Try Something NEW this New Year...
Friends! Happy, Happy New Year to you and your families! My guess is you were just as thrilled as we were to say, “Buh-Bye” to 2020 and ring in 2021.
This New Year’s Eve found us in Naples, Florida with our oldest son, John Jr., his lovely wife, Diana, and their beautiful daughters, Claire and Charlotte. We headed to the beach to watch the sun set on New Year’s Eve, and witnessed an equally gorgeous sunrise on New Year’s Day while making a whale of a breakfast. (Charlotte, who’s a mere 16 months, ate us under the table every single morning.)
So with a new year ahead of us, I’m dying to show you a new book (of course it’s a book!), to start your year off right and get us all in an excellent habit of praising the Lord with a new song each week.
Your spirit will be lifted,
Your soul will be refreshed, and
Dare I say those around you will also be blessed?!
The book? Then Sings My Soul: 52 Hymn That Inspire Joyous Praise by Robert J. Morgan.
Many of you know I talk about Rob and his books often. I can’t say enough about how they’ve all blessed me in a thousand ways PLUS I know they’ve done the same for many of you and countless others. (At the end of this post, you’ll find links to a few of Rob’s other books.)
Before any of you say, “Now wait, I’ve already got a copy of Then Sings My Soul.” Yes, so do I, but this copy we’re going to discuss today, is uniquely different. It’s hot off the press and includes fifty-two hymns “that inspire JOYOUS PRAISE” in a journal format.
Before we get to this new book, let me show you what the original book, and volumes two and three look like. We could be singing a new song for a solid year if we were to sing thru’ book one and two on a daily basis!
The first edition of Then Sings My Soul came out in 2003. I’ve all but worn out my copy.
Confession: I debated about whether or not to order the newest book we’re discussing today, but once I discovered its’ focus is on prayer, and it’s in a journal format, with fifty-two hymns, it was a no-brainer, a new idea for our new year. And that, dear friends, is what I’m recommending for you too!
For any of you piano players, the music is included so you can plop down at the piano bench and play until your heart’s content. Each hymn has an interesting story regarding its’ author and many times the composer as several of the authors penned poems which later became hymns.
Following the music and story about the hymn, is a separate section beginning with a pertinent Scripture verse. The verse is followed by a section called “Reflect,” where there are a few questions, sometimes with additional Scripture to look up, followed by a prayer written by various people, always named and dated, followed by a section called, “Prayer requests for the week.”
Before we get to the hymns, allow me to show you one of my favorite prayers in the book. It’s written by Johann Freylinghausen (1670-1739). Try this tonight before you go to bed:
That prayer is found in Week 6, which teaches us about the hymn, Be Thou My Vision. We learn about St. Patrick, yes, of St. Patrick’s Day fame.
I’d forgotten he was a missionary to Ireland. Did you know he was from Scotland, and at the young age of sixteen was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave? It was there he became a Christian telling us, “The Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.”
Even tho’ Patrick escaped, returning home, his family begging him to stay home, he had a vision where an Irishman pleaded with him to come back to Ireland to evangelize the lost. By this time, he was thirty years old and returned with just one book in his hand. Can you guess? A Latin Bible.
Patrick is credited with planting approximately two hundred churches and baptizing one hundred thousand converts! I had no idea!
Fast forward a few centuries later, and Rob reveals, “In the eighth century, an unknown poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his Vision, his Wisdom, and his Best Thought by day or night.” It was Mary Elizabeth Byrne, a scholar in Dublin, who in 1905 translated the poem into English. Shortly thereafter, Eleanor Hull from England, took Byrne’s translation, creating it “into verses with rhyme and meter, where then it was set to a traditional Irish folk song, ‘Slane.’ It’s one of our oldest and most moving hymns.”
Hum a few bars with me?
Friends, this is just one of fifty-two hymns where Rob tells us we can “study, sing, pray, share, and add to our life-long cannons of praise,” thanks to this journal’s layout.
In the Introduction, Rob shares personal stories from his life, from his wife, Katrina’s last dying hour (She, too, was a lover of hymns and her last words were those from Charles Wesley’s O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing), God rest her soul, and from friends.
Like a doctor doling out prescriptions for what ails us, Rob gifts us with hymns for life’s daily challenges. We’re even told Ruth Bell Graham once shared with him “when nothing else would lift a cloud of discouragement from her mind, she would sing, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.” Yes, that hymn is in the book also.
For those of us who can’t carry a tune in a bucket (!!!), not to worry. Merely reading the words of these hymns can still lift your spirit and provide words of praise for you to say back to your loving, Heavenly Father. They will inspire you in the journal sections as well.
Because my singing voice is non-existent, I love having the music to play either in my head or on the piano. Crazy sidebar: I’d be willing to bet if you checked with the Music Program at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida (where I attended my freshman year), and inquired if music majors are still required to sing in the choir, you’d discover they changed that rule after my attendance.
Quickly placed as an alto (you choir members are laughing), no one was more miserable than yours truly and my singing neighbors. Akin to placing a square peg in a round hole, I was case in point that just because I could play the piano didn’t mean I could sing. Enough of that.
Regardless of your musical talent or lack thereof, trust me when I say Then Sings My Soul: 52 Hymns That Inspire Joyous Prayer is a GRAND WAY to start your New Year. Fun sidebar: Nearly six years ago, my friend and mentor, Elizabeth Jeffries, shared on this blog how Then Sings My Soul—the first one, was a fabulous discovery for her and how she implemented it into her daily life. Checkout what she learned.
Jump into 2021 with a new song.
Savor one per week.
Thank you, Pastor, Author, and friend, Rob Morgan for guiding us along our way. May you and your family, your church (Donelson Fellowship near Opryland in Nashville), and your writing be blessed!
Now, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest bookstore and grab Then Sings My Soul: 52 Hymns That Inspire joyous Prayer!
‘Til next time!
P.S. If you’re wondering about our other two boys and their families, John Jr. and fam flew out this morning (I’m writing this on Sunday, January 3rd), while Gordy and fam fly in Tuesday, followed by Woody and fam Sunday, Lord willing. You can bet we’ll shamelessly share photos of their beach adventures as well.
PPS: Here are a few previous posts about Rob’s books:
The Lord is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23
A recent post, from 10/9/19, is a tribute to my Father-in-love, Bill Hoagland, as well as the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, found both in the first Then Sings My Soul and this newest book with the prayer journal.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”