Robert J. Morgan - Then Sings My Soul: 52 Hymns that Inspire Joyous Prayer

2020 Robert J. Morgan

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are from The Living Bible. Copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-7852-3655-9 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-7852-3656-6 (eBook)

Epub Edition May 2020 9780785236566

Printed in Canada

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To Tyler

CONTENTS

W hen my wife, Katrina, was weak and dying, I put my arms beneath her and lifted her from her wheelchair into her bed. She was a bit confused, but I heard her mumbling something that touched me to the depths of my heart: My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name.

Then she repeated the last line:... to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name. It was a long-loved stanza of Charles Wesleys great anthem O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Katrina was whispering those words, almost subconsciously, as a prayer addressed to God, asking His help in proclaiming the glories of His name as long as she lived. She leaned on that hymn in death because shed known it all her life. It was part of her lifelong internal collection of the great hymnswhat I call her perpetual canon of praise.

Todays Christian worship and praise music is wonderfula blessing to my heart. We should always be singing a new song to the Lord, and every generation needs to contribute to the vast body of our hymnody. Im having a problem, however, retaining most of the newer songs in my long-term memory because they come and go like cars on a turnpike. Just as I become familiar with one, its pushed aside by a newer one. None of them are settling into my lifelong personal treasure of worship because all of them are here today, gone tomorrow.

That truly isnt a criticism, because many of them have become dear to me. But somehow most of the newer songs are endearing but not enduring.

Im also on a mission to save the great hymns of the faith that have outlasted the centuries and permeated the souls of one generation after another. We should know these hymns, teach them to our children, sing them in our churches, and treasure them in our devotions. The wonderful hymns in this prayer journal dont come and go like the latest style of jeans. They stay with us for a lifetime. Theyve blessed generations through the years, and because of their shelf life, their words have a way of lodging in our memories.

As long as we dont lose them.

A friend recently asked me why we should retain the hymns since methods of ministry change while the message does not. Thats a great question. A modern praise song may have essentially the same message as Amazing Grace, but in a more up-to-date mode. Why not discard the former and keep the latter?

Well, when Ezra was compiling the Hebrew hymnalIm almost certain it was Ezra who collected the psalms into the final arrangement we have in our Bibleshe included the most modern songs available (such as Psalm 126, written at the end of the Babylonian captivity about 539 BC) alongside much older hymns like Psalm 90, written by Moses nearly a thousand years before.

Theres an ingenious philosophy behind that approach to worship, and its reflected in the words of Jesustruly wise people bring out of their storehouses treasures both new and old (Matthew 13:52). We need to stay anchored to the past while pressing into the future. If we lose our heritage, well simply float with the tides and trends and, likely as not, well end up in shallow waters.

The Bible tells us to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19). Biblical scholars have debated the differences among those terms, but it seems pretty clear to me. Psalms are words of Scripture put to music, especially from the Old Testament book of Psalms. Hymns are sturdy, objective, durable, lasting anthems of praisethe kind youll find in this prayer journal. And spiritual songs are fresher, lighter, mostly subjective, and newer.

I speak in a lot of churches, and many congregations are obeying only one-third of this command. We have lots of spiritual songs, and thank God for them. Still, lets not dismiss the psalms and hymns or relegate them to the nursing homes. I often tell congregations that older people badly need to sing newer music, and younger people badly need to sing the older hymns.

The classic without the contemporary is dated; the contemporary without the classic is detached. When you blend the two, you have something deep, durable, and divine.

On an encouraging note, the classic hymns have never been more accessible. I almost always have my online music tuned to the great hymns. I cherish them. I relish remembering their words. Im uplifted when I hear the fabulous strains of Be Thou My Vision, Jesus Shall Reign, and O Worship the King.

The songs weve known all our lives remain in our memories even when our memories begin to fade and the Lord initiates the process of taking us Home. And if theres a song in this prayer journal you dont know, congratulations! You have a new treasure to discover.

The focus of Then Sings My Soul Prayer Journal is... prayer. Most of the hymns youll find within these covers are worded in the form of prayer, and how many times Ive needed them! Some days when my soul is downcast and my prayers arent forthcoming, I can listen to Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty, which is a prayer addressed to God, and pretty soon Im singing along with the recording and my melancholy is broken. Ive never failed to be moved by the stanza that says:

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;

Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Take My Life and Let It Be is Frances Havergals great consecration hymn, and its stanzas cover every area of life. Its a wonderful prayer to pray as we daily rededicate ourselves to God.

Recently Ive really started to appreciate I Need Thee Every Hour. Sometimes as I walk from my home to my office, I find myself singing:

I need Thee, O I need thee,

Evry hour I need Thee!

O bless me now, my Savior,

I come to Thee!