Sing at Home: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing is His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand.

King of Kings, Yet born of Mary, As of old earth He stood,
Lord of Lords, In human vesture, In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful. His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads it’s vanguard on the way,
As Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six-winged seraph, Cherubim, With sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to His presence as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Lord Most High!

God with Us: Praise the Lord, O My Soul

by Brian Vander Haak, Taipei, Taiwan

As an English teacher and avid observer of language, I derive great comfort from examining the ways that God uses language to reach across the divide between divine and human. The Bible is written as an act of great love and care. Every imaginable literary device is employed to help our feeble brains understand, in even a limited way, God’s true and powerful nature. Take Psalm 103 as only one example. It is full of figurative language that appeals to me on a personal and emotional level. And it makes it more meaningful knowing these examples resonate with different people in different ways. 

Verse 12 is especially poignant to me right now: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Living on the other side of the Pacific from our children, family, and good friends has always been acutely felt. With the pandemic travel restrictions the east and west now seem achingly far apart. When I equate that vastness to the miracle of God removing our sins from us I am humbled and impressed by this tangible representation.

God anticipated the connection I would feel as a parent when He says in verse 13 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” When I feel unloved and unworthy, I am reminded of how I continually worry about the well being of my own children, aching when they ache, rejoicing when they rejoice. To imagine that God’s connection and compassion exponentially exceeds mine makes me feel cared for at the very core of my self.  

Eagle analogies always give me pause. Those of us who grew up with eagles ignobly showing their carrion instinct by tearing apart a calf dragged into the back field or feasting on roadkill have to remember how majestic they are when they soar. If you are a Gary Larson Far Side fan you may remember one of my favorites where sunglass shaded eagles in a tree bear the caption “Birds of prey know they are cool.” It is that coolness, that majestic soaring, we should be focused on in verse 5 when God promises that He will provide good things for us and renew our youth “like the eagle’s.” The concept of soaring and having our youth restored is especially powerful as we get older.   

And as we age and encounter our own fragility and mortality in stunning detail, we read these verses and find even more comfort: 

15 The life of mortals is like grass,

    they flourish like a flower of the field;

16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,

    and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting

    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,

    and his righteousness with their children’s children—

“Praise the Lord, my soul” (22b).

God with Us: Have You Not Heard?

by Emily Gibson

Each day of this 2020 Advent season, the people of Wiser Lake Chapel will be sharing how Immanuel – God With Us – is a reality in our lives during this challenging year.

Through it all, it is important to remember there have been other difficult years for mankind, some far worse than 2020.

God never abandoned His children during those hard times, nor has He abandoned us now. 

Celebrating the incarnation is one of the most mysterious and joyous times in the Church calendar – our Creator came to become a part of His Creation in order to rescue us from human sin and weakness.  

What a promise!

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
Isaiah 40:21

…the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers…
Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man
seriously enough to be scandalized by it,
we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.
~Frederick Buechner from Faces of Jesus

It seems an
improbable, impossible,
unlikely, unbelievable,
incredible, indescribable
Promise.

Have you not heard?
How are we to believe such a promise
would exceed our wildest dreams?

Yet we have been told from the very beginning:
we are loved that much.

Yes, really. We are actually loved that much.

The Lord God said when time was full
He would shine His light in the darkness
He said a virgin would conceive
And give birth to the Promise
For a thousand years the dreamers dreamt
And hoped to see His love
The Promise showed their wildest dreams
Had simply not been wild enough
But the Promise showed their wildest dreams
Had simply not been wild enough

Chorus
The Promise was love and the Promise was life
The Promise meant light to the world
Living proof Jehovah saves
For the name of the Promise was Jesus

The Faithful One saw time was full
And the ancient pledge was honored
So God the Son, the Incarnate One
His final Word, His own Son
Was born in Bethlehem
But came into our hearts to live
What more could God have given
Tell me what more did He have to give
What more could God have given
Tell me what more did He have to give

Repeat Chorus
At last the proof Jehovah saves
For the name of the Promise was Jesus
~Michael Card “The Promise”

Sing at Home: O Come, O Come Emmauel

Singing indoors as a congregation this Advent season may be restricted due to COVID risk, so each day we hope you will sing these Christmas hymns at home. Here is today’s hymn with lyrics:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Refrain

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Refrain