"He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. Ps62:2

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Not Just A Doxology

We are currently reading our second book in the Mr. Pipes series, by Douglas Bond, "Mr. Pipes And The British Hymn Makers." Wonderful books! They awakened even more of a love of hymns in all of us. We were very surprised to learn that one of our favorite calls to worship, the Doxology, has a little more to it than we were always taught: several more verses, in fact:

All praise to Thee, my God, this night,
For all the blessings of the light!
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath Thine own almighty wings.

Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son,
The ill that I this day have done,
That with the world, myself, and Thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the judgment day.

O may my soul on Thee repose,
And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
Sleep that may me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

When in the night I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness me molest.

O when shall I, in endless day,
For ever chase dark sleep away,
And hymns divine with angels sing,
All praise to thee, eternal King?

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Beautiful lyrics of a poem. The original music is not what we now sing the last verse to, but we still like it and are singing all the verses to it.

Discovering exactly who it was who wrote these words is amazing! The history is nothing but God's great story. Thomas Ken knew what truth and devotion truly was.

2 comments:

Jennifer Hoots said...

Wow! I did not know it had more to it. Very cool. Thanks. And, I am going to check those books out.
Jenn

Jeanne said...

I have hymns and psalms of the reformation in this series.

We'll be studying it as part of a year on the reformation in AO3.

I'm glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed your book so much!

Jeanne