Praise God

     As 2013 shuffled to a finished, I reflected on the year that was.  2013 was not a year I would call "good."  I won't dive into specifics, but I did notice that for every moment that wrenched my soul there was someone there to help me, a church there supporting me, or a family there to love me.  As rough as the year was, the Lord never left me alone.

    So, I decided for a New Year's resolution I would sing God's praise.  At least, sing it more often than I've done in the past.  To accomplish this resolution, I thought a hymn each day would be great, no repeats. And, with my brother's encouragement, I decided to blog a hymn a day.  I've never blogged before, and I doubt it will be overly interesting.  The main benefit of me blogging this is it will keep me accountable.  That's good enough for me, so let's do this.

   The First hymn is the Doxology. My late grandmother would often use the Doxology as a means of saying grace before dinner.  She would look at me and say, "Nathan, would you heist us a note?"  This Christmas, my Aunt told me that I was usually a little too high pitched for her ... Great. The lyrics were penned by Thomas Ken in 1674 (Fun Fact #1: This Anglican Clergy man drew the ire of William of Orange by insisting a lady of high birth and a relative of the prince keep her keep her promise of marriage.  Clergymen have some nerve). The lyrics we sing are the combined final verses of two longer hymns called "Awake my soul, and with the sun" and "Glory to thee God, this night."  The tune itself is called "The Old 100th."  The tune has quite the history, starting with the Genevan Psalter with lyrics based off of Psalm 134.  However, the "100th" (I assume) comes from it place in Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561).  The 100th hymn of the hymnal is called "All People That on Earth do Dwell."  (Fun Fact #2: Played at Queen Elizabeth II coronation).  

I personally like the Doxology because it is a simple, straight forward praising of the Triune God.  It is a call for all of creation to sing praise to the Creator.   There is no elaborate emotionalism, no fancy metaphors, just straight worship.  We are His creation and He deserves our praise.  Some things don't need to be gussied up. Here is a link of some brothers singing the Doxology.  It reminds me of singing in the kitchen, holding hands with my family, singing the praise of our Father who is in heaven.