“I’m Not Ashamed to Own My Lord” performed by Nathan C. George and family
Today’s hymn of faith is from the profound and marvelous writer Isaac Watts. The tune is called Pisgah and was written by J.C. Lowry according to the Kentucky Harmony tunebook (1811). The wonderful performance above captures the feel of the tune.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ethe power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV).
1 I’m not ashamed to own my Lord, or to defend his cause, maintain the honor of his Word, the glory of his cross.
2 Jesus, my God! I know his name, his name is all my trust; nor will he put my soul to shame, nor let my hope be lost.
3 Firm as his throne his promise stands, and he can well secure what I’ve committed to his hands ’til the decisive hour.
4 Then will he own my worthless name before his Father’s face, and in the new Jerusalem appoint my soul a place.
This month I’ve been editing the video lectures of a philosophy course in my day job, and I’ve gotten into discussions on God’s existence. There are a couple natural problems with knowing God. One is that he is a metaphysical being, who by nature transcends the senses. We cannot know and observe God the same way we would anything in the created world. He is beyond us. He is invisible and without form. We think of the Holy Spirit as a breath because we have few metaphors to go by. God as a being is hard to describe.
Because God is beyond us, because he is the creator and we the created, we have epistemic distance with him. There’s only so much we can know about him because we can’t comprehend him.
He is also a person, who may choose to go unseen. This is a simple point for any person. If our environment allows it, we can hide from each other. If our environment doesn’t allow it, we can choose to sit the corners of the room and not talk to each other. People are intelligent beings who choose to communicate or stay silent. Since God is not a force of nature but an eternal being, he could choose for his own reasons to remain unknown to his creation.
There are some who ask why God doesn’t make his presence obvious. Why are agnostics even given room to breathe? Wouldn’t it be better if we all knew there was a God and couldn’t doubt? Responding to this, some argue that God maintains a distance from us in order to allow for our free will. He wants us to love him freely, not under compulsion. I can understand the appeal of this argument; many people put a lot of stock in human free will, but does this argument fit with the world as the Bible describes it?
God created the first couple in a perfect garden and spoke to them personally. We don’t know what that looked like, but it seems to be as relational as two people talking—no distance maintained out of respect for the free will of the created. And Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of good and evil over the divine being they spoke to earlier that day.
Jesus said, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19 ESV).
This turns the question of God’s self-revelation back to us. It isn’t that he hasn’t done enough to reach us; it’s that we are running away. We stop our ears. We shut our eyes. We actively “suppress the truth” that we were created by God for his glory.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
(Romans 1:18–20 ESV)
It would be more correct to say that God isn’t holding back out of respect for our free will but that we love darkness.
I was surprised to learn today’s hymn of the faith is not more popular than it is, because it’s one of my favorites. “Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!” (also called “Our Great Savior”) has been published in only 77 hymnals. It was written by Presbyterian minister John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918), who was advocated large evangelistic events around the turn of the 20th century. The tune is a wonderful Welsh piece by Rowland H. Prichard (1811-1887).
“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children” (Luke 7:34–35 ESV).
1 Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! lover of my soul; friends may fail me, foes assail me, he, my Savior, makes me whole.
Refrain: Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end.
2 Jesus! what a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in him; tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, he, my strength, my vict’ry wins. [Refrain]
3 Jesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll, even when my heart is breaking, he, my comfort, helps my soul. [Refrain]
4 Jesus! what a guide and keeper! While the tempest still is high, storms about me, night o’ertakes me, he, my pilot, hears my cry. [Refrain]
5 Jesus! I do now receive him, more than all in him I find; he hath granted me forgiveness, I am his, and he is mine. [Refrain]
O Thou Faithful Father in heaven, would that I could render unto Thee adequate thanks and praise for all the blessings Thou hast bestowed upon me during all the days of my life up to this hour, but this is not within my power and ability. For I am flesh and blood, which cannot but do wrong. Thou, however, dost daily grant me blessings without measure . . .
My church tradition doesn’t encourage the use of liturgical prayers to mark the hours of the day, though I wouldn’t doubt some leaders would like to move us toward that and more awareness of the church calendar. Perhaps it’s impractical for modern believers. We have many ways to keep the time and many ways to remember the Lord throughout the day.
I begin with this because last week I finished The Book of the Dun Cow again–this time with friends. The heroes perform a supernatural duty unknowingly by marking the day with liturgical crows, specific canonical crows for Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. I say crows because this is a beast fable. The leader/pastor of this part of the world is the rooster Chanticleer.
It’s a marvelous story with great pacing, strong characters, and the moving theme that the everyday Gospel habits of ordinary church people keep the enemy bound.
Simply, the animals were the Keepers. The watchers, the guards. They were the last protection against an almighty evil which, should it pass them, would burst bloody into the universe and smash into chaos and sorrow everything that had been made both orderly and good.
Star Wars: I’ve been sucked into YouTube reviews and reactions to the new Star Wars series The Acolyte. It started with World‘s review: “The investigation makes no sense, and the Jedi detectives are incredibly stupid. They ask all the wrong questions and dismiss the most obvious clues. The plot is full of holes.” And it followed by several YouTubers who would love to enjoy a good sci-fi show and don’t find it here. It’s discouraging. As I’ve said before, if the Tao of the Force means anything, it means the good stories will come back after the bad ones have their moment.
Memoir: Professor Esau McCaulley says, “No book can replace the role that real friends and family members play in our lives, but books can change or inspire us. They can depict traits that we are drawn to emulate. They can help us imagine different futures when hope is in short supply.”
Faith: “Perhaps the emptiness of the culture of self in a time of tumult—war, economic anxiety, political instability—is causing many to turn once again to Christianity.”
Photo: John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Today’s hymn comes from the great English hymnist Isaac Watts (1674-1748). It was published in 1707, while Dr. Watts was pastor of Independent Church of London. The tune is a familiar Irish melody called St. Columba. (And since I found it, let me share this organ prelude to St. Columba. You’ll want headphones for both recordings to catch the subtleties.)
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15 ESV)
1 How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors, while everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.
2 While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries, with thankful tongue, “Lord, why was I a guest?
3 “Why was I made to hear Thy voice, and enter while there’s room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?”
4 ‘Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in; else we had still refused to taste, and perished in our sin.
5 Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come; send Thy victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home.
6 We long to see Thy churches full, that all the chosen race may, with one voice and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace.
Summer in America means baseball, even if you aren’t a fan. The clip above is an artistic moment from a great baseball film, The Natural. I saw a clip from a Japanese game yesterday that showed a right fielder rifle the ball to the catcher at home plate, getting a runner out. The speed of that throw was thrilling–a little like the pitching portrayed above.
What else is going on this week?
Memorials: This week we honored the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. Of the 2,403 Americans killed on D-Day, 20 of them were from Bedford, Virginia, a community of 3,200. Over 40 Bedford residents were serving during the war, most in the Virginia National Guard. Their fallen were subsequently called the Bedford Boys.
War Correspondents: There’s a bed-and-breakfast in Chateau Vouilly, France, 20 minutes from Omaha Beach, that once housed the reporters who wrote the stories of the Allied troops advance. In 1944, it was a good, out-of-the-way spot, not too far from the action—for at least two months.
Every night, the hostess served the press corp milk and cookies. “On the tougher days, Hamel served glasses of Calvados, the famed local spirit made from distilled apple and pear cider. Reporters called it the ‘breakfast of champions.'”
Reading: About what novel did author Robert Louis Stevenson say this, “Many find it dull: Henry James could not finish it: all I can say is, it nearly finished me.”
Over the past week, I watched the first three original Planet of the Apes movies. I didn’t know the stories. I knew only what anyone familiar with sci-fi over the years would know, a plot point even the sequel spoils in its own trailer. But the whole movie doesn’t turn on that revelation. It was just an interesting surprise to 1968 moviegoers–no doubt part of what made it a successful movie.
You’ve heard that the original Star Wars and Jaws movies were blockbusters that changed moviemaking ever since. You probably know parts of the score from those movies. They have a tone of adventure that feels like a movie. Planet of the Apes leans into the strange and alien. This trailer captures that tone with minimal spoilers. The score invokes the wild unknown of 1960s sci-fi. It isn’t the music of adventure but of survival.
The director, Franklin J. Schaffner, wants us to experience the space crew’s voyage and their crash landing in a sea. We see water breaking through ship’s seems as if in the crew cabin ourselves. The three-man crew drag themselves to shore, and the first real cynicism comes for Taylor (Charlton Heston) laughing loudly at his earnest crewmate planting a pocket-sized US flag next to the water. The crew treks through a canyon wilderness, afraid that, though the air is fine, there may be no drinkable water or living plant life.
The first 30 minutes follows this track. Will they survive or won’t they? This kind of story tension gets me scratching my head, because if you tell viewers upfront the apes rule the planet, how long will they tolerate the main characters scrambling along on their own? Maybe if we were learning about the crew as well-rounded men, it would be more interesting. But we only get the wilderness and three men looking for water.
On the other hand, Richard Schickel wrote in Life Magazine, May 10, 1968, it was the best American movie he’d seen that year–“faint praise,” he says, “considering the competition,” but still he and his four-year-old daughter loved it.
I had thought the first film was going to focus on racial tolerance or bigotry, but it’s really an anti-war movie. The ape society is governed by religious zealots who won’t tolerate evolutionary theories and stamp out any hints of civilization beyond their own. God made apes in his own image, they say. Humans are just mute wildlife. Most of the hostility is in apes treating humans as non-sentient animals, and the story is driven by the threat Taylor poses to their carefully managed social order. The overarching theme, which starts with questions from the crew after they abandon ship and resumes with chimpanzee Cornelius revealing his exploration of ancient human ruins, is the question of what happened to humanity. The authorities won’t tolerate open discussion of humans once having civilization or being anything more than they are today. For viewers, though, if humans were more on this planet, what happened to them?
That’s what the famous scene at the movie’s end hammers home. Taylor realizes he didn’t crash on another planet. He returned to Earth 2000 years later, long after mankind had destroyed civilization through endless warmongering and the A-bomb.
Planet of the Apes (1968) is good period sci-fi. There are things to complain about (like the fact the humans are described as being unable to speak but in fact they are completely mute —they never make a sound), but it’s a good story. I laughed at the scene of government leaders being confronted with facts and ideas they rejected.
“My Faith Has Found a Resting Place,” performed by Danielle Franklyn & Waneisha Denny
This month, our theme will be faith, which will gather in popular song this one from Lidie H. Edmunds (1851-1920). Edmunds, a native Philadelphian, was home-bound for many years. In order to use her time well, she studied literature and wrote hymns.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
1 My faith has found a resting place, from guilt my soul is freed; I trust the ever-living One, his wounds for me shall plead.
Refrain: I need no other argument, I need no other plea, it is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.
2 Enough for me that Jesus saves, this ends my fear and doubt; a sinful soul, I come to him, he’ll never cast me out. [Refrain]
3 My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God, salvation by my Savior’s name, salvation thro’ his blood. [Refrain]
4 My great Physician heals the sick, the lost he came to save; for me his precious blood he shed, for me his life he gave. [Refrain]
Music and culture writer Ted Gioia talked on camera with David Perell of the podcast “How I Write” to talk about his life of reading and writing. I just watched it, and it’s marvelous.
Ted, who has been writing on Substack for three and a half years, shared the interview with a short excerpt about musicians getting inspiration from dreams. In the almost two-hour interview, he discusses becoming a well-read man over many years, reading books for content or style, chasing publishing trends, writing honestly for yourself first and then for readers, and how our worldview as well as social pressure presses us toward select kinds of inspiration.
It’s well worth your time. Many good thoughts were shared. You’ll note some that I didn’t, so feel free to comment on it here.
The original text for today’s hymn, “The God of Abraham Praise,” comes from Maimonides of the 12th century. Ken Myers writes, “The medieval Jewish philosopher Moses ben Maimon (commonly known as Maimonides, 1135?-1204) formulated a list of thirteen essential articles of faith. Some time after his death, probably in the late 14th century, his ‘creed’ was paraphrased in a metrical Hebrew poem, suitable for singing by Jewish congregations and cantors. This hymn is known as the ‘Yigdal,’ from the first Hebrew word in the poem, which means “magnify” or ‘praise.'”
“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire” (Daniel 7:9 ESV)
1 The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above, Ancient of everlasting days and God of love. Jehovah! Great I AM! by earth and heav’n confessed; I bow and bless the sacred name, forever blest.
2 The God of Abraham praise, at whose supreme command from earth I rise and seek the joys at his right hand. I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and pow’r, and him my only portion make, my shield and tow’r.
3 He by himself hath sworn, I on his oath depend; I shall, on eagles’ wings upborne, to heav’n ascend. I shall behold his face, I shall his pow’r adore, and sing the wonders of his grace forevermore.
4 The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty blest, a land of sacred liberty and endless rest. There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound, and trees of life forever grow, with mercy crowned.
5 There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our Righteousness, triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of Peace. On Zion’s sacred height his kingdom he maintains, and glorious with his saints in light forever reigns.
6 The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high; “Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” they ever cry. Hail, Abraham’s God and mine! I join the heav’nly lays; all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.
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