wide as the heav’n on which he sits,
To turn the seasons round.
’Tis he supports my mortal frame,
My tongue shall speak his praise;
My sins would rouse his wrath to flame,
And yet his wrath delays.
[On a poor worm thy power might tread,
And I could ne’er withstand;
Thy justice might have crushed me dead,
But mercy held thine hand.
A thousand wretched souls are fled
Since the last setting sun,
And yet thou length’nest out my thread,
And yet my moments run.]
Dear God, let all my hours be thine,
Whilst I enjoy the light,
Then shall my sun in smiles decline,
And bring a pleasing night.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 61 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth on Neginoth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 To him that excelleth on Neginoth. A Psalme of Dauid. Heare my cry, O God: giue eare vnto my prayer.
2 From the endes of the earth will I crye vnto thee: when mine heart is opprest, bring me vpon the rocke that is higher then I.
3 For thou hast bene mine hope, and a strong tower against the enemie.
4 I will dwell in thy Tabernacle for euer, and my trust shall be vnder the couering of thy wings. Selah.
5 For thou, O God, hast heard my desires: thou hast giuen an heritage vnto those that feare thy Name.
6 Thou shalt giue the King a long life: his yeeres shalbe as many ages.
7 Hee shall dwell before God for euer: prepare mercie and faithfulnes that they may preserue him.
8 So will I alway sing prayse vnto thy Name in performing dayly my vowes.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 6, C. M.
Triumph over death.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
reat God, I own thy sentence just,
And nature must decay;
I yield my body to the dust,
To dwell with fellow clay.
Yet faith may triumph o’er the grave,
And trample on the tombs
My Jesus, my Redeemer, lives;
My God, my Savior, comes.
The mighty Conqueror shall appear
High on a royal seat,
And death, the last of all his foes,
Lie vanquished at his feet.
Though greedy worms devour my skin,
And gnaw my wasting flesh,
When God shall build my bones again,
He clothes them all afresh.
Then shall I see thy lovely face
With strong immortal eyes;
And feast upon thy unknown grace
With pleasure and suprise.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
Psalme 40 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 I Waited paciently for the Lord, and he inclined vnto me, and heard my cry.
2 Hee brought mee also out of the horrible pit, out of the myrie clay, and set my feete vpon the rocke, and ordered my goings.
3 And he hath put in my mouth a new song of praise vnto our God: many shal see it and feare, and shall trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and regardeth not the proude, nor such as turne aside to lyes.
5 O Lord my God, thou hast made thy wonderfull workes so many, that none can count in order to thee thy thoughts toward vs: I would declare, and speake of them, but they are moe then I am able to expresse.
6 Sacrifice & offering thou didest not desire: (for mine eares hast thou prepared) burnt offring and sinne offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: for in the rolle of the booke it is written of me,
8 I desired to doe thy good will, O my God: yea, thy Lawe is within mine heart.
9 I haue declared thy righteousnesse in the great Congregation: loe, I will not refraine my lippes: O Lord, thou knowest.
10 I haue not hidde thy righteousnesse within mine heart, but I haue declared thy trueth and thy saluation: I haue not conceiled thy mercy and thy trueth from the great Congregation.
11 Withdrawe not thou thy tender mercie from mee, O Lord: let thy mercie and thy trueth alway preserue me.
12 For innumerable troubles haue compassed mee: my sinnes haue taken such holde vpon me, that I am not able to looke vp: yea, they are moe in nomber then the heares of mine head: therefore mine heart hath failed me.
13 Let it please thee, O Lord, to deliuer mee: make haste, O Lord, to helpe me.
14 Let them be confounded & put to shame together, that seeke my soule to destroye it: let them be driuen backward and put to rebuke, that desire mine hurt.
15 Let them be destroyed for a rewarde of their shame, which say vnto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all them, that seeke thee, reioyce and be glad in thee: and let them, that loue thy saluation, say alway, The Lord be praysed.
17 Though I be poore and needie, the Lord thinketh on mee: thou art mine helper and my deliuerer: my God, make no tarying.
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 5, C. M.
Christ the bread of life. John 6:31,35,39.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
et us adore th’ eternal Word,
’Tis he our souls hath fed:
Thou art our living stream, O Lord,
And thou th’ immortal bread.
[The manna came from lower skies,
But Jesus from above,
Where the fresh springs of pleasure rise,
And rivers flow with love.
The Jews, the fathers, died at last,
Who ate that heav’nly bread;
But these provisions which we taste
Can raise us from the dead.]
Blest be the Lord that gives his flesh
To nourish dying men;
And often spreads his table fresh,
Lest we should faint again.
Our souls shall draw their heav’nly breath
While Jesus finds supplies;
Nor shall our graces sink to death,
For Jesus never dies.
[Daily our mortal flesh decays,
But Christ our life shall come;
His unresisted power shall raise
Our bodies from the tomb.]
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 19 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 The heauens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth ye worke of his hands.
2 Day vnto day vttereth the same, & night vnto night teacheth knowledge.
3 There is no speach nor language, where their voyce is not heard.
4 Their line is gone forth through all the earth, & their words into the endes of the world: in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sunne.
5 Which commeth forth as a bridegrome out of his chamber, and reioyceth like a mightie man to runne his race.
6 His going out is from the ende of the heauen, and his compasse is vnto the endes of ye same, and none is hid from the heate thereof.
7 The Lawe of the Lord is perfite, conuerting the soule: the testimonie of the Lord is sure, and giueth wisedome vnto the simple.
8 The statutes of the Lord are right and reioyce the heart: the commandement of the Lord is pure, and giueth light vnto the eyes.
9 The feare of the Lord is cleane, and indureth for euer: the iudgements of the Lord are trueth: they are righteous altogether,
10 And more to be desired then golde, yea, then much fine golde: sweeter also then honie and the honie combe.
11 Moreouer by them is thy seruant made circumspect, and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can vnderstand his faultes? clense me from secret fautes.
13 Keepe thy seruant also from presumptuous sinnes: let them not reigne ouer me: so shall I be vpright, & made cleane fro much wickednes.
14 Let the wordes of my mouth, and the meditation of mine heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
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Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 5, L. M.
Longing to Praise Christ Better.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
ord, when my thoughts with wonder roll
O’er the sharp sorrows of thy soul,
And read my Maker’s broken laws
Repaired and honored by thy cross;
When I behold death, hell, and sin
Vanquished by that dear blood of thine,
And see the Man that groaned and died
Sit glorious by his father’s side;
My passions rise and soar above,
I’m winged with faith, and fired with love;
Fain would I reach eternal things,
And learn the notes that Gabriel sings.
But my heart fails, my tongue complains,
For want of their immortal strains
And, in such humble notes as these,
Must fall below thy victories.
Well, the kind minute must appear
When we shall leave these bodies here,
These clogs of clay, and mount on high,
To join the songs above the sky.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 148 (Geneva Bible)
1 Praise ye the Lord. Prayse ye the Lord from the heauen: prayse ye him in the high places.
2 Prayse ye him, all ye his Angels: praise him, all his armie.
3 Prayse ye him, sunne and moone: prayse ye him all bright starres.
4 Prayse ye him, heauens of heauens, and waters, that be aboue the heauens.
5 Let them prayse the Name of the Lord: for he commauded, and they were created.
6 And he hath established them for euer and euer: he hath made an ordinance, which shall not passe.
7 Prayse ye the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all depths:
8 Fire and hayle, snowe and vapours, stormie winde, which execute his worde:
9 Mountaines and all hils, fruitfull trees and all ceders:
10 Beasts and all cattell, creeping things and fethered foules:
11 Kings of the earth and all people, princes and all iudges of the worlde:
12 Yong men and maidens, also olde men and children:
13 Let them prayse the Name of the Lord: for his Name onely is to be exalted, and his prayse aboue the earth and the heauens.
14 For he hath exalted the horne of his people, which is a prayse for all his Saintes, euen for the children of Israel, a people that is neere vnto him. Prayse ye the Lord.
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Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 5, C. M.
Submission to afflictive providences. Job 1:21.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
aked as from the earth we came,
And crept to life at first,
We to the earth return again,
And mingle with our dust.
The dear delights we here enjoy,
And fondly call our own,
Are but short favors borrowed now,
To be repaid anon.
’Tis God that lifts our comforts high,
Or sinks them in the grave;
He gives, and, blessed be his name!
He takes but what he gave.
Peace, all our angry passions, then;
Let each rebellious sigh
Be silent at his sovereign will,
And every murmur die.
If smiling mercy crown our lives,
Its praises shall be spread;
And we’ll adore the justice too
That strikes our comforts dead.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
Psalme 120 (Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees.
1 I called vnto the Lord in my trouble, and hee heard me.
2 Deliuer my soule, O Lord, from lying lippes, and from a deceitfull tongue.
3 What doeth thy deceitfull tongue bring vnto thee? or what doeth it auaile thee?
4 It is as the sharpe arrowes of a mightie man, and as the coales of iuniper.
5 Woe is to me that I remaine in Meschech, and dwell in the tentes of Kedar.
6 My soule hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
7 I seeke peace, and when I speake thereof, they are bent to warre.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 4, C. M.
Christ's dying love; or, Our pardon bought at a dear price.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
ow condescending and how kind
Was God’s eternal Son!
Our misery reached his heav’nly mind,
And pity brought him down.
[When Justice, by our sins provoked,
Drew forth its dreadful sword,
He gave his soul up to the stroke
Without a murm’ring word.]
[He sunk beneath our heavy woes,
To raise us to his throne;
There’s ne’er a gift his hand bestows
But cost his heart a groan.]
This was compassion like a God,
That when the Savior knew
The price of pardon was his blood,
His pity ne’er withdrew.
Now, though he reigns exalted high,
His love is still as great;
Well he remembers Calvary,
Nor let his saints forget.
[Here we behold his bowels roll,
As kind as when he died;
And see the sorrows of his soul
Bleed through his wounded side.]
[Here we receive repeated seals
Of Jesus’ dying love:
Hard is the wretch that never feels
One soft affection move.]
Here let our hearts begin to melt
While we his death record,
And with our joy for pardoned guilt,
Mourn that we pierced the Lord.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 99 (Geneva Bible)
1 The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble: he sitteth betweene the Cherubims, let the earth be moued.
2 The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high aboue all the people.
3 They shall prayse thy great and fearefull Name (for it is holy)
4 And the Kings power, that loueth iudgement: for thou hast prepared equitie: thou hast executed iudgement and iustice in Iaakob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God, and fall downe before his footestoole: for he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his Priests, and Samuel among such as call vpon his Name: these called vpon the Lord, and he heard them.
7 Hee spake vnto them in the cloudie pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the Lawe that he gaue them.
8 Thou heardest them, O Lord our God: thou wast a fauourable God vnto them, though thou didst take vengeance for their inuentions.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and fall downe before his holy Mountaine: for the Lord our God is holy.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 4, L. M.
Salvation in the cross.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
ere at thy cross, my dying God,
I lay my soul beneath thy love,
Beneath the droppings of thy blood,
Jesus, nor shall it e’er remove.
Not all that tyrants think or say,
With rage and lightning in their eyes,
Nor hell shall fright my heart away,
Should hell with all its legions rise.
Should worlds conspire to drive me thence,
Moveless and firm this heart should lie;
Resolved, (for that’s my last defence,)
If I must perish, there to die.
But speak, my Lord, and calm my fear;
Am I not safe beneath thy shade?
Thy vengeance will not strike me here,
Nor Satan dares my soul invade.
Yes, I’m secure beneath thy blood,
And all my foes shall lose their aim:
Hosannah to my dying God,
And my best honors to his name.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 78 (Geneva Bible)
A Psalme to giue instruction comitted to Asaph.
1 Heare my doctrine, O my people: incline your eares vnto the wordes of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde.
3 Which we haue heard and knowen, & our fathers haue tolde vs.
4 Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, & his wonderful woorkes that he hath done:
5 How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commaunded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children:
6 That the posteritie might knowe it, and the children, which should be borne, should stand vp, and declare it to their children:
7 That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the workes of God but keepe his commandements:
8 And not to bee as their fathers, a disobedient & rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirite was not faithfull vnto God.
9 The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell.
10 They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe,
11 And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them.
12 Hee did marueilous thinges in the sight of their fathers in the lande of Egypt: euen in the fielde of Zoan.
13 He deuided the Sea, & led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape.
14 In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths.
16 He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers.
17 Yet they sinned stil against him, and prouoked the Highest in the wildernesse,
18 And tempted God in their heartes in requiring meate for their lust.
19 They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse?
20 Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, & also wrath came vpon Israel,
22 Because they beleeued not in God, and trusted not in his helpe.
23 Yet he had comanded the clouds aboue, and had opened the doores of heauen,
24 And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen.
25 Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough.
26 He caused the Eastwinde to passe in the heauen, and through his power he brought in the Southwinde.
27 Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea.
28 And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations.
29 So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lust, but the meate was yet in their mouthes,
31 When the wrath of God came euen vpon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote downe the chosen men in Israel.
32 For all this, they sinned stil, and beleeued not his wonderous woorkes.
33 Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily.
34 And when hee slewe them, they sought him and they returned, and sought God earely.
35 And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not vpright with him: neither were they faithfull in his couenant.
38 Yet he being merciful forgaue their iniquitie, & destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, & did not stirre vp all his wrath.
39 For he remebred that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe.
40 How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert?
41 Yea, they returned, & tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel.
42 They remebred not his hand, nor the day when he deliuered them from the enemie,
43 Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan,
44 And turned their riuers into blood, & their floods, that they could not drinke.
45 Hee sent a swarme of flies among them, which deuoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gaue also their fruites vnto the caterpiller, and their labour vnto the grassehopper.
47 He destroied their vines with haile, & their wilde figge trees with the hailestone.
48 He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes.
49 Hee cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels.
50 He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence,
51 And smote al the firstborne in Egypt, euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, & led them in the wildernes like a flocke.
53 Yea, he caried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea couered their enemies.
54 And he brought them vnto the borders of his Sanctuarie: euen to this Mountaine, which his right hand purchased.
55 He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,
57 But turned backe & delt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitfull bowe.
58 And they prouoked him to anger with their high places, and mooued him to wrath with their grauen images.
59 God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel,
60 So that hee forsooke the habitation of Shilo, euen the Tabernacle where hee dwelt among men,
61 And deliuered his power into captiuitie, and his beautie into the enemies hand.
62 And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance.
63 The fire deuoured their chosen men, and their maides were not praised.
64 Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not.
65 But the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe, & as a strong man that after his wine crieth out,
66 And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame.
67 Yet he refused the tabernacle of Ioseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued.
69 And he built his Sanctuarie as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for euer.
70 He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds.
71 Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel.
72 So he fed them according to the simplicitie of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 4 PART 2, L. M.
The inward witness to Christianity. 1 John v.10.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
uestions and doubts be heard no more,
Let Christ and joy be all our theme;
His Spirit seals his gospel sure,
To every soul that trusts in him.
Jesus, thy witness speaks within;
The mercy which thy words reveal
Refines the heart from sense and sin,
And stamps its own celestial seal.
’Tis God’s inimitable hand
That molds and forms the heart anew;
Blasphemers can no more withstand,
But bow, and own thy doctrine true.
The guilty wretch that trusts thy blood
Finds peace and pardon at the cross;
The sinful soul, averse to God,
Believes and loves his Maker's laws.
Learning and wit may cease their strife,
When miracles with glory shine;
The voice that calls the dead to life
Must be almighty and divine.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
Psalme 57 (Geneva Bible) 1 Have mercie vpon me, O God, haue mercie vpon me: for my soule trusteth in thee, and in the shadowe of thy wings wil I trust, till these afflictions ouerpasse. Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 I will call vnto the most high God, euen to the God, that performeth his promise toward me.
3 He will send from heauen, and saue me from the reproofe of him that would swallowe me. Selah. God wil send his mercy, and his trueth.
4 My soule is among lions: I lie among the children of men, that are set on fire: whose teeth are speares and arrowes, and their tongue a sharpe sworde.
5 Exalt thy selfe, O God, aboue the heauen, and let thy glory be vpon all the earth.
6 They haue layd a net for my steps: my soule is pressed downe: they haue digged a pit before me, and are fallen into the mids of it. Selah.
7 Mine heart is prepared, O God, mine heart is prepared: I will sing and giue prayse.
8 Awake my tongue, awake viole and harpe: I wil awake early.
9 I will prayse thee, O Lord, among the people, and I wil sing vnto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercie is great vnto the heauens, and thy trueth vnto the cloudes.
11 Exalt thy selfe, O God, aboue the heauens, and let thy glory be vpon all the earth.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 3, C.M.
The new testament in the blood of Christ; or, The new covenant sealed
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
HE promise of my Father’s love
Shall stand for ever good,”
He said; and gave his soul to death,
And sealed the grace with blood.
To this dear cov’nant of thy word
I set my worthless name;
I seal th’ engagement to my Lord,
And make my humble claim.
Thy light, and strength, and pard’ning grace,
And glory, shall be mine
My life and soul, my heart and flesh,
And all my powers, are thine.
I call that legacy my own
Which Jesus did bequeath;
’Twas purchased with a dying groan,
And ratified in death.
Sweet is the memory of his name
Who blessed us in his will,
And to his testament of love
Made his own life the seal.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
Psalme 36 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid, the seruant of the Lord.
1 Wickednes sayeth to the wicked man, euen in mine heart, that there is no feare of God before his eyes.
2 For hee flattereth himselfe in his owne eyes, while his iniquitie is foud worthy to be hated.
3 The wordes of his mouth are iniquitie and deceit: hee hath left off to vnderstand and to doe good.
4 Hee imagineth mischiefe vpon his bed: he setteth himselfe vpon a way, that is not good, and doeth not abhorre euill.
5 Thy mercy, O Lord, reacheth vnto the heauens, and thy faithfulnesse vnto the cloudes.
6 Thy righteousnesse is like the mightie moutaines: thy iudgements are like a great deepe: thou, Lord, doest saue man and beast.
7 How excellent is thy mercy, O God! therefore the children of men trust vnder the shadowe of thy wings.
8 They shall be satisfied with the fatnesse of thine house, and thou shalt giue them drinke out of the riuer of thy pleasures.
9 For with thee is the well of life, and in thy light shall we see light.
10 Extend thy louing kindnes vnto them that knowe thee, and thy righteousnesse vnto them that are vpright in heart.
11 Let not ye foote of pride come against me, and let not the hand of ye wicked men moue me.
12 There they are fallen that worke iniquity: they are cast downe, and shal not be able to rise.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
HYMN 3, C.M.
The death and burial of a saint.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
hy do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to his arms.
Are we not tending upward too
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the hours more slow
To keep us from our love.
Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And left a long perfume.
The graves of all his saints he blessed,
And softened every bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head?
Thence he arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly,
At the great rising day.
Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake, ye nations under ground;
Ye saints, ascend the skies.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts
salms 8 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth on Gittith. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 O lord our Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the worlde! which hast set thy glory aboue the heauens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes & suckelings hast thou ordeined strength, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemie and the auenger.
3 When I beholde thine heauens, euen the workes of thy fingers, the moone and the starres which thou hast ordeined,
4 What is man, say I, that thou art mindefull of him? and the sonne of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower then God, and crowned him with glory and worship.
6 Thou hast made him to haue dominion in the workes of thine hands: thou hast put all things vnder his feete:
7 All sheepe and oxen: yea, and the beastes of the fielde:
8 The foules of the ayre, and the fish of the sea, and that which passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord our Lord, howe excellent is thy Name in all the world!
Grace and peace to you this Lord’s Day.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
HYMN XIII, L.M.
The Son of God incarnate. Isaiah ix.2,6,7.
by Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
he lands that long in darkness lay
Now have beheld a heav’nly light;
Nations that sat in death’s cold shade
Are bless’d with beams divinely bright.
The virgin’s promis’d Son is born,
Behold th’ expected child appear:
What shall his names or titles be?
“The Wonderful, the Counsellor.”
[This infant is the mighty God,
Come to be suckled and ador’d;
Th’ eternal Father, Prince of Peace,
The Son of David, and his Lord.]
The government of earth and seas
Upon his shoulders shall be laid;
His wide dominions still increase,
And honors to his name be paid.
Jesus, the holy child, shall sit
High on his father David’s throne;
Shall crush his foes beneath his feet,
And reign to ages yet unknown.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
uke 2
(Geneva Bible)
1 And it came to passe in those daies, that there came a decree from Augustus Cesar, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (This first taxing was made when Cyrenius was gouernour of Syria.)
3 Therefore went all to be taxed, euery man to his owne Citie.
4 And Ioseph also went vp from Galile out of a citie called Nazareth, into Iudea, vnto the citie of Dauid, which is called Beth-leem (because he was of the house and linage of Dauid,)
5 To bee taxed with Marie that was giuen him to wife, which was with childe.
6 And so it was, that while they were there, the daies were accomplished that shee shoulde be deliuered,
7 And she brought foorth her first begotten sonne, and wrapped him in swadling clothes, and laide him in a cratch, because there was no roome for them in the ynne.
8 And there were in the same countrey shepheards, abiding in the fielde, and keeping watch by night ouer their flocke.
9 And loe, the Angel of the Lord came vpon them, and the glorie of the Lord shone about them, and they were sore afraide.
10 Then the Angel saide vnto them, Be not afraid: for behold, I bring you glad tidings of great ioy, that shalbe to all the people,
11 That is, that vnto you is borne this day in the citie of Dauid, a Sauiour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shalbe a signe to you, Yee shall finde the babe swadled, and laid in a cratch.
13 And straightway there was with the Angel a multitude of heauenly souldiers, praising God, and saying,
14 Glory be to God in the high heauens, and peace in earth, and towards men good will.
15 And it came to passe whe the Angels were gone away from them into heauen, that the shepheards sayde one to another, Let vs goe then vnto Beth-leem, and see this thing that is come to passe which the Lord hath shewed vnto vs.
16 So they came with haste, and founde both Marie and Ioseph, & the babe laid in the cratch.
17 And when they had seene it, they published abroade the thing, that was tolde them of that childe.
18 And all that heard it, wondred at ye things which were tolde them of the shepheards.
19 But Mary kept all those sayings, and pondred them in her heart.
20 And the shepheardes returned glorifiyng and praising God, for all that they had heard and seene as it was spoken vnto them.
21 And when the eight daies were accomplished, that they shoulde circumcise the childe, his name was then called Iesus, which was named of the Angell, before he was conceiued in the wombe.
22 And when the daies of her purification after the Lawe of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Hierusalem, to present him to the Lord,
23 (As it is written in the Lawe of the Lord, Euery man childe that first openeth ye wombe, shalbe called holy to the Lord)
24 And to giue an oblation, as it is commanded in the Lawe of the Lord, a paire of turtle doues, or two yong pigeons.
25 And behold, there was a man in Hierusalem, whose name was Simeon: this man was iust, and feared God, and waited for the consolation of Israel, and the holy Ghost was vpon him.
26 And it was declared to him from God by the holy Ghost, that he shoulde not see death, before he had seene that Anointed of the Lord.
27 And he came by the motion of the spirit into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the babe Iesus, to do for him after the custome of the Lawe,
28 Then hee tooke him in his armes, and praised God, and sayd,
29 Lord, nowe lettest thou thy seruaunt depart in peace, according to thy woorde,
30 For mine eyes haue seene thy saluation,
31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
32 A light to be reueiled to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
33 And Ioseph and his mother marueiled at those things, which were spoken touching him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and saide vnto Mary his mother, Beholde, this childe is appointed for the fall and rising againe of many in Israel, and for a signe which shalbe spoken against,
35 (Yea and a sworde shall pearce through thy soule) that the thoughts of many heartes may be opened.
36 And there was a Prophetesse, one Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, which was of a great age, after she had liued with an husband seuen yeeres from her virginitie:
37 And she was widowe about foure score and foure yeeres, and went not out of the Temple, but serued God with fastings & prayers, night and day.
38 She then coming at the same instant vpon them, confessed likewise the Lord, & spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Hierusalem.
39 And when they had performed all thinges according to the lawe of the Lord, they returned into Galile to their owne citie Nazareth.
40 And the childe grewe, and waxed strong in Spirit, and was filled with wisedome, and the grace of God was with him.
41 Nowe his parents went to Hierusalem euery yeere, at the feast of the Passeouer.
42 And when hee was twelue yeere olde, and they were come vp to Hierusalem, after the custome of the feast,
43 And had finished the dayes thereof, as they returned, the childe Iesus remained in Hierusalem, and Ioseph knew not, nor his mother,
44 But they supposing, that he had bene in the company, went a dayes iourney, and sought him among their kinsfolke, and acquaintance.
45 And when they found him not, they turned backe to Hierusalem, and sought him.
46 And it came to passe three dayes after, that they found him in the Temple, sitting in the mids of the doctours, both hearing them, and asking them questions:
47 And all that heard him, were astonied at his vnderstanding and answeres.
48 So when they sawe him, they were amased, and his mother said vnto him, Sonne, why hast thou thus dealt with vs? beholde, thy father and I haue sought thee with very heauie hearts.
49 Then said he vnto them, Howe is it that ye sought me? knewe ye not that I must goe about my Fathers busines?
50 But they vnderstoode not the word that he spake to them.
51 Then hee went downe with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subiect to them: and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
52 And Iesus increased in wisedome, and stature, and in fauour with God and men.
Heidelberg Catechism for Lord’s Day 52 from CoffeeSwirls.
Grace and peace to you this Lord’s Day.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
HYMN 4 PART 1, C.M.
The nativity of Christ. Luke ii.10, &c.
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
hepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes,
And send your fears away;
News from the regions of the skies,
Salvation's born to-day.
“Jesus, the God whom angels fear,
Comes down to dwell with you;
Today he makes his entrance here,
But not as monarchs do.
“No gold nor purple swaddling bands.
Nor royal shining things;
A manger for his Cradle stands,
And holds the King of kings.
“Go, shepherds, where the infant lies,
And see his humble throne
With tears of joy in all your eyes,
Go, shepherds, kiss the Son.”
Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around
The heav’nly armies throng;
They tune their harps to lofty sound,
And thus conclude the song:
“Glory to God that reigns above!
Let peace surround the earth!
Mortals shall know their Maker’s love,
At their Redeemer’s birth.”
Lord, and shall angels have their songs,
And men no tunes to raise?
O may we lose our useless tongues
When they forget to praise.
Glory to God that reigns above,
That pitied us forlorn;
We join to sing our Maker’s love,
For there’s a Savior born.
—The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
uke 1
(Geneva Bible)
1 Forasmuch as many haue taken in hand to set foorth the storie of those things, whereof we are fully persuaded,
2 As they haue deliuered them vnto vs, which from the beginning saw them their selues, & were ministers of ye word,
3 It seemed good also to me ( most noble Theophilus) assoone as I had searched out perfectly all things from the beginning, to write vnto thee thereof from point to point,
4 That thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of those things, whereof thou hast bene instructed.
5 In the time of Herod King of Iudea, there was a certaine Priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabet.
6 Both were iust before God, and walked in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord, without reproofe.
7 And they had no childe, because that Elisabet was barren: and both were well stricken in age.
8 And it came to passe, as he executed the Priestes office before God, as his course came in order,
9 According to the custome of the Priests office, his lot was to burne incense, when he went into the Temple of the Lord.
10 And the whole multitude of the people were without in prayer, while the incense was burning.
11 Then appeared vnto him an Angel of the Lord standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
12 And when Zacharias sawe him, he was troubled, and feare fell vpon him.
13 But the Angel saide vnto him, Feare not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard, and thy wise Elisabet shall beare thee a sonne, and thou shalt call his name Iohn.
14 And thou shalt haue ioy and gladnes, and many shall reioyce at his birth.
15 For he shalbe great in the sight of the Lord, and shall neither drinke wine, nor strong drinke: and he shalbe filled with the holy Ghost, euen from his mothers wombe.
16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turne to their Lord God.
17 For he shall goe before him in the spirite and power of Elias, to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisedome of the iust men, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
18 Then Zacharias said vnto ye Angel, Whereby shall I knowe this? For I am an olde man, and my wife is of a great age.
19 And the Angell answered, and sayde vnto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speake vnto thee, & to shew thee these good tidings.
20 And beholde, thou shalt be domme, & not be able to speake, vntill the day that these things be done, because thou beleeuedst not my words, which shalbe fulfilled in their season.
21 Now the people waited for Zacharias, and marueiled that he taried so long in the Temple.
22 And when hee came out, hee coulde not speake vnto them: then they perceiued that hee had seene a vision in the Temple: For he made signes vnto them, and remained domme.
23 And it came to passe, when the daies of his office were fulfilled, that he departed to his owne house.
24 And after those daies, his wife Elisabet conceiued, and hid her selfe fiue moneths, saying,
25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me, in the daies wherein he looked on me, to take from me my rebuke among men.
26 And in the sixth moneth, the Angell Gabriel was sent from God vnto a citie of Galile, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin affianced to a man whose name was Ioseph, of the house of Dauid, & the virgins name was Marie.
28 And the Angel went in vnto her, and said, Haile thou that art freely beloued: the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and thought what maner of salutation that should be.
30 Then the Angel saide vnto her, Feare not, Marie: for thou hast found fauour with God.
31 For loe, thou shalt conceiue in thy wobe, and beare a sonne, and shalt call his name Iesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Sonne of the most High, and the Lord God shall giue vnto him the throne of his father Dauid.
33 And hee shall reigne ouer the house of Iacob for euer, and of his kingdome shall bee none ende.
34 Then sayde Marie vnto the Angel, How shall this be, seeing I knowe not man?
35 And the Angel answered, & said vnto her, The holy Ghost shall come vpon thee, and the power of the most High shall ouershadowe thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall bee borne of thee, shall be called the Sonne of God.
36 And behold, thy cousin Elisabet, she hath also conceiued a sonne in her olde age: and this is her sixt moneth, which was called barren.
37 For with God shall nothing be vnpossible.
38 Then Marie said, Behold the seruant of the Lord: be it vnto me according to thy woorde. So the Angel departed from her.
39 And Marie arose in those daies, & went into ye hil countrey with hast to a citie of Iuda,
40 And entred into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabet.
41 And it came to passe, as Elisabet heard the salutation of Marie, the babe sprang in her bellie, and Elisabet was filled with the holy Ghost.
42 And she cried with a loud voice, and saide, Blessed art thou among women, because the fruit of thy wombe is blessed.
43 And whence commeth this to mee, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For loe, assoone as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine eares, the babe sprang in my bellie for ioye,
45 And blessed is shee that beleeued: for those things shall be perfourmed, which were tolde her from the Lord.
46 Then Marie sayde, My soule magnifieth the Lord,
47 And my spirite reioyceth in God my Sauiour.
48 For hee hath looked on the poore degree of his seruaunt: for beholde, from henceforth shall all ages call me blessed,
49 Because hee that is mightie, hath done for me great things, and holy is his Name.
50 And his mercie is from generation to generation on them that feare him.
51 Hee hath shewed strength with his arme: hee hath scattered the proude in the imagination of their hearts.
52 Hee hath put downe the mighty from their seates, and exalted them of lowe degree.
53 Hee hath filled the hungrie with good things, and sent away the rich emptie.
54 Hee hath vpholden Israel his seruaunt to be mindefull of his mercie
55 (As hee hath spoken to our fathers, to wit, to Abraham, and his seede) for euer.
56 And Marie abode with her about three moneths: after, shee returned to her owne house.
57 Nowe Elisabets time was fulfilled, that shee should be deliuered, and shee brought foorth a sonne.
58 And her neighbours, and cousins heard tell howe the Lord had shewed his great mercie vpon her, and they reioyced with her.
59 And it was so that on the eight day they came to circumcise the babe, and called him Zacharias after the name of his father.
60 But his mother answered, and saide, Not so, but he shalbe called Iohn.
61 And they saide vnto her, There is none of thy kindred, that is named with this name.
62 Then they made signes to his father, howe he would haue him called.
63 So hee asked for writing tables, and wrote, saying, His name is Iohn, and they marueiled all.
64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue, and he spake and praised God.
65 Then feare came on all them that dwelt neere vnto them, and all these woordes were noised abroade throughout all the hill countrey of Iudea.
66 And al they that heard them, laid them vp in their hearts, saying, What maner childe shall this be! and the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 Then his father Zacharias was filled with the holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69 And hath raised vp the horne of saluation vnto vs, in the house of his seruant Dauid,
70 As he spake by ye mouth of his holy Prophets, which were since the world began, saying,
71 That he would sende vs deliuerance fro our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate vs,
72 That he might shewe mercie towards our fathers, and remember his holy couenant,
73 And the othe which he sware to our father Abraham.
74 Which was, that he would graunt vnto vs, that we being deliuered out of the handes of our enemies, should serue him without feare,
75 All the daies of our life, in holinesse and righteousnesse before him.
76 And thou, babe, shalt be called the Prophet of the most High: for thou shalt goe before the face of the Lord, to prepare his waies,
77 And to giue knowledge of saluation vnto his people, by the remission of their sinnes,
78 Through ye tender mercy of our God, wherby the day spring from an hie hath visited vs,
79 To giue light to them that sit in darknes, and in the shadow of death, & to guide our feete into the way of peace.
80 And the childe grewe, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the wildernesse, til the day came that he should shewe him selfe vnto Israel.
Heidelberg Catechism for Lord’s Day 51 from CoffeeSwirls.
Grace and peace to you this Lord’s Day.
