Peace

We finally got our piano into our home...got it tuned....and now every day, Jackie opens a hymnal and plays...and as today, I sometimes pick up my trombone and softly follow her lead.

It is like honey to the soul...remembrances, old memories, fresh worship in old patterns. With it too are coming rather amazing realizations that in current times often our focuses on worship are so laden with "He loves and and I love Him..and doesn't this feel good" that we have neglected the fuller orb of truth.

Consider for instance the following:
Right now (no kidding) she is playing an old hymn - "Like a River Glorious." Let me simply put the words of it before you and then a portion of Isaiah out of which this hymn was inspired. As you read, let your mind supply a photo op of a vast river - like the Flathead, or the Missippi or the Arkansas...which flows along powerfully, and peacefully and seemingly endlessly.

And listen beyond the words to His voice.

The hymn:
Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace,
Over all victorious in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller ev'ry day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit there.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the sun of love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do
They who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true.

Chorus:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest -
Finding as He promised perfect peace and rest.

And the words of Isaiah: (48:17-18)
"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit.
who leads you in the way you should go.
Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea."

May you and I live in the river of His peace today.

Selah

David