A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING (NINETEENTH IN A SERIES)

Think a moment about your daily prayers. To whom do you pray?

The obvious answer would be, “I pray to God, of course.” But press the question a bit further, and you might respond, “I pray to the one true God; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Don’t stop there. Keep riding that train of thought.

In my own case, I often pause before I start praying, and meditate a moment on the astonishing thing that is about to happen: I, a sinful speck of flesh and blood, am about to actually speak to the creator of the universe; the eternal, almighty, holy God; the “I Am” of the Old Testament—and He will be attentive to what I say. Amazing truth! This “meditative pause before prayer” puts me in a right frame of mind. It reminds me of the solemnity of prayer and of the astounding privilege which we—solely for Jesus’ sake—have in being able to directly address God.

Usually, at least in my prayers, my “default” perceptual framework is that I am speaking to God the Father. Somewhat less often, I consciously address my prayers to God the Son—Jesus Christ. Seldom, however, do I address my prayers specifically to God the Holy Spirit. Ironic, isn’t it? It is, after all, God the Holy Spirit Who created saving faith in me in the first place. It is God the Holy Spirit Who day by day sustains that faith, also through the Means of Grace. It is the Holy Spirit Who empowers me to use my gifts in a God-pleasing manner. It is even the Holy Spirit Who helps me to pray. Of the three Persons of the Triune God, it is the Holy Spirit Whom the Bible most directly connects with my day-to-day life as a Christian; and ironically, it is the Holy Spirit about Whom I think least often when my thoughts are upon God.Hymn 226 “Come, Oh Come, Thou Quickening Spirit”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING (EIGHTEENTH IN A SERIES) This hymn is a metrical translation of the 23rd Psalm—a psalm of comfort. Most psalms of comfort (for example, Psalm 91) speak words of… Hymn 436 “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING (SEVENTEENTH IN A SERIES)

Death seems final to us. Leaving the room where a loved one has just drawn that last breath, we don’t expect to turn around and meet him for lunch the next day. Our general experience is that the dead stay dead.

Yet it has happened in history, more than once, that the dead have come back to life. Lazarus (John 11:43-44) and the multitudes who came forth from Jerusalem’s tombs (Matthew 27:51-53) to name some. It is foolish to contend, as some have done and others still do, that there is no possibility of resurrection from the dead.

Our great God and Savior Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, was dead but now is living. It is His real, physical resurrection that we celebrate each spring in the processional hymn by George Woodward (1848-1934): This joyful Eastertide Away with sin and sorrow! / My love, the Crucified, Has sprung to life this morrow. So death’s finality has been proved false yet again (Matthew 28:5-6).

“This Joyful Eastertide” WS 733, LSB 482