O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Good Morning Friends,
As the tongues in Washington sealed a deal to continue funding those things we have become accustomed to in the United States, the Lawson Family was back at choir last night. We sang in preparation for the Getty concert on November 1, All Saints’ Day*, and then practiced future anthems for worship. Since we will be changing out the hymnals…old for new on Sunday our minister of music choose an anthem worthy of the occasion…a hymn with an appropriate message but also one with a story. This Sunday we very appropriately will be singing O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.
Scripture: for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
Psalm 109:2 (NIV)
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
Psalm 150:6 (NIV)
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV)
Message: Today’s story starts with David’s lament but then moves to a story of conversion and then after lots of changes, even with new tunes and words, gets sung in church. The connections are amazing just as is the prolific writing of Charles Wesley. He is credited with writing upward of 6,000 hymns, many of which were subsequently reprinted, frequently with alterations. One of the most famous of Charles Wesley’s hymns has had the honor of having been placed first in the Methodist hymnals for generations. Its writing commemorates the anniversary of what some call his true conversion. You see Charles came back home broken and ill from what he thought was a disastrous mission trip to the American colony of Georgia and it challenged his faith to the bone. After his return, both he and his brother John, another great hymnist, made the acquaintance of Moravian Peter Bohler, who urged Charles to look more deeply at the state of his soul. It was Bohler who studied the Bible with Charles and John Wesley and undoubtedly read together with them the scripture for today. Charles was reengaged and wrote what would become known as O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. The hymn was originally published in 1740 and entitled ‘For the anniversary day of one’s conversion’. The title it goes by today, is credited to Bohler who as a response to Psalm 109 said, ‘Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all. The original hymn took the form of an 18-stanza poem, beginning with the opening lines ‘Glory to God, and praise, and love,/Be ever, ever given’ By Saints below, and Saints above, The church in earth and Heaven.and then at the seventh verse, it begins, ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’, and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn.
Pray the words of the original poem:
1. Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given;
By Saints below, and Saints above,
The church in earth and Heaven.
2. On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And fill’d it with repose.
3. Sudden expired the legal strife;
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.
4. Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith Divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Saviour mine.
5. I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved—the Son of God,
For me, for me, He died!
6. I found, and own’d His promise true,
Ascertain’d of my part,
My pardon pass’d in heaven I knew,
When written on my heart.
7. O for a thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer’s praise!
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace.
8. My gracious Master, and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.
9. Jesus, the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace!
10. He breaks the power of cancell’d sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avail’d for me.
11. He speaks; and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.
12. Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosen’d tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come;
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
13. Look unto Him, ye nations; own
Your God, ye fallen race!
Look, and be saved through faith alone;
Be justified by grace!
14. See all your sins on Jesus laid;
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.
15. Harlots, and publicans, and thieves
In holy triumph join;
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.
16. Murderers, and all ye hellish crew,
Ye sons of lust and pride,
Believe the Saviour died for you;
For me the Saviour died.
17. Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Ethiop white.
18. With me, your chief, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.
* See the first verse of the hymn
Blessings,
John Lawson
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