Sunday, March 12, 2006

Long-winded Preaching Usurps a Good Hymn

The long-winded preacher (me) went on for so long this morning that the worship leader (me) had to cut out the last hymn so that people could eat lunch in time to get back to church tonight!

But it was a great hymn, written by none other than Don Carson (not me). I (me) thought it would be good to post here:

To the Praise of His Glorious Grace
What astonishing mercy and power:
In accord with his pleasure and will
He created each planet, each flower,
Every galaxy, microbe, and hill.
He suspended the planet in space

To the praise of his glorious grace.
To the praise of his glorious grace.
To the praise of his glorious grace.

With despicable self-love and rage,
We rebelled and fell under the curse.
Yet God did not rip out the page
And destroy all who love the perverse.
No, he chose us to make a new race,

Providentially ruling all things
To conform to the end he designed,
He mysteriously governs, and brings
His eternal wise plans into time.
He works out every step, every trace,

Long before the creation began,
He foreknew those he’d ransom in Christ;
Long before time’s cold hour-glass ran,
He ordained the supreme sacrifice.
In the cross he removed our disgrace,

We were blessed in the heavenly realms
Long before being included in Christ.
Since we heard the good news, overwhelmed,
We reach forward to seize Paradise.
We shall see him ourselves, face to face,

Lyrics by D.A. Carson. Music by Paul Boling & Gerald Edmonds. Copyright 1999 Christway Media, Inc.

8 comments:

  1. Great hymn, Paul (and Don). I taught on Ephesians 1:7 this morning. That would have fit right in. Sounds like Carson based this hymn on the great truths of Eph 1:3-14

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  2. I was enjoying the sermon so much I'm glad you didn't cut it short - even for Mr Carson!

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  3. This is a great hymn! There's not enough contemporary songs that include raw biblical truth as in verse 2 -- despical sinners we are saved by grace! Praise God ! If you know of other good hymns/songs for worship dealing with the reality of our sin and the glory of grace let me know. I know Sov Grace has a few.

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  4. Thanks for being long-winded! Great sermon...although if you preached for another 46 seconds you would have beat Julian's sermon length on Matt 5:31-32! :-)He preached for 1 hour 12 min and 51 seconds. Can you please beat him next time :-) (Both are great sermons and can be found at sermonaudio.com). I love the songs...great lyrics!! Keep preaching the truth all you preachers...we love it!!(and dont skimp on the time neither!) :-)

    David

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  5. lol... okay, I deserved most of that, but you really need to keep track of seconds after an hour and 12 mins? :)

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  6. "Redeem the time for the days are evil."

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  7. JLF81,

    every second counts!

    I just put the seconds in because you both preached for 1 hour and 12 min :-)

    I look forward to your next sermon!

    David

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  8. I never preached that long.. there must be some mistake!!! ;-)

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