Hello OCBC family,
“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.” Psalm 62:1.

This passage is very powerful and at the same time full of peace, because David is putting his hope in God, but he is doing in silence, waiting on God. In verse two, David called God his rock of salvation, and his fortress.

This passage has been the inspiration for many hymns, and one of them is “Be Still, My Soul.” And the author of this hymn is Katharine von Schlegel, a German poet who was born on 21 October 1697, and her hymns reflected the spirit of the early Pietism, a movement within the Lutheran church. Its emphasis was on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life.

“Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”

The version in English that we are familiar with, was made by Jane Borthwick, a lady for Scotland. With her sister, she worked on a collection of hymns called “Hymns from the Land of Luther.”

This hymn became popular during World War II, bringing peace to soldiers during hard times.

“Be still, my soul; when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the veil of tears,
then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.”

The sweet melody is a part of a larger work by Jean Sibelius, a composer from Finland, a poem for orchestra, and it is at the end of this work that we can hear this theme, and latter on became the melody for von Schlegel’s hymn.

I said that this hymn came from Psalm 62:1, but also, it can be an echo of the Psalm 46:10, where is our God who tells us to be still, and that he is our fortress.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

OCBC, wait in the Lord, because after all, he is our protection during our hard times, and one day we will reign with him in our eternal home.

“Be still, my soul; the hour is hast'ning on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.”

In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family, 
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.” (Psalm 23;1-3)

When we were little ones, after learning John 3:16, our next passage to memorize was the 23rd Psalm, at least that was my case. This wonderful passage is a Psalm that brings hope and comfort for believers no matter the circumstance. Are we happy? We can read Psalm 23 and find joy that our Lord is leading us, and we don’t need anything else, because he is our supply. Are we sad? We can read Psalm 23 and find comfort, knowing that he is beside us during hard times.

Psalm 23 has been the fountain of inspiration for many artistic disciplines. Paintings, sculptures, poems, classical music, and of course, hymns to be sang by the church, portray the lovely image of our savior Jesus taking care of his sheep.

Psalm 23 was the based for a very familiar hymn, “He Leadeth Me! O Blessed Thought” written by the Baptist pastor called Joseph H. Gilmore. He was the son of a Governor of New Hampshire. He was born on Boston, MA, 1834, and became a pastor in 1862.

During a Wednesday night service at First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, while he was pulpit supplying for a couple weeks, he was teaching about the 23rd Psalm. At the end of the service, while he was talking with some members about his sermon, inspiration came to him and in the back of his sermon notes, he wrote:

“He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.”

He gave this paper to his wife and forgot about these lyrics, but his wife didn’t. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston. Gilmore’ lyrics were printed without his knowledge, and the paper sent it to William B. Bradbury, a fine hymn composer, and he set the tune that we are familiar with.

Joseph H. Gilmore went to Rochester to preach as a candidate before Second Baptist Church, and while he was in the chapel, he picked up the hymnal, with the curiosity of which hymns this congregation was singing, and he opened it at his own very hymn, “He Leadeth Me.”

“And when my task on earth is done,
when, by thy grace, the victory's won,
e'en death's cold wave I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me;
by his own hand he leadeth me:
his faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.”

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.” (Psalm 23:6).

Read this Psalm, sing this hymn, and have an encounter with your Good Shepherd.
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,

“1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
    and say, ‘Return, O children of man!’
4 For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:1-4) (ESV).

Perhaps you are very familiar with the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts. This powerful hymn is Watts’ finest paraphrase of the Psalm 90.

We have talked about Isaac Watts in the past, and we know that he was very smart child, learning Latin when he was four years old, and he was able to write some poetry when he was seven years old. In 1702, he became a pastor, and during his ministry time, he wrote many hymns. Today’s hymn was written in 1719.

“Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!”

Isaac Watts wrote many hymns to exalt the name of the Lord and they were paraphrases of psalms. "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90.

Watts’ original version had nine stanzas, but now we just sing six of them. Also, his original text started as “Our God, our help…” but John Wesley changed it for the version that now we are very familiar with, “O God, our help…”

“A thousand ages in your sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.”

The melody is a solemn tune, and the composer was William Croft, and was originally created to be sang for the 42 Psalm but now it is more familiar with Watts’ 90 Psalm. And it became so popular that even Johann Sebastian Bach composed a prelude and fugue for organ, based on this melody. Also, George Frederich Handel created a choral piece using this hymn.

In England, this hymn became almost like a second national anthem, because British people use this hymn during national occasions, after all, Isaac Watts is called the “Father of the hymn in English language.”

“Time, like an ever-rolling stream
bears all its sons away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the op’ning day.
O God, our Help in ages past,
our Hope for years to come,
be Thou our Guard while life shall last,
and our eternal Home!”

During our hard time, difficult moments, let us sing Isaac Watts’ hymn with assurance, knowing that our God is our help, our hope, our guard, and our eternal home.
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
“Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!’” (Isaiah 6:2-3).
This passage is the call of the Lord to Isaiah to be a prophet, but the call is a majestic scene that Isaiah’s answer is, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

In this passage we can see the revelation of God to Isaiah, but also a call to share his message, and this was the call that Reginald Heber had in his own life.

Reginald Heber was born on April 21, 1783, to a minister and his wife in an English village. He was a very smart child, and able to translate poetry from Latin into English. After his graduation from Oxford College, he became the vicar of the same church where his father used to be the pastor and served there for many years. But his desire was to do mission work. His desire was to go places where the gospel did not arrive yet.

He became bishop of Calcutta, India in 1823, and serve there preaching and visiting people and sharing the gospel with those who were in darkness. While he was in Calcutta, he prepared a 16-month tour to visit his diocese, and during that time, on April 3, 1826, he preached to a large crowd in the hot sun, and afterward plunged into a pool of cold water. He suffered a stroke and drowned.

After his tragic death, his widow found several of his hymns and one of them was a hymn that he wrote to be sung on Trinity Sunday, according to the England Church’s calendar. The name of the hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty.”
“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!”

The second stanza is based on the book of Revelation 4:8, “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (KJV).
“Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.”

But this glorious hymn is incomplete without the glorious melody composed by John B. Dykes. He was born in England in 1823, the same year that Heber was appointed as bishop of Calcutta. He learned to play violin and piano when he was very young, and when he was 10 years old, he became the organist where his father was the pastor. He composed many melodies, but he is very popular for this one.

As the lyrics of the hymn has a name, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” the melody has a name as well. John B. Dykes named his composition “Nicaea” after the church council of Nicaea, on 325, where the church defended the doctrine of the Trinity against heresies that denied the divinity of Jesus.

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”
Nicaea Creed as altered in 381

OCBC, if you use this hymn as part of your quiet time, use it as a sound doctrine document, and rejoice that now we have access to the throne of grace, because the Triune God called us from darkness into a new life, because of the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth and sky and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!”
​
In His service,
Israel