Behind the Praise - Sunday November 7, 2010

"Abundantly" - Worship choir with Soloist Jennifer Reynolds

"He Keeps me singing"

A Methodist preacher by the name of Luther Bridges, was born in 1884, he married Sarah Veatch and three lovely sons were born of their union. Pastor Bridges accepted an invitation to minister at a conference in Kentucky in the year 1910, so he left his family in the care of his father-in-law and made the trip to Kentucky. There, two wonderful weeks of ministry resulted. The last service closed with great joy and he was excited to be called to the telephone. He couldn't wait to tell his wife about all the blessings. But it wasn't her voice on that long distance line. He listened in silence to the news that a fire had burned down the house of his father-in-law and his wife and all three of his sons had died in the blaze. That distraught father leaned heavily on His Savior and expressed his faith in God during a tearful moment by penning these words:
There's within my heart a melody Jesus whispers sweet and low,
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still, In all of lifes ebb and flow.

Click here to listen to a quartet arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNQ4RbfF4jM

Click here for a recording of the song:
http://my.homewithgod.com/heavenlymidis/hekeepsmesinging.mid

Click here for a ragtime piano version:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiJrzRg17l4

“Blessed be the name of the Lord” - ENCORE CHOIR

(an adaptation for the hymn “O For A Thousand Tongues to sing”
O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing is a Christian hymn written by Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley wrote over 6,000 hymns, many of which were subsequently reprinted, frequently with alterations, in hymnals, particularly those of the Methodist Church.
Charles Wesley was suffering a bout of pleurisy in May, 1738, while he and his brother were studying under the Moravian scholar Peter Böhler in London. At the time, Wesley was plagued by extreme doubts about his faith. Taken to bed with the sickness on May 21 Wesley was attended by a group of Christians who offered him testimony and basic care, and he was deeply affected by this. He read from his Bibe and found himself deeply affected by the words, and at peace with God. Shortly his strength began to return. He wrote of this experience in his journal and counted it as a renewal of his faith; when his brother John had a similar experience on the 24th, the two men met and sang a hymn Wesley had written in praise of his renewal.
One year from the experience, Wesley was taken with the urge to write another hymn, this one in commemoration of his renewal of faith. This 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 and was published in 1740 and entitled 'For the anniversary day of one's conversion'. The seventh verse, which begins, 'O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing', and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn recalls the words of Peter Bohler who said, 'Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.' The hymn was placed first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists published in 1780. It appeared first in every (Wesleyan) Methodist hymnal from that time until the publication of Hymns and Psalms in 1983 (Watson and Trickett: Companion to Hymns and Psalms, 1988). Most recently, the popular Christian group David Crowder Band created a rock version of the hymn for their CD entitled Remedy.
Today the hymn is often condensed into 6-8 stanzas. In Great Britain, editors of various of hymnals have muddled the logical order of the first three verses (O for a thousand tongues to sing; My gracious Master and my God; Jesus, the name that charms our fears) and broken the continuity of thought between them. In some places, including the USA, the hymn is commonly sung to Lowell Mason’s 1839 arrangement of the tune Azmon, written by Carl G. Glaser in 1828. Mason's arrangement was written as a setting for this hymn. In Great Britain the tune Lydia by Thomas Phillips or Richmond by Thomas Haweis are commonly used, though in larger congregations Thomas Jarman's stirring tune 'Lyngham' is favoured.
Here is the text of the hymn, as found in the Anglican hymn book Common Praise (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2000). The suggested tunes are Selby or Richmond.

O for a thousand tongues to sing
my dear Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!

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.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
he sets the prisoner free:
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.

He speaks; and, listening to his voice,
new life the dead receive,
the mournful broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe.

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your Saviour come;
and leap, ye lame, for joy!

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim
and spread through all the earth abroad
the honours of thy name.
Common Praise (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2000).


Click here for a bluegrass arrangement of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcjM-i0CMdE

Click here for a midi version:
http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Blessed_Be_the_Name_of_the_Lord/midi/

“You are For me”

Click here to visit Kari Jobe’s website:
www.karijobe.com/

Click here to hear Kari share about how she wrote the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB4phSOaheM&feature=PlayList&p=E7841C140C8806D7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7

Click here to listen to Kari Jobe sing the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdfKTTeGj2U&feature=fvw

Click here to purchase “You are for me”



"Because of Your Love"
Click here to worship along with this song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekrKOYRZC0I

"The stand"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd8KIt5rLWg

"When You were on the Cross" - Carrie Blanton
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEYyrA92OXM&feature=related