September 5, 2005
Have
faith in God –
Count on! count on!
Have faith in God –
When hope is gone;
Have faith in God –
From night, the dawn.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.
O Day of Rest and Gladness
Christopher Wordsworth, 1807-1885
It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4:6-11.
Christopher Wordsworth, a nephew of the renowned English poet, William
Wordsworth, reminds us in this hymn that since God rested after His acts of
creation, we who are made in His image also need a day of rest and spiritual
renewal. We need the encouragement and fellowship of other believers to keep our
lives aglow for God.
Christopher Wordsworth was an Anglican bishop, a noted
scholar, and a distinguished writer. He composed 127 hymn texts that were
intended to teach the truths of Scripture and encourage worship. O Day of
Rest and Gladness -- his only hymn widely used today -- focuses on the
doctrine of the Trinity. In the second stanza, the triune Godhead is compared to
three important events or a "triple light" that occurred on the first
day of the week: The creation of light (Genesis 1), the resurrection of Christ
(the Gospels), and the advent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1). In the final stanza,
Wordsworth addresses each member of the Godhead by name, as the church raises
its perpetual voice to "Thee, blest three in One".
O day of rest and gladness, of day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.
On Thee, at the creation, the light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious, the Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on Thee, most glorious, a triple light was given.
Thou art a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.
A day of sweet perfection, a day of holy love,
A day of resurrection, from earth to things above.
Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.
Today on weary nations the heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing, with soul refreshing streams.
New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.
Have Faith in God by H.M.S.
Richards, Used by Permission