Before I let it go . . . just another post from the book Amazing Grace . . .
I’ve had this book for many years, but my practice has been to skip over hymns that I don’t know. I’m not sure why I do this; possibly because I don’t know the melody of a particular hymn, or something crazy like that!
Recently, I didn’t skip over the assigned reading for the day and found a treasure. The song is “Thy Word Have I Hid in my Heart.” It is treasure for me to find because the hymn writer paraphrased a few verses from Psalm 119, which is one of my favorite Psalms.
Ernest O. Sellers wrote both the words and music around 1908. For the chorus, Mr. Sellers used the words directly from Psalm 119:11: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”
The first reads: “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, A light to my path always, To guide and to save me from sin, And show me the heav’nly way.” Another verse reads: “At morning, at noon, and at night I ever will give Thee praise; For Thou art my portion, O Lord, And shall be through all my days!”
Throughout Psalm 119 we read about God’s word--obeying it, meditating on it, hiding it in our heart, delighting in it, and loving it. I may not know the melody of this hymn, but I can delight in the words.
Following are some quotes regarding Psalm 119:
“This psalm is a chest of gold rings, not a chain of gold links.” Matthew Henry
“A psalm dedicated to the praise of God’s Word.” Liberty Bible Commentary
“Although Psalm 119 is lengthy, it is not tiresome. Its subject, the Word of God, is more than worthy of its one hundred seventy-six verses." Liberty Bible Commentary
A few of my favorite verses . . .
“Oh that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!” Verse 5
“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law." Verse 18
“Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws.” Verse 43
Verses 74, 81, 147 and others proudly proclaim: “I have put my hope in your word.”
“The entrance of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple." Verse 130
Now I have another treasure to sing in meditating on Psalm 119 in “Thy Word Have I Hid in my Heart.” I think I’m going to have to stop skipping over hymns I don’t know so I can find the gold nuggets meant just for me.
The above picture was unplanned. Imagine my surprise to find this blue heron in the stream when I went to take a picture! I had stopped at my very favorite scene to snap deer and decided to go past where I usually stop to get a different snap of the property. It was only when I checked to make sure I had the stream in the picture that I saw this guy just having an early morning shopping expedition for breakfast. My eyes jumped up from behind the camera and went "look who's here!" I only got three snaps off before he stepped behind the brush. For a hand-held, out the car window, from 60 yards or so, I'm pretty pleased!
The snap below is at that same location, but the first time I noticed a lamppost at the bridge. I can't ever remember noticing it before because I've always been focused on the deer. I am very pleased to finally have it in one of my snaps!
Psalm 119 has always been imposing to me because of its length but it's content that counts. Where else could you find advice like "how can a young man keep himself pure?" (vs 9); hardly much of a concern after having rushed past the channel that had the Emmys on it where all kinds of outrageous behavior appeared to be happening even in that moment the channel was on. The psalm may be long but it may also be the best.
ReplyDeleteYour Blue Heron pic is great but check out my photoblog to see how great minds think alike. ;-)