Post by Admin on Jun 28, 2018 18:05:34 GMT
Wednesday night, we finished our discussion study, “God’s Love – Learning to Praise through Psalms,” with Session 10, subtitled, “The God Who Reigns.” In many ways this last Psalm is a reminder that everything we feel, and everything that comes to us, should generate praise for Him in us. There are several interesting issues and perspectives raised the Psalm – for example, as mighty and glorious as God is portrayed, he is also tender and loving, so we don’t have to be frightened of and cower in his might. In fact, we opened by talking about authority figures, both famous people and those in our own life, who use their power for good activities. We also could think of some instances in which people wield power just to satisfy themselves, and sometimes to hurt others. Some people have authority in our lives not because they are granted power, rather that we look up to them and out of respect and admiration we accept their influence in our lives.
In Psalm 145 David provides all sorts of descriptive words about God as reasons to praise, from graciousness to goodness to glorious splendor – it’s a long and comprehensive list. After a little discussion about David’s list, we went around the table and each person offered up something they would praise about God in that moment – from being with us, to protecting us and sending love notes, helping with problems, giving us our blood family and church family, and much more. We continued our conversation about David’s admonition, as in verses 3-7, that we need to tell about God’s greatness: sing, shout, share! Do we remember and celebrate the glory and love of God we experience all the time, or do we get distracted and have to struggle to identify things? Several wonderful stories were shared about the ways God helps us, even in little things, and the thankfulness we should feel, which can transform into praise. We also talked again this evening about the purpose of praise. We seemed uniformly to sense that God has no need of praise from us, unlike humans who do crave praise. That lead to spirted debate about the enlightenment that leads us to praise God more, and the benefits to us in joy and love that come from praising Him, and how God feels – or doesn’t feel – about our praise.
Since we were finishing up this study, we concluded with a hymn full of praise. We read the lyrics to How Great Thou Art. It was originally written by a Swede, Carl Boberg, translated into Russian, and then back into English. A missionary named Stuart Hine noticed the hymn and re-translated it into English, substituting some verses written by him and his wife. The Hine version published (in Russian again) in 1949 is the famous version we have sung in church. In English of course, it was popularized by the Billy Graham Crusade starting in 1955.
O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed;
When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;
But when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
he bled and died to take away my sin;
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
how great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
how great thou art, how great thou art!
In Psalm 145 David provides all sorts of descriptive words about God as reasons to praise, from graciousness to goodness to glorious splendor – it’s a long and comprehensive list. After a little discussion about David’s list, we went around the table and each person offered up something they would praise about God in that moment – from being with us, to protecting us and sending love notes, helping with problems, giving us our blood family and church family, and much more. We continued our conversation about David’s admonition, as in verses 3-7, that we need to tell about God’s greatness: sing, shout, share! Do we remember and celebrate the glory and love of God we experience all the time, or do we get distracted and have to struggle to identify things? Several wonderful stories were shared about the ways God helps us, even in little things, and the thankfulness we should feel, which can transform into praise. We also talked again this evening about the purpose of praise. We seemed uniformly to sense that God has no need of praise from us, unlike humans who do crave praise. That lead to spirted debate about the enlightenment that leads us to praise God more, and the benefits to us in joy and love that come from praising Him, and how God feels – or doesn’t feel – about our praise.
Since we were finishing up this study, we concluded with a hymn full of praise. We read the lyrics to How Great Thou Art. It was originally written by a Swede, Carl Boberg, translated into Russian, and then back into English. A missionary named Stuart Hine noticed the hymn and re-translated it into English, substituting some verses written by him and his wife. The Hine version published (in Russian again) in 1949 is the famous version we have sung in church. In English of course, it was popularized by the Billy Graham Crusade starting in 1955.
O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed;
When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;
But when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
he bled and died to take away my sin;
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
how great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
how great thou art, how great thou art!