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Father, to Thee a joyful song we raise With all Thine own; And in Thy presence sound a note of praise To Thee alone; Bro’t nigh, bro’t home to Thee—O wondrous grace, That gives us now with Thine own Son our place. |
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How deep the holy joy that fills that scene, Where love is known! Thy love, our God and Father, now is seen, In Him alone; As, in the holy calm of Thine own rest, He leads the praise of those Thy love has blessed. |
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He leads the praise! How precious to Thine ear The song He sings! How precious, too, to Thee—how near, how dear Are those He brings To share His place: ’twas thus that Thou didst plan; Thou lovedst Him before the world began. |
Third, we may classify the hymns by the sentiment expressed in the hymns. This is the deepest and most important matter in choosing a hymn. The sentiment of a hymn is the tender feeling of that hymn. The more tender a hymn is, the deeper is its sentiment. Two hymns may have the same subject and be under the same subdivision, but there may be a difference between them in sentiment. For example, Hymns, #39 and #52 are both hymns on the worship of the Father, but they have very different sentiments. Hymns, #39 is a good hymn that is full of excitement. Singing this hymn may make us want to shout. In contrast, Hymns, #52 is a very tender and fine hymn, perhaps the most tender and fine hymn in the section on the worship of the Father. If we study and pray over this hymn, we will sense how deep and tender its feeling is.
Part of the third stanza of Hymns, #52 says:
He leads the praise!
How precious to Thine ear
The song He sings!
This shows us that it is most pleasing to God for the firstborn Son to lead the many sons into the praise of God the Father...
2) "I [the resurrected Christ] will declare Your [the Father's] name to My brothers; in the midst of the church [the meeting with the disciples after resurrection] I will sing hymns of praise unto You" (Heb. 2:12).
Here is mentioned what the Lord did when He appeared to and met with His disciples after His resurrection, that is, He considered them as brothers and declared to them the Father's name. He also considered them as the church and sang hymns of praise to the Father among them. Although the Lord is the only begotten Son of God, through death and resurrection, He regenerated us who believed in Him (1 Pet. 1:3) that we might become the many sons of God. He then became the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29), leading us, who are the many sons, with Him to the Father. After He was resurrected, He came among the disciples (John 20:19-29) and declared the Father's name to His brothers. Then in the status of the firstborn Son of God, He led His many brothers, who are God's many sons, to sing praises to the Father together, that is, to worship the Father together. According to this fact, after we have broken the bread in remembrance of the Lord, we should be led by the Lord to worship the Father. In this section of the meeting, we take the Father as the center, and, as depicted in Hymns, #52, all our singing of praises to the Father is the Lord in us leading us to sing praises to the Father.
After all of this, the Lord will lead us to worship the Father. This is based upon Matthew 26:30, which says that after the Lord finished His supper with His disciples, He and the disciples sang a hymn. That hymn was sung by the Lord with His disciples to the Father. In the Lord's table, the Lord takes the lead to praise the Father, to worship the Father. At the end of the Lord's table meeting, we need to worship the Father with the Lord. We must follow the firstborn Son to worship the Father as His brothers. The Lord as the firstborn Son takes the lead to worship the Father (Heb. 2:12), and we as His many brothers follow Him.
Hymn #52 (Hymns) is a very good hymn on the worship of the Father. Stanzas 2 and 3 say:
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This hymn is simple and short, yet high in its thought and full of light. It would be good to ask the saints to read these stanzas so that they can be impressed with the significance of worshipping the Father.
Piano Hymns
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Austin, Texas, United States
Oh Abba Father!
PA
I am touched by "Thou lovedst Him before the world began."
It recalled me Romans 16:25-27, "Now to Him who is able to establish You according to my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages, but has now been manifested, and through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles for the obedience of faith; To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
Footnote 4 of 25 says "in the times of the ages" referring to the time since the beginning of the world.
Praise the Father for His love before the world began.