Hymn of the Week: Lift Up Your Hearts!

My new hymn this week is based on the New Testament theology of the Reign of God (often translated in the Gospels as "the Kingdom of God"). The verses provide an overview of biblical teachings on God's reign in us, God's reign through us, and then the final consummation of his reign in the future. The chorus is based on some of the triumphal angelic songs of the book of Revelation. I've set it to a tune inspired by Henry Work's old patriotic "Song of a Thousand Years," but with significant modifications. As you'll hear in my recording below (and please take my apologies for my shortcomings), it rather resembles a series of trumpet flourishes, and thus it may serve better as a performance piece than a congregational hymn.

Lift Up Your Hearts!

Lift up your hearts, O saints of God!
The King's own Spirit dwells in you:
He reigns in you, enthroned in your hearts;
The Kingdom of God is within you!

     (Chorus:)
     All praise, all honor, and all glory
     Be to our God forevermore,
     For He has made this world's dominions
     The Kingdom of our risen Lord!

Lift up your hearts, O saints of God!
You're called to be His kings and priests;
You sit with Christ enthroned in heaven;
His reign flows through your prayers and deeds!

     (Chorus)

Lift up your hearts, O saints of God!
That which begins shall be in full:
The Lord who reigns within and through you,
One day He shall be Lord of all!

     (Chorus)

Photo of the Week

Listen to me, my faithful children, 

And blossom like a flower growing by a stream of water.

Send out fragrance like incense,

And put forth blossoms like a lily.

Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise;

Bless the Lord for all His works.

- Sirach 39:13-14 (OT Apocrypha)

Quote of the Week

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones. And when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."

- Victor Hugo, 19th-century French novelist

Saturday Synaxis

Father of mercies, send Thy grace

All-powerful from above,

To form in our obedient souls

The image of Thy love.

- from #18 in the Augustine Hymn Book, 19th century

Hymn of the Week: When in All of My Temptations

My goal this week was to write a hymn in which the chorus could be used in the old tradition of an "arrow prayer." Among the early Desert Fathers, one of their common practices when beset by tempting thoughts was to pray simple, rapid-fire prayers for deliverance. The most popular one was from the first line of Psalm 70: "Make haste, O God, to save me; be swift, O Lord, to help me." I've incorporated that verse, along with the broader tradition of Kyrie Eleison prayers ("Lord, have mercy") into this hymn's chorus. The tune I use here is a modification of the music for Elwood Stokes' old hymn "Fill Me Now" (the timing is altered in the verses and final chorus line, while the initial chorus line has been rewritten altogether). 

When in All of My Temptations (Lord, Have Mercy)

When in all of my temptations,
I don't know where I should go;
When I cannot stand in my strength,
I turn unto you, O Lord.

     (Chorus:)
     Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!
     Lord have mercy on me!
     Lord, make haste to help and save me;
     Lord, pour mercy out on me!

When my heart is weighed with sorrow;
When my eyes are dim with grief--
I look to my Rock, my Refuge;
In my Savior there is peace.

     (Chorus)

When the darts of Satan strike me,
Sin surrounds me like a sea,
Then I run for my salvation
To the Lamb of Calvary.

     (Chorus)

Photo of the Week

Come away to the skies:

My beloved, arise!--

And God's rapturous praises repeat:

To the Lamb that was slain,

Hallelujah again!--

Sing, all heaven, and fall at His feet!

- Adapted from vv. 1 & 5 of Charles Wesley's hymn "Come Away to the Skies"

Quote of the Week

"As God is love and joy and peace and kindness and goodness, so too the new man may become by grace."

- Macarius the Great, a desert father of the early church, from his Fifty Spiritual Homilies