This fall the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal will publish an essay of mine in which I evaluate claims that Isaac Watts was a proto-dispensationalist. In the article I argue that Watts’s writings do not demonstrate enough characteristics of dispensationalism to characterize him as such, but it is clear that Isaac Watts was at least a premillenialist.… Continue Reading
Sometimes we really don’t appreciate the continuity of the Christian tradition, especially in that there is, by and large, an approach to the music of worship that can be traced back to ancient Israel itself and its psalmody. Over the next several weeks, I want to trace how a particular psalm, Psalm 130, has been… Continue Reading
I appreciate Joel Beeke, the pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids and the President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, for his ability to combine sound theology with warm devotion, while not undermining the former or distorting the shape of the latter. If you have… Continue Reading
Sigismund von Birken (1626-1681) was the son of an evangelical pastor who had to flee Bohemia for Nürnberg. Von Birken studied both law and theology, but left his studies incomplete, joining an order of poets and dabbling in tutoring; he would later become head of this poets’ society (the “Pegnitz Shepherd and Flower Order”), and… Continue Reading
I received this letter from Isaac Watts a couple years ago, and published it on my blog. Watts gave me permission to publish it so I have done so here at RA again, with an additional postscript at the end.* ___________ Abney Park in Stoke Newington, September 30, 2008 To Mr. Ryan Martin Dear Sir,… Continue Reading
We sang several songs in our Sunday morning service which emphasized the believer’s quiet and confident trust in God in the midst of the trying circumstances which he puts into our lives. “Now Thank We All Our God” was written by Martin Rinkart (and translated from the German by the incomparable Catherine Winkworth). Rinkart was… Continue Reading
As a general rule, each month I teach one new or more unfamiliar hymn (or occasionally two) to our congregation. (In March, it was a newly written hymn, “Come to the Waters,” by James Montgomery Boice and Paul Jones.) Looking toward Easter, I wanted to suggest a number of hymns that might be unfamiliar… Continue Reading
I recently listened to a message delivered by a music pastor at a pastor’s conference on the subject of song selection. He touched on issues related both to text and musical style, but it was an illustration given on the former that I found the most astonishing of the several things he said with which… Continue Reading
A few Sundays back, I structured our congregational singing around the theme of God’s pardon of guilty sinners on the basis of Christ’s death. There is a wonderful section in John Bunyan’s work The Holy War which relates how the rebellious city of Mansoul was conquered by Prince Emmanuel, and recognizing their hopeless state, had… Continue Reading
This morning I was rifling through blog posts in Google reader and noticed a familiar looking image on my feed from the Gospel Coalition. The Gospel Coalition post was by Mike Cosper, and he was lauding the evangelical emphasis of late to dispense with all the old hymn tunes. He wants us to keep singing… Continue Reading
Samuel Rodigast, “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right” This outstanding hymn was introduced to our church back in 2009, and after singing it for a month of Sundays in order to learn it, we hadn’t sung it since because it is not in our hymnal. Definitely a situation which needed rectifying, so I re-introduced it… Continue Reading
Last week I argued that, if we are committed to conservative worship, it only follows that we should be committed to perpetuating conservative worship in the next generation. We want to continue developing this theme as we post at the Religious Affections blog. What hymns might we teach children? Before I name some specific recommendations, there… Continue Reading
“Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word” makes an outstanding musical call to worship. The text is superb, and the tune LIEBSTER JESU is a good fit. As well, it is translated from the German by the incomparable Catherine Winkworth. What more could one ask? It can be found in the Trinity Hymnal. Online, you can find… Continue Reading
The singing of psalms has all but disappeared from many congregations, unless you count the “As the Deer” chorus as a singing of a psalm. (Lifting the first line from a psalm and adding words about your desire to eventually worship generally doesn’t count.) One cannot help feeling that many congregations treat their hymnal as… Continue Reading
We believe that the great Christian tradition of hymnody should be perpetuated. We treasure the invaluable contributions of the saints to our corporate and private worship in the great texts and tunes. Artistically, we admire the great hymns’ beauty and profundity. Intellectually, we appreciate their imaginative but careful communication of great Christian theology. Experientially, these… Continue Reading
The hymn “Come Down, O Love Divine” is a worthy one if you do not yet know it. I was first introduced to it several years ago by the masterful Kings College Choir recording Best Loved Hymns. The hymn is a prayer to the Holy Spirit to come and pour out his divine grace in… Continue Reading
This month, our pastor preached through the Ephesians 6 passage on spiritual warfare. We used Wesley’s “Soldiers of Christ, Arise” (to the usual tune DIADEMATA), but over the course of the series, I introduced a number of the lesser-known stanzas (out of the 12 original ones). I was pleased beyond measure to find a number… Continue Reading
The concept often referred to as the humiliation of God the Son—the notion that the second person of the Trinity emptied himself of the full manifestation of His glorious divinity, left his privileged position in heaven, veiled himself in human flesh, and dwelt among his creatures as one of them—is one of the most wonderfully… Continue Reading
Over the years, I’ve become hesitant to sing “O Holy Night,” a Christmas song widely used as a solo because of its dramatic nature and vocal difficulty. Our common English translation is by John S. Dwight, a rather loose translation (so I understand) of the French Cantique de Noel . Dwight was at various times in his life… Continue Reading
Continuing our series on incarnation hymnody, we take a look today at “Angels, from the Realms of Glory.” ___________________________ “Angels, from the Realms of Glory” is nearing its bicentennial, having been first published in 1816 by James Montgomery. Hymnals nearly universally include the first four stanzas, but omit the fifth: Angels from the realms of… Continue Reading