Hymns: A Sovereign Protector I have

I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.

Today’s song is A Sovereign Protector I have from 1774.

I remember singing this one quite regularly at our Baptist churches in Cork and Limerick back in the 1980s and 1990s. And I’m pleased to see Westminster Chapel in the lyric video. I used to go there on Friday nights back in 1983 to hear R.T.Kendall on Hebrews. And I used to enjoy reading and listening to (on tapes) his predecessor, Martyn Lloyd Jones, who went to glory in 1981.

His sermons are now freely available online on the MLJ Trust site. It’s a long time since I’ve listened to him because I’m so overwhelmed with so many other great resources.

Things have changed a lot over the last 40 years, including Westminster Chapel itself. R.T. Kendall got much criticism for introducing new songs and practices. But sometimes older churches can lose all the younger generation and eventually close. You don’t want to hand your church over to some silly or sinister movement, but you don’t want it to fade away either. It’s a matter of getting the balance right. When I was younger, I’d have preferred to keep everything the way it was. Nowadays, I try to be a little more open minded. But I still like churches as they were back in the 1980s and before. I had a lot of respect for the older generation and many of these were big fans of people like Martyn Lloyd Jones.

Nowadays, I tend to prefer the Christian audiobooks that I find on Audible, but there’s many great resources on the web. Some churches discourage this because they fear you’ll find some heretics or something silly or sinister. Maybe you could, but there’s plenty of reliable teachers – and we all have different preferences. Here’s a list of some of the ones that I like best:

Some of my old friends might disapprove of me listening to NT Wright or David Pawson because of some of their views. And other evangelical friends might disapprove of everything on my list 😀. But I’m not endorsing everything they teach, no more than they would endorse everything I believe. But we all trust in Jesus. We’ll find the full truth when we get to heaven. Maybe everyone will discover that I was right all along 😀. But diversity of opinion within the evangelical world is a healthy thing. I’d hate to be in some sect where we all had to follow the “leader’s” teaching about everything. I would think that Jesus warned against this in the following passage:

Matthew 23:8-10
⁸ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

I don’t think that He meant that we can’t teach or learn from one another. I think that He meant that complete trust should only be placed in God. But good earthly teachers can provoke us to open our Bibles and examine what they say in the light of it.

And the Apostle Paul discouraged Christians from splitting up into tribes:

1 Cor 1:11-13
¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” ¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 

I don’t think that he meant that we shouldn’t like some churches, teachers or movements more than others. I think he discouraged despising everyone that didn’t share our views.

My hope is that hymns can unite us – though you do get worship wars too 😀.

Anyway, I’m pleased to see a few instances of today’s hymn in YouTube. It’s inspired by Psalm 46. I’d like to see the new generation getting to know the old hymns – and us older folk listening to the new ones.

Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging

Here are some other versions of the hymn: