Showing posts with label Hymns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hymns. Show all posts

November 17, 2008

True Worship: O Worship the King

I wonder if it would be possible for 'worship' to sound like this:

"O tell of His might, and sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm."

This is the second verse of the Robert Grant hymn. I would dare put forth the claim that all of today's 'modern' worship pales in comparison to Grant's creative excellence in word choice, as well as his theological accuracy in praising God not only for His grace but also His wrath. Goodness, has CCM ever thought of praising a wrathful God as well as a gracious one?

November 14, 2008

True Worship: Beneath the Cross of Jesus

"Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

"O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet,
O trusting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.

"There lies beneath its shadow but on the further side
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.

"Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.

"I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross."

-Elizabeth C. Clephane