I do not do the things I want

I do not do the things I want,

But what I do is what I hate; 

I know the law of God is good,

But sin enthralls my inward state.

'Tis sadly true, I cannot do

The good things that I contemplate. 

Thanks be to God! All thanks and praise

To God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

Now when I want to do the good,

Then sin draws near, comes by my side; 

But God's good law is my delight,

And in God's truth I would abide.

Though still does sin make war within

I yet in God my hope confide.

Thanks be to God! All thanks and praise

To God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

O wretched body that I am

With sin at war with all my good,

O who will rescue me from death

And help me live the way I would?

God comes to save me from the grave

and free my soul from sin's falsehood!

Thanks be to God! All thanks and praise

To God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, after Romans 7:15-25.

MUSIC: Tune YE BANKS AND BRAES, Scottish melody.

 

 

The Romans series continues. I had thought long ago that if I was really going to do such a series, this passage (which is basically Paul going into emotional and spiritual dark places and getting all tangled up in it) would be one of the hardest if not the hardest. Once, however, this tune came to mind with its folk and even ballad-like qualities, the text came together fairly quickly.

Do not hold on to former things

Do not hold on to former things,

Forget the deeds of old; 

God comes to do a new thing now - 

O hear this work foretold!

In wilderness God makes a way,

In deserts makes a stream;

In places dry and desolate

See living waters teem!

 

All creatures now give honor to 

The God who makes them live; 

To animals and people both

This water God will give.

This water in the wilderness,

This flowing desert stream 

God makes to give the people life

To hope, rejoice, and dream.

 

This people God has made to serve,

The ones now called God's own

Can now declare God's praise aloud

Instead of weep and groan.

Do not hold on to former things,

Forget the deeds of old;

God comes to do a new work now - 

O see this work unfold!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, after Isaiah 43:18-21.

MUSIC: Tune SALVATION, Kentucky Harmony, 1816 (various harmonizations)

 

 

Second time in a row I've attended the Worship & Music Conference at Montreat and come up with a hymn text set to the tune SALVATION, a pre-Sacred Harp shape-note tune that oughta get sung more. Another simple and not overly lofty motivation happened here; after an intensive Bible study session on this text, I looked in Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal to see what hymn had been made for it. Finding none, I got provoked to write this.

God of salvation

God of salvation, make us to be

Witnesses for you, saved and set free.

Help us be faithful, O God of love; 

Fit us for service like hand and glove.

We are your children all over the earth,

Made in your image and filled with your worth!

God of salvation, make us to be

Witnesses for you, saved and set free.

 

This is our mission, this is our care:

Widow and orphan having their share,

Lowly uplifted, hungry ones fed,

All to have shelter, roof overhead.

We are your children all over the earth,

Made in your image and filled with your worth!

God of salvation, make us to be

Witnesses for you, saved and set free.

 

As scripture tells us in words so true,

How we treat these is how we treat you.

Sharing the gifts you faithfully give:

May this be always how we will live.

We are your children all over the earth,

Made in your image and filled with your worth!

God of salvation, make us to be

Witnesses for you, saved and set free.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023.

MUSIC: Tune MFURAHINI, HALELUYA, Tanzanian melody.

 

 

Not all of my hymns are written with any great lofty spiritual motivation. Sometimes I just manufacture a challenge for myself. In this case, it was pointed out in one of my classes today that "love," an obvious candidate for a lot of hymn texts, didn't have a great set of rhyming words once you got beyond "above" and "dove." Of course, I had to come up with a text that found a different rhyming word. *Of course* I did. Nonetheless, with a little touching up here and there this could be a useful hymn, and at minimum getting acquainted with this tune is a definite win.

Thanks be to God that you, once bound in sin

Thanks be to God that you, once bound to sin,

Are now obedient from the heart within

To what you learned when God's free grace broke in.

Alleluia! 

 

No more let sin have power in your life!

No more may sin's rule be so strong and rife.

Be no more bound by sin and storm and strife.

Alleluia! 

 

Present yourself to God as one set free

From death to life with gladness and with glee!

Show forth God's grace for all the world to see.

Alleluia! 

 

No more is death the price that you must pay; 

God's gift of grace, both now and every day,

Is life eternal following Christ's own way.

Alleluia! 

 

Praise be to God, the Giver of this grace;

Praise be to Christ, who sin's power did erase; 

Praise be to Spirit, with us in every place.

Amen!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, loosely after Romans 6:12-23

MUSIC: Tune ENGELBERG, Charles Villiers Stanford, 1904; alt.

The Romans series apparently continues. Some rearranging seemed necessary to start the hymn with something other than the negative commands found in verse 2 (roughly vv. 12-14 in the Romans reading); the exaltation of v. 17 provided a more joyous starting place for the hymn text. The text originally started forming to SINE NOMINE, but I frankly have enough texts to that tune for now, and this is a tune I've wanted to set for some time. It may have provided a cleaner and more fit setting for this text in the end as well.

Come, walk in this new life!

Come, walk in this new life!

Come and be dead to sin. 

We who are baptized in the Lord

Bear Christ's new life within.

 

Come, walk in this new life!

God's true grace will abound;

Without our sin, our Lord still lets 

His loving grace resound.

 

Come, walk in this new life!

For we have died with Christ

And live in him who gave for us 

His own life, sacrificed.

 

Come, walk in this new life!

Know you are dead to sin. 

Live as one baptized in the Lord; 

Bear Christ's new life within.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, roughly after Romans 6:1-11

MUSIC: Tune FESTAL SONG, William H. Walter, 1872.

 

 

 

The Romans RCL Year A set continues, apparently. These passages most typically contain at least one instruction or encouragement that can become a focal point, and Paul's understanding about how we "walk in newness of life" (v. 4) helps here. This tune offered a means of reinforcing that mandate by means of repetition. 

Oh, be at peace with God on high

Oh, be at peace with God on high through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who, for a broken, hateful world his own life sacrificed.

 

By faith alone, and not by law, have we been justified; 

When we were weak, this Son of God laid down his life and died.

 

Through Jesus, we are given this grace in which we live and stand, 

And even in our sufferings, that hope is still at hand.

 

This hope will never disappoint with God's love in our heart;

From Holy Spirit's comfort, we will never be apart.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, after portions of Romans 5:1-8

MUSIC: Suggested tune DETROIT, from Supplement to Kentucky Harmony, 1820.

 

 

I guess as long as I'm preaching in Romans, I'm going to be at least trying to come up with some hymn texts that make the trip through that epistle as well. The text, like "Lord, show us a faith" written about a week ago, does not try to make an exact duplicate of Paul's words, but hopefully lets them find their way into a tune to sing.

Lord, show us a faith

Lord, show us a faith that is patient and brave,

That waits on the grace that you give us to save;

Faith found in the righteousness only you give,

That leads us in trust and assurance to live.

 

Lord, show us a faith that can our life renew,

That gives us the hope that the law cannot do.

In faith that renews every hour, every day,

We wish to live always; Lord, show us the way.

 

Lord, show us a faith that can hold the absurd,

The faith that old Abraham had in your word; 

A faith that endures through all time and all age,

And holds when life calls us to turn a new page.

 

Lord, show us a faith that will help us to trust

When years fall away and our life turns to dust;

Lord, hold us in love that endures even then.

To you, Lord, be glory forever. Amen.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2023, somewhat after Romans 4:13-25

MUSIC: Tune ST. DENIO, Welsh folk melody.

 

 

The indicated passage doesn't exactly set itself to a nice metrical rendering, but it does suggest some attributes of faith that can be sung.