Hymn of the Week: August 21, 2023 (Continued from Aug. 14)

Through All the Changing Scenes of Life   

Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady 1696 

Singing the Psalms 

First five verses found in most hymnals:

Thro' all the changing scenes of life, 
In trouble, and in joy, 
The praises of my God shall still 
My heart and tongue employ. 
 
Of his deliv'rance I will boast, 
Till all that are distress'd, 
From my example comfort take, 
And sooth their griefs to rest. 
 
O magnify the Lord with me, 
With me exalt his Name, 
To him in my distress I cry'd 
He to my rescue came. 
 
With grateful hearts observe his ways, 
And on his goodness rest; 
So will your own experience prove 
That pious souls are blest. 
 
For while his fear inspires your breast, 
His mercy will be nigh, 
To guard your lives from threat'ning ills, 
And all your wants supply. 

Other verses used: 

 The hosts of God encamp around 
The dwellings of the just; 
Deliverance he affords to all 
Who on his succour trust. 

 Oh make but trial of his love; 
Experience will decide 
How blest are they, and only they, 
Who in his truth confide. 

 Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

Psalm 34 from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition:

 
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; 
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; 
    let the humble hear and be glad. 
3 O magnify the Lord with me, 
    and let us exalt his name together. 
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me 
    and delivered me from all my fears. 
5 Look to him, and be radiant, 
    so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed. 
6 This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord 
    and was saved from every trouble. 
7 The angel of the Lord encamps 
    around those who fear him and delivers them. 
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; 
    happy are those who take refuge in him. 
9 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, 
    for those who fear him have no want. 
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger, 
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 
11 Come, O children, listen to me; 
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 
12 Which of you desires life 
    and covets many days to enjoy good? 
13 Keep your tongue from evil 
    and your lips from speaking deceit. 
14 Depart from evil, and do good; 
    seek peace, and pursue it. 
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 
    and his ears are open to their cry. 
16 The face of the Lord is against evildoers, 
    to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears 
    and rescues them from all their troubles. 
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 
    and saves the crushed in spirit. 
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 
    but the Lord rescues them from them all. 
20 He keeps all their bones; 
    not one of them will be broken. 
21 Evil brings death to the wicked, 
    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants; 
    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 

Today’s Devotion: Providence of God 

 In last week’s Hymn of the Week, we compared how hymn writers have taken Psalm 34 and shaped it into singable verses of our hymn. One of the many cool things about this hymn is the fact that the Psalm itself is in 22 verses with each verse representing a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And if I included all the verses that have been written for this hymn, we would discover that there are 22 of them as well. 

Praise the Lord

To sum up, what all these verses are saying, it’s safe to say, “I shall praise the Lord because he protects me from danger.”  This is of course an easy thing to say, but how do we really know?  Maybe the psalmist has a memory from their own life that they are thinking about when God protected them.  But as the psalm continues, the psalmist universalizes the personal experience and decides that they will “Praise the Lord at all times.” 

How difficult is it to praise God when life gets difficult, harrowing, or dangerous?   I believe most Christians believe that Praise of God is the highest duty of man, but the common belief seems to be that there is a time for praising and a time for withholding praise. But when someone has personally experienced how the Shepherd comes and saves the sheep in danger and brought them back from the precipice, then that person may very well say that they will Praise God at All Times.   

Verse 2 and 3 of Psalm 34 has this to say
(not usually used in any hymnal)

2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; 
    let the humble hear and be glad. 
3 O magnify the Lord with me, 
    and let us exalt his name together. 

The person in this condition wants to share the story of his deliverance, to tell his neighbors.  He doesn’t want this to make himself feel better than his neighbors but that the neighbor may simply “be made glad.” 

Who then is entitled to believe that they are looked after by God?  A verse not used in many hymnals today gives us a clue: 

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

In a general way, Christians could say that there are no accidents in life, but I think we all know that this is not the case. We can all agree that it would be a very bad idea to tell a new Christian that now that they are Christian their troubles are over. But Christianity can help us steer our way through the rocks and dangerous places in our lives. 

Eric Routley

Eric Routley uses the following description:  Let’s say a man loses his sight. It would be possible for the man to say “God has taken my sight from me. Then I shall see to it that society pays me back for this awful thing that has happened.” It is also possible for the blind man to come to a place where he can say, “What is it that God wants from me and what can I do better because of this blindness.” The blind man example is a good one as I’m sure we all know of folks who have lost their sight. And how often have we been blessed by their cheerfulness and heroic Christian courage?” Whatever our affliction the choice is clear: “I will sue God for damages for what has happened to me” or “I will praise God at all times.” 

Once at this place, the next question becomes, why has God spared me or saved me in his way?  This is the heart of the Christian life as it concerns the individual. When the hideous thing or the miraculous thing happens, when a person has been knocked down by death or love, that is the question we all come to at some point. 

When a physical calamity befalls us, it is easy to ask “Why me? Why me?” It can become almost a drumbeat for us. (I’ve had these thoughts myself many times).  

In reading over Eric Routley’s thoughts and this hymn and Psalm, I keep coming back to the story of Job; that I was lucky enough to have an hour-long Bible study on while at Montreat this summer. Job’s friends, when all has been taken from him tell him to curse God. After almost 40 chapters of discourse, God has had enough and comes down in a whirlwind asking Job if he was there when the stars were made and if he knows how to feed a lion or take care of a goat in the wild.  Job then humbly confesses that God is all-knowing and present and repents. 

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

Fear the Lord; treat God’s plan as relevant and important, and there will be no grievances, no senseless accidents, only, at all times, grounds for worshiping and praising God.