At the Close of the Year
Let hearts and tongues unite,
And loud thanksgivings raise:
'Tis duty, mingled with delight,
To sing the Saviour's praise.
To Him we owe our breath,
He took us from the womb,
Which else had shut us up in death,
And prov'd an early tomb.
When on the breast we hung,
Our help was in the Lord;
'Twas He first taught our infant tongue
To form the lisping word.
When in our blood we lay,
He would not let us die,
Because His love had fix'd a day
To bring salvation nigh.
In childhood and in youth,
His eye was on us still:
Though strangers to His love and truth,
And prone to cross His will.
And since His name we knew,
How gracious has He been:
What dangers has He led us through,
What mercies have we seen!
Now through another year,
Supported by His care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
"The Lord has help'd thus far."
Our lot in future years
Unable to foresee,
He kindly, to prevent our fears,
Says, "Leave it all to Me."
Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon Thy breast!
Help us to praise Thee for the past,
And trust Thee for the rest.
John Newton (1725-1807)
As posted on SongToTheLamb 30 December 2009
2 comments:
It is a blessing to know we can thank God for the past and not worry or fret over the future. Even though past memories may not always be pleasant, we shall draw strength from them. Future worries need not be. How can we control it, much less see?
Today brings to a close the first decade of the 21st Century. We can now say the 20th Century is firmly entrenched in the past. The more things change, the more they remain the same. It was 10 years to the day there was panic of an impending collapse or yet even worse to some, the ending of time through something called Y2K, lest we forget. Now we have the same talk of a slightly different nature. Some believe the world will end in 2012 by choosing to believe an ancient civilation's wild concoction.
If we choose to live by the Bible and the golden rule while carrying on in an everchanging world, surely we have much to be thankful for and to rejoice in. No New Year's resolution can hold a candle to that.
Sadly, there will be some who will never see the year 2010, as their lives will be cut short by an insistence to ring out the old in an all too familiar way. Just as the passing from one year to another is different for each individual in their own unique way, we must all seek to find common ground to exalt our Lord to greater heights than the previous year.
Thanks for your continued readership and comments.
One slight dissent on December 31, 2009 being the close of the first decade of the 21st century. It seems to have become popular to count decades this way, but since there was no "zero" year, our decades run from 1 to 10 rather than 0 to 9.
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