Friday, February 21, 2020

"Redeeming love has been my theme"

Today Jonathan Aigner offers "9 Hymns for Those Struggling with Anxiety and Depression." He writes:
I’m not going to tell you what others might have; that if you just praise God all your troubles will melt away. Those are evil lies. Reliance upon God doesn’t melt away your troubles, and those who say so have either had terribly easy lives or, more likely, are lost in religious delusion. But what these hymns, and especially worship in Word and Sacrament, can do is to aid us in seeing the world, and ourselves, through a Christ and cross-shaped lens. Then in the midst of the deepest, darkest night of the soul, we can find the tiny morsel of faith we need to keep going. ....
It's good selection of hymns; all but one familiar to me. One of them is the great Cowper hymn "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" about which he writes:
This is one of those hymns that has fallen out of favor in recent years because of its so-called “blood and guts” theology, an issue exacerbated by sadomasochistic neo-calvinists. But on the other hand, without the shedding of blood we’re all screwed, regardless of our particular theological bent. So, in or out of favor, this hymn will be sung at my funeral, if only because nobody likes to argue with a corpse. And the organist will have explicit instructions to play this early American hymn tune with strength, sobriety, and dignity. Though at times my words are feeble and few, redeeming love shall be my everlasting theme, in this life, and the life to come.
He includes a YouTube Sacred Harp singing of that hymn:


Aigner provides five stanzas — not all performed above:


There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,       
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
When this poor lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.


9 Hymns for Those Struggling with Anxiety and Depression | Jonathan Aigner

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