Liturgy Lesson: November 1, 2020
Morning Worship (9 and 11 am)
Call to Worship: Ps. 40:1-5; Ps. 16:9-11
Prayer of Invocation
Hymn of Adoration: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Confession of Sin
Words of Assurance: John 11:25-26 and 1 Peter 1:3-5
Hymn of Assurance: I Will Sing of My Redeemer
Catechism/Prayers
Reading of the Word: Luke 20:27-44
Doxology: #731
Sermon: Andrew Perkins
Meditation
Supper: O Breath of God; For All the Saints
Benediction
Evening Service (6:30 pm)
Call to Worship: Ps. 91:1-7
Prayer of Invocation
Hymns: Day by Day; He Will Hold Me Fast
Pastoral Prayer
Reading of the Word
Homily: Rev. Eric Irwin
Meditation
Supper: How Sweet and Awesome is the Place; Bless the Lord, O My Soul
Benediction
“It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing them.”
– Hilaire Belloc, On Everything
“Fountains and ye, that warble, as ye flow, Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices, all ye living Souls. Ye Birds That, singing, up to Heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
Ye that in waters glide and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep,
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,
To hill or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.”
– John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V
I Will Sing of My Redeemer
Text: Philip Bliss, 1876
Music: James McGranahan, 1877
Philip Bliss (1838-1876), was a composer, gospel singer, and well-known hymnwriter. He was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania and raised with little formal education. His primary teacher was his mother, who taught him from the Bible. Philip loved music and was encouraged by his parents to sing. At age 10, while selling vegetables to help support the family, Bliss first heard a piano. At age 11, he left home to make his own living. He worked in timber camps and sawmills for most of his teenage years. I imagine that this young man spent a great many hours humming along to the rhythm of the axe or saw and singing familiar songs (or even making up new ones) as he walked from camp to camp. In 1857, Philip met William Bradbury (composer of “Jesus Loves Me”) who persuaded him to become a music teacher. His first position was at a music academy in the town of Rome, Pennsylvania. It was here that he met Lucy J. Young. Lucy was a Presbyterian who came from a musical family. Bliss joined her church, the two fell madly in love and were quickly married. By the age of 22, Philip had become an itinerant musician, traveling on horseback from town to town, teaching singing, and often accompanied by a melodeon (a portable pump organ). He was known for his beautiful bass-baritone voice.
In 1864, after a short stint with the Union army, Philip moved with his wife to Chicago, where he secured a gig with a publishing company that paid him the handsome salary of $150 per month. In 1869 he was persuaded by many friends (including D.L. Moody) to leave his job and become a full-time missionary singer. These were the revival days when great evangelists would team up with musicians to travel the country and spread the gospel. It was Philip’s work in Christian evangelism that would prove to be the most musically fruitful. Many of the hymns he wrote during these years secured his legacy in our hymnals. Bliss’s old house in Rome is now the Philip P. Bliss Gospel Songwriters Museum.
Bliss is credited with the authorship of over 200 hymns, a handful of which are still widely sung. Among the most well-known are “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”, “Dare to be a Daniel”, and “Wonderful Words of Life”. He also composed the music to “It is Well with My Soul”, that timeless hymn by Horatio Spafford that has resounded throughout the world as a testament to the resilience of faith in the midst of suffering. If you don’t know the story of Spafford’s life and the writing of “It is Well”, I encourage you to read about it here. In 1875, when Bliss provided the music for Spafford’s text, he could not have known that in just a few short years one of his own hymns would be forever linked to a similar tragedy.
Bliss and Spafford shared a common connection with Dwight L. Moody, the dynamic revivalist preacher who gave up a lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to the spread of the gospel (I guess his real work was tending to souls, not soles). It was in collaboration with Moody that Philip and Lucy traveled extensively, providing the music for many of the evangelistic campaigns. It was very much like the partnership between Billy Graham and George Beverly Shea.
In December 1876, the Blisses were spending the Christmas season with Philip’s parents in Pennsylvania. On the 28th, they received a request by telegram from D.L. Moody. The couple left their two children with the grandparents and traveled by train to attend the evangelistic meeting in Chicago. While ministering at the meeting, Philip sang a song entitled “I’m Going Home Tomorrow.” This would prove to be prophetic. The next day, December 30th, they headed back to Pennsylvania during a terrible ice storm. As their train was crossing over a river in Ashtabula, Ohio, the trestle bridge collapsed and all the passenger cars fell into the freezing waters below. Bliss escaped through a window, but Lucy had been trapped in the car. Then the wreckage caught on fire. Philip raced into the flames to save his beloved wife. They both perished.
Among the Bliss’ belongings found in the luggage car was the first sketch of a new hymn, yet to be set to music. This is the last verse of the final hymn that Philip wrote before his death.
I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.
Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me,
On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
In 1877, the hymn was set to music by composer and evangelist James McGranahan. That same year, George Cole Stebbins made a recording of the hymn, one of the first songs ever to be recorded on Thomas Edison’s new invention, the phonograph.
Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” The accomplished work on the cross that seals our pardon is reason to sing indeed. Our future is secure. And yet, in this present moment, we still feel the heavy curse of the fall, and life’s hard circumstances can threaten to silence our song. We are, as John Newton said “bowed down beneath a load of sin, by Satan sorely pressed, by wars without and fears within…”. In times like these, it takes an act of the will, a fiercely defiant faith, and the encouragement found in God’s word to choose praise over pity. By putting Philip Bliss’s lyrics side by side with Psalm 104, you can see an obvious similarity.
I will sing to the Lord all my life I will sing of my Redeemer
I will sing to my God as long as I live. And His wondrous love to me.
“I will sing”. That’s a resolution. It’s a statement of tenacity, of determination, of stick-to-it-iveness. It’s a phrase that appears all over scripture, and a sentiment that is perfectly embodied by one of my favorite verses, Psalm 57:7.
“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast!
I will sing! Yes, I will sing praises!”
Of course, animating all of this is the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the backbone that allows us to stand up straight when we are bowed down with sorrow. The Spirit functions as the great Scribe, carving the Composer’s songs on our hearts, depositing his melodious love so deep into us that no amount of hardship or heartache can tear it out. This is how we can (and must!) keep singing in times of sorrow. This is how we rejoice in suffering. This is how Job can declare “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, may the name of the Lord be praised!” This is how Paul and Silas, beaten half-dead and thrown in prison, can spend the midnight hours singing. This is how Horatio Spafford, a grief-stricken modern-day Job, can say “It is Well with my Soul.”
And, this, my friends, is how you keep worship alive in a pandemic. Not through creative programs or technological trickery, but through the thousands and millions of hearts that hold unquenchable hope. Their irrepressible voices unite in declaring “I will sing of my Redeemer!” In the face of disease, decay, and death, “I will sing”. You can mask the face, but never muzzle the heart, “I will sing”. No matter how hostile the world gets, or how much it may cost me to follow Christ, “I will sing”. No matter what happens on Nov. 3rd, I know that there is only one election that is eternal. God has called me for His purposes, I love Him, and he works all things together for good. “I will sing.” Nothing in all creation can separate me from His love. “I…will…sing!”
Brothers and Sisters, may the repetitive words of this hymn awaken and strengthen the resolve to praise your Redeemer. May you find encouragement in the mere act of singing it. It is a stirring testimony of what Christ has done for us. With His blood, He delivered us from the curse of sin, He purchased us, He sealed our pardon, paid our debt and made us free. Don’t let present circumstances silence you. Even now, say it with me. Let it start low, as a whisper, and let it build in a steady crescendo, until we can declare together on Sunday…
“I…WILL…SING!”
– Sheet music
– Recording