Category Archives: Hymns and Songs

The Excellency of the Bible by Isaac Watts -A Poem for Children-

Posted on by
6

 

The Excellency of the Bible

Great God, with wonder and praise
On all thy works I look;
But still thy wisdom, power, and grace
Shine brightest in thy book.

The stars that in their courses roll
Have much instruction given;
But thy good word informs my soul
How I may climb to heaven.

The fields provide me food; and show
The goodness of the Lord;
But fruits of life and glory grow
In thy most holy word.

Here are my choicest  treasures hid,
Here my best comfort lies,
Here my desires are satisfied,
And hence my hopes arise.

Lord, make me understand  thy law.
Show what my faults have been;
And from thy gospel let me draw
Pardon for all my sin.

Here would I learn how Christ has died,
to save my soul from hell:
Not all the books on earth beside
Such heavenly wonders tell.

Then let me love my Bible more,
And take a fresh delight,
By day to day read these wonders o’er,
And meditate by night.

*Divine and Moral Songs for Children by Isaac Watts

Becky

>The All Seeing God by Isaac Watts

Posted on by
2

>For little souls to memorize….

The All Seeing God by Isaac Watts
Almighty God, thy piercing eye
Strikes through the shades on night;
And our most secret actions lie
All open to thy sight.
There’s not a sin that we comit,
Nor wicked word we say,
But in thy dreadful book ’tis writ,
Against the judgment day.
And must the crimes that I have done
Be read and published there;
Be all exposed before the sun,
While men and angel hear?
Lord, at thy foot ahamed I lie;
Upward I dare not to look;
Pardon my sins before I die,
And blot them from thy book.
Remember all the dying pains
That my Redeemer felt,
And let his blood wash out my stains,
And answer for my guilt.
Oh may I now for ever fear
To indulge a sinful thought;
Since the great God can see and hear,
And writes down every fault.

Have a most blessed Lord’s Day, dear Friends.

>Heaven and Hell by Isaac Watts

Posted on by
7

>My daughter and I just finished memorizing one of the poems from the book “Divine and Moral Songs for Children” by Isaac Watts (Praise for Creation and Providence), and we are now ready to start memorizing a new one. This time she was free to choose one; and this is the one she picked:

Heaven and Hell
Song X
There is beyond the sky
A heaven full of joy and love;
And holy children, when they die,
Go to that world above.
There is a dreadful hell,
And everlasting pains;
Where sinners must with devils dwell,
In darkness, fire, and chains.
Can such a wretch as I
Escape this curse end?
And may I hope, whene’er I die,
I shall to heaven ascend?
Then I for grace will pray,
While I have life and breath;
Lest I should be cut off to-day,
And sent to eternal death.

Very different than the “Veggie Tales”, right?

May God help us preach the true gospel to our children and to nourish their souls with the Truth, with the Scriptures that can make them wise unto salvation.

Under His sun and by His grace,

>Sunday’s Hymn

Posted on by
6

>

“From Heaven Above to Earth I Come”
by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

1. “From heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will say and sing:

2. “To you this night is born a child
Of Mary, chosen virgin mild;
This little child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all the earth.
3. “This is the Christ, our God and Lord,
Who in all need shall aid afford;
He will Himself your Savior be
From all your sins to set you free.
4. “He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.
5. “These are the tokens ye shall mark:
The swaddling-clothes and manger dark;
There ye shall find the Infant laid
By whom the heavens and earth were made.”
6. Now let us all with gladsome cheer
Go with the shepherds and draw near
To see the precious gift of God,
Who hath His own dear Son bestowed.
7. Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes!
What is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this child, so young and fair?
The blessed Christ-child lieth there.
8. Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com’st to share my misery;
What thanks shall I return to Thee?
9. Ah, Lord, who hast created all,
How weak art Thou, how poor and small,
That Thou dost choose Thine infant bed
Where humble cattle lately fed!
10. Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
It yet were far too poor to be
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
11. For velvets soft and silken stuff
Thou hast but hay and straw so rough,
Whereon Thou, King, so rich and great,
As ’twere Thy heaven, art throned in state.
12. And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To make this truth quite plain to me,
That all the world’s wealth, honor, might,
Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.
13. Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
14. My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song:
15. Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto us His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.
***************

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #85
Text: Luke 2: 1-18
Author: Martin Luther, 1535
Tune: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1855, alt.
1st published in: “Geistliche Lieder” Leipzig, 1539

 May our mouths be filled with His praises today,


Related Posts:


***********************

>A Song Book for Children

Posted on by
10

>Looking for a good book of poems for children, I asked Grace and Truth Books (on Facebook) which books they recommended; they suggested few and I bought three, one is a song book for children and the other two are poetry books. (I will tell you about the poetry ones later this week, they are beautiful!)

This is what I found, a treasure indeed that was first printed in 1713, Divine and Moral Songs for Children by Isaac Watts; compiled, arranged, and edited by Carris J Koscher, from the Old Path Series.

I read on the introduction, (which is very interesting), that this book  “is the pinnacle of Puritan literature for children”

This is not a simple book with songs, it is a book that teaches biblical truths. “It will help bind parents and their children into a working faith that will give a cohesive strength to the basic of any society:  the family.” this is a book, that as you can well imagine was wherever the Mom’s Bible was, because as the author of the introduction says, in those days “it was not the responsibility of the Sunday School, or the Grammar School, but of the parents” to teach their children the Christian Religion.

The author of this great introduction, goes on to compare what children read before 1776, with what children read today (1975) in order to stress the importance of this small book of Divine songs. You will certainly enjoy reading her thoughts on this, just look at this:

“The homes (in those days) were happy and harmonious, and children were considered as a joyous blessing from the Almighty and treated as such. It is true that children read lengthy sermons, memorized Scripture and knew by heart the basic tenets of Christianity and were present and quiet in church on Sunday, but the results of this type of child rearing made children responsible, productive and happy. The stark contrast to the child of today is shocking in the extreme.” 
“Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children by Isaac Watts is exactly the type of book children need. It takes great and eternal truths and places it on the level of a child’s understanding. It will give children a positive Christian faith, and in working out its implications in their lives, responsibility, and leadership, will be developed more readily. It will serve as a bulwark against modern heresies and lay a sound foundation for later development…
The purpose of Watt’s songs is to educate for maturity. It is maturity this world needs, godly maturity.Isaac Watts assumed at all times that it was the duty of an adult to equip a child with a mature faith capable of conquering the world. Education which falls short of that is irrelevant and non Christian”

So, we happily opened the book, and we decided that first song we will learn by heart is  Song II, Praise for Creation and Providence, my oldest children will play the piano and we will raise our voices to praise Him in Spirit and in Truth.

I already put this little green book by my Bible, it is a treasure that I want to give to my children.

Some of the titles of the songs are these:

Praise to God for Our Redemption

Praise God for mercies Spiritual and Temporal

Praise God for the Gospels

The Excellency of the Bible

Praise God for Learning to Read

Heaven and Hell

The Advantages of Early Religion

The Ten Commandments

Our Saviour’s Golden Rule

And so many more…

Aren’t these things what we long to listen our children sing about?

Today, Lord, I am so grateful for godly people who have worked hard to preserve Christian literature through the years.  I want to thank them by making use of the books they worked hard to publish again, I am sure they would be very happy to see that!

I am so excited about this, in our home we will start today , will you join us?

I will give away one of this books for your family to enjoy; just leave a comment and we will announce a winner this coming Saturday. (USA, Canada and Mexico only)

This post is also linked to Raising Homemakers

For some strange reason I cannot upload images from my computer, 
so I will try to come later and add my pictures.  Done 🙂

Remember that starting on December 1st, I will be hosting every Wednesday on December a celebration here…We will be Celebrating the Incarnation; you are invited to come and link to your post; share what this amazing doctrine means, how do you keep it the main thing during the season, share with us the goodness!