Post by JEM on Oct 25, 2010 2:44:44 GMT
FOOD FOR THE SOUL
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1. PSALM 63 verse 1-8
God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
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Great God, indulge my humble claim
You are my hope, my joy, my rest
The glories that compose Your name
Stand all engaged to make me blessed.
You, O Great and Good, You, Just and Wise
You are my Father and my God!
And I am yours’ by sacred ties
Your son, Your servant, bought with blood
With heart, and eyes, and lifted hands
For You I long, to You I look
As travellers in thirsty lands
pant for the cooling water-brook
With early feet I love to appear
Among your saints and seek your face
Oft have I seen your glory there
And felt the power of sovereign grace
I’ll lift my hands. I’ll raise my voice
While i have breath to pray or praise
This work shall make my heart rejoice
And fill the remnant of my days
Written Isaac Watts. Tune MELCOMBE Metre. L.M.
2. ISAIAH 12 verses 1-6
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In that day you will say:
"I will praise you, O LORD.
Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation."
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."
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Quiet ,LORD, my rebellious soul;
Make me teachable and mild
Upright, simple, free from craft;
Make me as a little child:
From distress and envy free,
Pleased with all that pleases You.
What You shall today provide
Let me as a child receive;
What tomorrow may betide
Calmly to Your wisdom leave;
“Tis enough that You will care
Why should I the burden bear.
As a little child relies
On a care beyond his own
Knows he’s neither strong nor wise;
Fears to stir a step alone,
Let me thus with you abide
as my father, Guard and Guide.
You preserved from Satan’s wiles,
Safe from dangers, free from fears,
May I live upon your smiles
Till the promised hour appears,
when the sons of god shall prove
all their father’s boundless love.
Written by John Newman, English amended
Tune. DIX. Metre 7.7.7.7.7.7.
3. Psalm 96
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Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of hisA holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.
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Our lives, dear lord , may bless Thee
Our work may worship be;
Yet must our lips address Thee
Yet must we sing to Thee
The love that Thou inspires in us
Must glow upon the tongue,
The gladness You stir up
Must overflow in song.
Sometimes the song ascends
While still the task proceeds;
The song the task commends
The lay the labour speeds
How ring those cheerful voices
How strove those toiling hands
Still the full soul rejoices,
As the long work expands
If here midst sin and sadness
Your people Lord will sing,
If here sweet strains of gladness
From stricken souls forth ring;
Must not the blissful regions
Perpetual song inspire?
Must not the angelic regions
Yield a full voiced choir.?
There fitting tasks supernal
Employ the Heavenly Host
Of the blest year eternal
No moment will be lost;
but boundless love will never
Withhold it’s thankful voice;
And endless bliss will ever
In endless song rejoice.
Written originally by T H Gill but altered.
Tune FAIRFORD. Metre 7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6
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4. St Mark 7 verses 31-37
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Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak
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Now in a song of grateful praise
To Jesus we our voices raise;
Jesus who deigned on Earth to dwell,
Who while on Earth did all things well.
Wisdom and power and love divine
In all His works unrivalled shine,
And force the wondering world to tell
That He alone did all things well.
However mysterious are His ways
Or dark and sorrowful our days
And though our spirits often rebel
We know He still does all things well
And when we stand before his throne
And all his ways are fully known,
this note in sweetest strains shall swell,
That Jesus has done all things well.
Written by Samuel Medley
Tune Morning Hymn. Metre L.M.
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5 Hebrew 2 verses 6-18
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It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a littleA lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." And again, "I will put my trust in him."
And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted
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And did You love the race that loved not You,
And did You take to heaven a human brow?
Does plead with man’s voice by the marvellous sea?
Are You his kinsman now?
God, O kinsman loved, but not enough!
O Man, with eyes majestic after death,
Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough,
Whose lips drawn human breath!
By that one likeness which is ours and Yours
By that one nature which does hold us kin,.
By that high heaven where, sinless, You shine,.
To draw us sinners in.
By your last silence in the judgement hall
By long foreknowledge of the deadly tree,
By darkness, by the wormwood and the gall
I pray You visit me.
Come, lest this soul should, old and cast away,
Die ere the guest adored she entertain
Lest eyes that never saw Your earthly day
Should miss Your heavenly reign.
Written by Jean Ingelow. Altd.
Tune ARTAVIA Metre 10.10.10.6
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6. I John 3 v 13-24
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Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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Eternal ruler of the ceaseless round
Of circling planets singing on their way;
Guide of the Nations, from the night profound
Into the glory of the perfect day;
Rule in our souls, that we may ever be
By You guided, strengthened, upheld, as all may see.
We are of You, the children of Your love
The brothers of Your well beloved Son;
Descend O Holy Spirit like a dove,
Into our hearts that we may be as one,
As one with You, to whom we ever tend;
As one with You, our Brother and our Friend.
We would be one in hatred of all wrong,
One in our love for all things sweet and fair,
One with the joy that breaks into song,
One with the grief that trembles into prayer.
One in the power that makes Your children free
To follow truth and You to follow, as all may see.
Clothe us with your heavenly armour, Lord,
Your trusty shield, Your sword of love divine;
Our inspiration be Your constant word:
We ask no victories that are not Yours:
Give or withhold. Let pain or pleasure be,
Enough to know that we are serving You.
J ,W. Chadwick, old endings altered
Tune. YORKSHIRE or NACHTLIED. Metre;- 10’s ( 6 lines )
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7. Job 23 verse 1 -12
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Then Job replied: "Even today my complaint is bitter;
God’s hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!
I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say.
Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him,
and I would be delivered forever from my judge.
"But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him.
When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread
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Mountains by the darkness hidden
Are as real as in the day;
be, then, unbelief forbidden
in a dreary hour to say
God has left us,
Oh why has he gone away.
When He folds the cloud about Him,
Firm within it stands his throne;
Wherefore should His children doubt Him ----
Those to whom His love is known?
God is with us,
We are never left alone.
Travellers at night, by fleeing
Cannot run into the day;
God can lead the blind and seeing
On Him wait and for him stay;
Be not fearful,
They who cannot sing, can pray.
Oh! The bright, the vast creation,
Can be terrible and stern;
From it’s stroke be no salvation,
Though on every side we turn;
Lord of nature,
Then to You our spirits yearn.
Calm and blest is our composure,
When the secret is possessed ,
That our God, in full disclosure,
Has to us his heart expressed.
You, O Saviour,
Has been given to make us blessed.
Tine and space, Lord, that show You
Often in power, veiling good,
Are too vast for us to know You
as our trembling spirits would;
But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus,
Father, You are understood
Thomas T Lynch
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Tune. TRIUMPH. Metre 8.7.8.7.8.7.
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