Here at the end of November, our hearts turn to the coming Thanksgiving holiday, as do many of the hymns in this morning’s service. We begin worship with the hymn Come, Ye Thankful People Come, which reminds us of the Lord’s provision for our earthly needs (“God, our maker, does provide”), and looks forward to the final harvest (“For the…
As we continue this series on the Psalms, which we began last week and will continue through Advent to Epiphany, we’ll look at Psalm 19 for the next two weeks. The first half of this psalm celebrates God’s general revelation: how the “book of nature” (as medieval theologians called it) declares God’s glory. A number of the hymns this morning,…
Nick Batzig is an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries and is a pastor at Wayside PCA in Signal Mountain, TN. Nick served as the organizing pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond Hill, GA from 2009-2018. Nick also served as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective—sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Nick regularly writes for Tabletalk…
G.K. Chesterton famously wrote, “Thanks are the highest form of thought” and “gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” Having been away from Parish for an entire month, Karen and I feel the truth of that perhaps more than ever. We know that we are blessed beyond measure—and we are so glad we are able to express it so clearly together…
Psalm 110, one of the clearest messianic prophecies in the psalms, gives us a picture of a king who is both ruler and priest. This morning, the hymns we sing celebrate both of these realities as they are fulfilled in Christ. In Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven and O Christ, Our Hope, we declare our fealty to our…
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was without a doubt one of the most beloved authors of hymn texts in Christian history. His poems, which have been set to melodies by countless composers in the past three centuries, include classics such as When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed, as well as three we’ll sing today: Blest…
Certainly a candidate for one of the greatest love songs in all of Scripture, Psalm 45 was likely written in honor of King Solomon’s wedding. But as John Calvin puts it, “there can be no doubt, that under this figure the majesty, wealth, and extent of Christ’s kingdom are described and illustrated … to teach the faithful that there is…
Continuing our short series on the “Royal Psalms,” this week we come to Psalm 2, the great warning to the nations of men that they must yield to Christ’s kingship: “Kiss the Son lest he be angry” and “break them with a rod of iron” (Psalm 2:9, 12). The service begins with the hymn Crown Him With Many Crowns, acknowledging…
Have you noticed that in each of the psalms that we’ve been studying the last few weeks, the psalmist speaks to his own soul? In Psalm 42 he asks the question “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” (Psalm 42:5), while in Psalm 62 he instructs his soul to “wait in silence, for my hope is from Him” (Psalm…
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. —Psalm 62:2 The psalmist calls God his “rock” three separate times in Psalm 62, expressing his security and confidence in the Lord. We will be using this image quite a few times this morning. We will declare that the man “who trusts in God’s…