Christmas is here! Today, we will greet our Lord who is “born this happy morning.” We’ll confess that “the Lord is come,” and we implore the earth to “receive her King.” We’ll declare, “To us, a child of hope is born.” We’ll sing alleluias to the “lovely child, holy child,” and we’ll hail this baby as the “Word made flesh.”…
One of the joyous difficulties of this season is finding a way to include in the service all the wonderful hymns and carols that we only get to sing during this time of year. Of course, this is an impossible task—in just four weeks, we can only scratch the surface of the rich tradition of Advent and Christmas hymnody. This…
Here’s a rough demo of a Christmas tune we began singing in 2021 at Parish Presbyterian Church. O Savior Dear Text: Paul Gerhardt, 1653, tr. Paul Kretzman, 1930, alt. 2021. Music: O JESU CHRIST, DEIN KRIPPLEIN IST, Johann Crüger, 1656, alt. Henry C. Haffner, 2021. O Savior dear, Thy manger here my soul shall call a paradise of glory. Here…
In last Sunday’s sermon text, Zechariah proclaimed how God is always working redemption for His people. This Sunday we see the fulfillment of that prophecy through yet another angel proclamation. A whole host of angels appear to the shepherds calling them to come and worship the Shepherd of their souls who will satisfy them with every good thing. God has…
Just as we saw in Mary’s song last week, Zechariah’s song from Luke 1:67-80 draws heavily from the language of the Old Testament. Zechariah remarks that the “horn of salvation” (a reference to Psalm 18:2) was promised “by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old,” a sentiment echoed in many Christmas hymns. See, Amid The Winter’s Snow refers…
This Sunday, we begin a short sermon series on the “songs” in the New Testament that surround the birth of Christ: Zechariah’s song (Luke 1:67-79), the angels’ song (Luke 2:14), Simeon’s song (Luke 2:29-32), and today, Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-55). Several of the hymns we sing this morning allude to Mary’s actions in the story of Jesus’ birth. Come All…
Over the last eight weeks, we’ve had a great opportunity to dive deeply into the Scripture by reading and singing the psalms. We’ll conclude the series this Sunday with Psalm 8 preached and sung, along with four other complete psalm settings (100, 29, 21, and 110), excerpts from 3 others (118, 95, 51), and a reading of another (111). If…
Most of the psalms, hymns, and readings in this morning’s service could be summed up in a single word: “Help!” We ask the Lord to rescue us from a foreign throng (Blest Be The Lord, My Rock, My Might—Psalm 144), and we cry out “Save your servant! preserve my life!” (Turn Your Ear And Answer—Psalm 86). We are warned to…
This morning’s sermon text from Psalm 6 is a cry of desperation, an escalation of the prayers for relief and salvation David has prayed in Psalms 3-5. The psalmist is brought to the end of himself, terrified of God’s anger (vs. 1) and weeping over his own weakness (vs. 2, 6-7)—though he concludes with the assurance that the Lord accepts…