Sunday's Hymn: William Cowper

William Cowper’s childhood was full of difficult things, and he was not what we would call a resilient child. As an adult, he suffered from depression and tried to commit suicide several times over the years. After his first suicide attempt, he became convinced of his own deep sinfulness and that he was under God’s wrath, but along with this he also became convinced that his sin, especially his suicide attempt, was so offensive to God that there was no way for him to be forgiven of it.  

The conviction that he was beyond God’s forgiveness drove him even deeper into despair and he was sent to a mental asylum.  In the asylum, he was under the care of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, who held out hope of God’s forgiveness to Cowper, but Cowper remained unconvinced.

 

What finally convinced him? It was reading the scripture while in the asylum, especially one verse from Romans. Quoting from John Piper’s account of Cowper’s life in Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint:

… he turned again to the Bible and the first verse he saw was Romans 3:25: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”

Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel ….

So when you read the words of Cowper’s most well-known hymn, set them against that background.  Because Cowper had felt so fully the despair of the condemnation of his sin, he understood in a deeper way than most that his only hope was in the one sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath—the “propitiation … in his blood.”

 

There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood 

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.

(Listen: Piano or Choctaw singers.) 

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Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• The Collect for the Second Sunday after Easter at Magic Statistics. 
• Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs at IMD 2.0.
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence at John Dekker’s Journal
• O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus at The Happy Wonderer
• Thou Only Sovereign of My Heart at Seasonings of the Heart
• With a Prayer at joythruChrist.

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Sunday's Hymn: William Cowper

Since I just read a short biography of William Cowper in one of the books I’ll be reviewing shortly, I thought I’d feature hymns by Cowper (pronounced Cooper) for a few Sundays.  I wrote a little bit about William Cowper in an old post on the old blog.  If you’re curious to know more (And you should be! Once you know something about his life, you’ll never look at one of his hymns in exactly the same way again.), I suggest both this mp3 lecture on Cowper’s life by Michael Haykin and this sermon by John Piper.  If you prefer to read the text of Piper’s sermon on Cowper’s life, you’ll find it at the previous link as well.  The chapter on William Cowper in the book I’m reading also comes from that same sermon.

 

The choir sang one of Cowper’s hymns in the service this morning.  It’s not one of his more well-known hymns, but since we sang it today, it’s the one I’m starting with.  We sang it to a different melody than the one you’ll hear if you click over to Cyber Hymnal. Our music was from the middle section of Jupiter, from The Planets by Gustav Holst.

 

Sometimes a Light Surprises

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, Who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.

It can bring with it nothing but He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens will give His children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.

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Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• The Collect for the First Sunday after Easter at Magic Statistics. 
• Onward, Christian Soldiers at IMD 2.0.
• The Spirit as Teacher from The Valley of Vision at Thirsty Theologian
• Nearer My God to Thee at John Dekker’s Journal
• Awake My Soul and With the Sun at The Happy Wonderer
• The Church’s One Foundation at Seasonings of the Heart
• My Tribute at The Upward Call (This song was sung at my wedding almost 32 years ago.)
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Update on Monday, April 16, 2007 at 10:34AM by rebecca

Sorry. Forgot one: 

• Be Thou My Vision at joythruChrist.
  

Sunday's Hymn: Palm Sunday

Jesus Shall Reign

 
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

Behold the islands with their kings,
And Europe her best tribute brings;
From north to south the princes meet,
To pay their homage at His feet.

There Persia, glorious to behold,
There India shines in eastern gold;
And barb’rous nations at His word
Submit, and bow, and own their Lord.

To Him shall endless prayer be made,
And praises throng to crown His head;
His Name like sweet perfume shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.

People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His Name.

Blessings abound wherever He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blessed.

Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.

Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud amen!

Great God, whose universal sway
The known and unknown worlds obey,
Now give the kingdom to Thy Son,
Extend His power, exalt His throne.

The scepter well becomes His hands;
All Heav’n submits to His commands;
His justice shall avenge the poor,
And pride and rage prevail no more.

With power He vindicates the just,
And treads th’oppressor in the dust:
His worship and His fear shall last
Till hours, and years, and time be past.

As rain on meadows newly mown,
So shall He send his influence down:
His grace on fainting souls distills,
Like heav’nly dew on thirsty hills.

The heathen lands, that lie beneath
The shades of overspreading death,
Revive at His first dawning light;
And deserts blossom at the sight.

The saints shall flourish in His days,
Dressed in the robes of joy and praise;
Peace, like a river, from His throne
Shall flow to nations yet unknown.

—Isaac Watts (Listen.) 

 
Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• The collect for The Sunday Next Before Easter at Magic Statistics. 
• Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne at IMD 2.0.
• Another Isaac Watts hymn at Thirsty Theologian
• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing at joythruChrist.  
• Reading for Holy Week #1: Palm Sunday at John Dekker’s Journal
• All Glory, Laud, and Honor at The Happy Wonderer
• The Church’s One Foundation at Seasonings of the Heart
• Thine is the Glory at New Lumps
• Hosanna, Loud Hosanna at Jam and Books
  

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.

 

Update on Sunday, April 1, 2007 at 6:46PM by rebecca

• Ride on! Ride on in majesty! posted by Beth in the comments of this post.
  

Update on Monday, April 2, 2007 at 5:13PM by rebecca

• John Dekker links to another Palm Sunday hymn in the comments.