An Old, Old Song
A reading for today: Psalm 90
Today I'd like to share the story about a hymn that has sustained people of faith. The Psalm for today is actually a hymn that has been sung in the Jewish tradition for several thousand years. It served to inspire Isaac Watts, the father of English hymnody, to write the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Watts, who lived from 1674 to 1748, penned words for more than 600 hymns. The following words are more than 250 years old; they still make sense for me:
O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.
Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home.
The mystery of how life fits in the continuum of time will always be with us. Just like the Psalm writer, Watts expressed certainty in a Creator who is present and active in life. Another millennium is well underway, clearly the vast majority of people still believe that God is actively involved in life.
May your day be filled with a deepened confidence in the One who from everlasting to everlasting is God.
Ben Keckler
07.07.08
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