Yearly Archives: 2023

His Robes for Mine

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This hymn I heard a few months ago at a friend’s wedding and loved the words as soon as I heard it. I then recently listened to a podcast where the author of the hymn, Chris Anderson, talks about his book “Theology That Sticks – The Life Changing Power of Exceptional Hymns”. He discusses the importance of singing songs that are sound in theology, honouring to God and edifying for us. He’s a former pastor of 25 years and author of several well-known hymns, including this one1; I’m sure you’ll enjoy either of these versions this Lord’s Day!

His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.

Refrain
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise—my all—shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.

Refrain

His robes for mine: God’s justice is appeased.
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried, “’Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid; propitiation won.

Refrain

His robes for mine: such anguish none can know.
Christ, God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe.
He, as though I, accursed and left alone;
I, as though He, embraced and welcomed home!

Refrain

1thechristianworldview.org/topic-principles-for-selecting-christian-music-part-1-of-2/

Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory (By Thy Mercy)

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Written by James John Cummins, this hymn is a sweet and musical litany, which appeared in his Poetical Meditations and Hymns, 1839, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, with the refrain, “By Thy mercy, 0 deliver us, Good Lord.” In 1819, it was reprinted in his Hymns, Meditations, and Other Poems in 18391. Enjoy the below version 🙂

Jesus, Lord of life and glory,
bend from heav’n thy gracious ear;
while our waiting souls adore thee,
Friend of helpless sinners, hear:

Refrain:
By thy mercy, O deliver us, good Lord.

From the depth of nature’s blindness,
from the hard’ning pow’r of sin,
from all malice and unkindness,
from the pride that lurks within.

Refrain

When temptation sorely presses,
In the day of Satan’s pow’r,
In our times of deep distresses,
In each dark and trying hour.

Refrain

When the world around is smiling,
in the time of wealth and ease,
earthly joys our hearts beguiling,
in the day of health and peace.

Refrain

In our weary hours of sickness,
in our times of grief and pain,
when we feel our mortal weakness,
when the creature’s help is vain.

Refrain

In the solemn hour of dying,
in the awful Judgment Day,
may our souls, on thee relying,
find thee still our rock and stay:

Refrain

1https://hymnary.org/text/jesus_lord_of_life_and_glory_bend_from_h

Nothing But The Blood of Jesus

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Robert Lowry (1826-1899) has provided us with many of the most venerable nineteenth-century texts and tunes from the United States. The Philadelphia-born author and composer of this hymn was a popular Baptist preacher and educator who served churches in Pennsylvania, New York City, Brooklyn, and Plainfield, New Jersey. He became known for his gospel songs while ministering in Brooklyn, collaborating often with William H. Doane in producing some of the most popular Sunday school song collections of his day. Traditionally sung as a call and response, Lowry adapts a call-response pattern in the stanzas that immediately engages the singer. Stanza one begins with a question: “What can wash away my sin?” The answer is resounding and definitive: “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” This is followed by a second question: “What can make me whole again?” Once more, the answer is unequivocal, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” This call-response pattern, along with the sturdy, almost martial rhythms of the music, gives the effect of cheerleading1.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Now by this I’ll overcome—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Now by this I’ll reach my home—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

1umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-nothing-but-the-blood

This Is My Father’s World

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This wonderful hymn was sent through as a suggestion on the contact page, and for good reason. This is My Father’s World” was written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock and was published after his death in 1901. It was originally written as a poem containing sixteen verses of four lines each. Franklin L. Sheppard set the poem to music in 1915 and selected three verses for the final hymn. Babcock, who was a minister from Lockport, New York, would often take walks overlooking a cliff, where he would enjoy the view of beautiful Lake Ontario and the upstate New York scenery. As he prepared to leave for his walks he would often tell his wife that he was “going out to see my Father’s world.”1 Don’t forgot you too can suggest a hymn for me to post via the “Suggest A Hymn Page”!.

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

1thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/this-is-my-fathers-world.html#:~:text=Babcock%2C%20who%20was%20a%20minister,to%20see%20my%20Father’s%20world.%E2%80%9D

Hear Our Prayer

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This song by Emu Music is based on a prayer by Love M. Whitcomb Willis. Not much is known about her other than she was born 9 June 1824 and died on 26 November 1908. She was the daughter of a Unitarian minister and married Frederick Llewellyn Hovey Willis. Enjoy this simple prayer.

Hear our prayer, God above
As we come to you and seek your patient love;
Hear our hearts, hear our minds
Hear the echoes of the words we cannot find

Be our hope, be our guide
In our wanderings of weakness break our pride;
Not for ease shall we pray,
But for strength that we may walk with you this day.

Refrain
So we pray in faith, your will be done
As we long to see your kingdom come
We ask with one voice
Through Jesus Christ our Lord

Hear our prayer, faithful one
Shape our yearnings to the gospel of your Son;
Free our hearts, free our minds
From the war that sin will wage till you arrive.

Be our joy, be our stay
Give us eyes to see you answer prayer this day;
Hear us praise all you’ve done
We rejoice as we receive the victory won.

His Be the Victor’s Name

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Samuel Whitelock Gandy is the original writer of this hymn; he was the Vicar of a church in Kingston-on-Thames with Richmond from Jan. 1817 to his death, Dec. 24, 1851. As well as this hymn, his other more popular hymn was “What tho’ the Accuser roar” (Victory through Jesus) found in the Plymouth Brethren “Hymns for the Poor of the Flock“, 1838. Some of his Sermons were published posthumously in 18591. This version has been slightly tweaked by Zac Hicks, but is wonderful nonetheless.

His be the Victor’s Name
Who fought the fight alone;
Triumphant saints no honour claim;
Their conquest was His own.

By weakness and defeat
He won the glorious crown;
Trod all His foes beneath His feet
By being trodden down.

Refrain
What though the vile accuser roar
Of sins that I have done;
I know them well, and thousands more;
My God, He knoweth none

He hell in hell laid low;
Made sin, He sin o’erthrew;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And death, by dying, slew.

Refrain

Bless, bless the Conqueror slain,
Slain by divine decree!
Who lived, who died, who lives again,
For thee, my soul, for thee.

Refrain

My sin is cast into the sea
Of God’s forgotten memory
No more to haunt accusingly
For Christ has lived and died for me

1https://hymnary.org/text/his_be_the_victors_name

Light After Darkness

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This hymn, with an added refrain and verse by Zac Hicks based on Psalm 30:5 & Job 1:21, was originally written by Frances Ridley Havergal in1879, who is most famous for her hymn, “Take My Life and Let it Be” and “Like A River Glorious”. This hymn teaches us that worship is a choice more than a feeling…that the hope of what God has in store is worth holding onto, no matter the circumstances1.

Light after darkness, gain after loss,
Strength after weakness, crown after cross;
Sweet after bitter, hope after fears,
Home after wandering, praise after tears.

Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain,
Sight after mystery, peace after pain;
Joy after sorrow, calm after blast,
Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last.

Refrain
Weeping may remain for a night
But joy arrives in morning’s new light
I’ll praise the God of merciful plight
Still I will praise him, still I will praise him, my God.

Near after distant, gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness, life after tomb;
After long agony, rapture of bliss,
Right was the pathway, leading to this.

Refrain

You give and you take away
In darkness still I will say:
“A good God I serve this day.”
Still I will praise you, still I will praise you.

Refrain

1zachicks.com/light-after-darkness/

Grace

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This song taken from CityAlight’s 2016 album “Only a Holy God”, is a simple account of the goodness and uniqueness of the grace of God. With a 4 part harmony, this song sounds beautiful, but equally sounds as delightful if you sing this by yourself, making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Your grace that leads this sinner home
From death to life forever;
And sings the song of righteousness
By blood and not by merit.

Your grace that reaches far and wide
To every tribe and nation;
Has called my heart to enter in
The joy of Your salvation.

Refrain
By grace I am redeemed
By grace I am restored
And now I freely walk
Into the arms of Christ my Lord

Your grace that I cannot explain
Not by my earthly wisdom;
The prince of life, without a stain
Was traded for this sinner.

Refrain

Let praise rise up and overflow
My song resound forever;
For grace will see me welcomed home
To walk beside my Saviour.

Refrain

There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy

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Brought up as an Anglican, Frederick Faber was ordained in the Church of England. But, at the age of 31, he converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Catholic priest. In 1849, Frederick decided to open an oratory – a place of prayer in London. The word “oratory” comes from the Latin word oratorio – which is often used to describe a composition uniting a biblical text with music. Frederick was concerned that British Roman Catholics did not have a heritage of hymn-writers like Isaac Watts. So he began writing hymns so Catholics could also be a hymn-singing people. Just as there is “a wideness in God’s mercy”, so there was a width to Frederick’s hymns… which soon became more familiar to Protestants than to Catholics1.

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea.
There’s a kindness in God’s justice,
Which is more than liberty.

There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good.
There is mercy with the Saviour,
There is healing in his blood.

But we make God’s love too narrow
By false limits of our own,
And we magnify its strictness
With a zeal God will not own.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of the mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more simple,
We should rest upon God’s word,
And our lives would be illumined
By the presence of our Lord.

1thescottspot.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/theres-a-wideness-in-gods-mercy-written-in-1862/

My Song Is Love Unknown

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I was reminded of this hymn after listening to an episode of Ask Pastor John where John Piper explains that the words alone, without the wonderful accompanying music, is a beautiful poem. This was written by Samuel Crossman (1624-1683) who became Dean of Bristol Cathedral. He received a Bachelor of Divinity at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He then served both an Anglican parish at All Saints, Sudbury, and a Puritan congregation. This poignant meditation of the Passion of Christ was published just before Crossman’s ordination, in The Young Man’s Meditation (1664). This short book of poems was reprinted in 1683, and the poem appeared for the first time as a hymn in the Anglican Hymn Book in 1686, just two years after the author’s death1.

My song is love unknown,
my Saviour’s love to me,
love to the loveless shown
that they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I,
that for my sake
my Lord should take
frail flesh and die?

He came from his blest throne
salvation to bestow,
but such disdain! So few
the longed-for Christ would know!
But oh, my friend,
my friend indeed,
who at my need
his life did spend!

Sometimes they crowd his way
and his sweet praises sing,
resounding all the day
hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!”
is all their breath,
and for his death
they thirst and cry.

Why? What has my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
he gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries!
Yet they at these
themselves displease
and ‘gainst him rise.

They rise and needs will have
my dear Lord made away.
A murderer they save,
the Prince of life they slay.
Yet cheerful he
to suff’ring goes
that he his foes
from death might free.

In life, no house, no home
my Lord on earth might have;
in death, no friendly tomb,
but what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heav’n was his home
but mine the tomb
wherein he lay.

Here might I stay and sing;
no story so divine,
never was love, dear King,
never was grief like thine.
This is my friend,
in whose sweet praise
I all my days
could gladly spend!

1anglicanfocus.org.au/2019/04/08/my-song-is-love-unknown/