Mom’s Musings

(Image from Snapshots of Joy.)

I have been blessed, once again, to join with my family and others in worshiping the Lord this Sunday. We enjoyed good fellowship with one another as well, and now, it is late. Therefore, I will leave you with only a wee post, an excerpt from the metrical version of Psalm 19, verses 1 through 6:

1 The heav’ns God’s glory do declare,
the skies his hand-works preach:
2 Day utters speech to day, and night
to night doth knowledge teach.
3 There is no speech nor tongue to which
their voice doth not extend:
4 Their line is gone through all the earth,
their words to the world’s end.

In them he set the sun a tent;
5 Who, bridegroom-like, forth goes
From’s chamber, as a strong man doth
to run his race rejoice.
6 From heav’n’s end is his going forth,
circling to th’ end again;
And there is nothing from his heat
that hidden doth remain.

We sing this psalm to the tune Crediton, which sounds like this: crediton

The prompt this week for One Single Impression is GLORY. Immediately I thought of the GLORY OF GOD. Specifically, I thought of how God manifests His GLORY in the creation that we see all around us (and in us).

A helpful summary of Christian doctrine, The Westminster Confession of Faith, says this about God’s GLORY in creation:

It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the GLORY of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good. – The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647, Chapter 4: Of Creation.

In our family, during daily Bible reading times, we also sing from God’s song book, the Book of Psalms. One of our favorite psalms, Psalm 148, speaks of God’s GLORY in creation. Here is the metrical version of Psalm 148:1-14 taken from The Scottish Psalter, published 1650:

The Lord of heav’n confess,

On high his glory raise.

Him let all angels bless,

Him all his armies praise.

Him glorify

Sun, moon, and stars;

Ye higher spheres,

And cloudy sky.

From God your beings are,

Him therefore famous make;

You all created were,

When he the word but spake.

And from that place,

Where fix’d you be

By his decree,

You cannot pass.

Praise God from earth below,

Ye dragons and ye deeps:

Fire, hail, clouds, wind, and snow,

Whom in command he keeps.

Praise ye his name,

Hills great and small,

Trees low and tall;

Beasts wild and tame;

All things that creep or fly,

Ye kings, ye vulgar throng,

All princes mean or high;

Both men and virgins young,

Ev’n young and old,

Exalt his name;

For much his fame

Should be extoll’d.

O let God’s name be prais’d

Above both earth and sky;

For he his saints hath rais’d,

And set their horn on high;

Ev’n those that be

Of Isr’el’s race,

Near to his grace.

The Lord praise ye.

Those of you interested in meter (which means all of you, I imagine!) will note that this metrical psalm is written in 66. 66. 88. We sing this Psalm to the tune Darwall, written by John Darwall.darwalls148th

Psalm 42:6 – 11, Scottish Metrical Version

6 My God, my soul’s cast down in me; thee therefore mind I will

From Jordan’s land, the Hermonites, and ev’n from Mizar hill.

7 At the noise of thy water-spouts deep unto deep doth call;

Thy breaking waves pass over me, yea, and thy billows all.

8 His loving-kindness yet the Lord command will in the day,

His song’s with me by night; to God, by whom I live, I’ll pray:

9 And I will say to God my rock, Why me forgett’st thou so?

Why, for my foes’ oppression, thus mourning do I go?

10 ‘Tis as a sword within my bones, when my foes me upbraid;

Ev’n when by them, Where is thy God? ’tis daily to me said.

11 O why art thou cast down, my soul? Why, thus with grief opprest,

Art thou disquieted in me? In God still hope and rest:

For yet I know I shall him praise, who graciously to me

The health is of my countenance, yea, mine own God is he.

My daughter Laura commented that I should do more blog posts in which I describe daily goings-on, so here is a wee short one (since not much of substance has been done yet this morning).

It’s been a lovely relaxing morning. We all slept in, since, for various reasons, we all stayed up late last night:

• Our daughter Rebecca had one of her girlfriends come over to spend the night once Reb, Rick and Seth got home from the basketball game (Our boys won! Barely . . . so, nerve-wracking and exciting was the name of the game.).
  
• This means that Reb and her friend, and our daughters Kayla and Lydia, had a Girls Night In the House. This involved watching the DVD of The Nanny Diaries, drinking herbal tea, eating caramel popcorn and – once they are up, I shall find out what else. In any event, it meant keeping late hours.
  
• Rick was playing with something electronic he ordered which allows him to record things, and then add to the recording. He and Debra were doing LOTS of singing, trying to sing their parts properly for various psalm tunes from the Scottish Psalter that we like to use for family worship. Let’s see; the owner’s manual says it’s a “multi-pattern USB condenser microphone.”
  
• I stayed up late FINALLY balancing my mom’s and our checking accounts, and paying my mom’s bills. I need to hurry to our bank this morning so I can pay some of OUR bills this afternoon. I don’t know why I procrastinate when it comes to doing this paperwork. Is it the dread of not balancing? But all the numbers cooperated, so all was happy.
  

That’s all for now, folks. The fear that I might not get all done that should get done today is sneaking up on me. Hope you have a great Saturday.

This is from the Scottish Metrical Psalter, that we have used for many years in our time of family worship.

The psalm sung in Hebrew, accompanied by instruments approximately the same as those used in Temple worship. This one gave me the shivers, it was so majestic.

A young homeschooled girl sings the Psalms.

Wow! This is the most heart-felt singing from God’s songbook that I have yet to hear! This boys choir is wonderful.