Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,

​Let me share a passage with you.  “Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name” (Hebrews 13:15).
There is a lovely hymn that came from German that we do not know its author; this hymn is “When Morning Guilds the Skies.”

When morning gilds the sky,
Our hearts awaking cry:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
In all our work and prayer
We ask his loving care:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

This hymn was published for the first time in 1828 in Katholisches Gesangbuch with 14 six-lines stanzas.  After a few years, in 1854, Edward Caswall translated the hymn into English.  This hymn of worship to Christ encourages us to give praises not just in “church time” but every time and everywhere, “In all our work and prayer.”
To God, the Word on high,

The hosts of angels cry:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let mortals too upraise
Their voices in hymns of praise:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When we raise our voices in an explosion of praises, we are singing together with angels who are
seeing God’s face at that right moment; we are making a harmony with the heavenly hosts.

Ye nations of mankind,
In this your concord find:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let all the earth around
Ring joyous with the sound:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

The whole creation worship the Creator, therefore we should follow its example.

Then let us join to sing
To Christ, our loving King:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this the eternal song
Through all the ages long:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Singing to the Lord psalms, hymns and spiritual songs while we are on this earth, is a rehearsal of what we will do for eternity.  Sing to the Lord, because it is good!

​In His service,
Israel

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