Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven (Part One)

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,
To His feet thy tribute bring;
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like me His praise should sing?
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise the everlasting King.

Praise Him for His grace and favour
To our fathers in distress;
Praise Him still the same as ever,
Slow to chide, and swift to bless:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Glorious in his faithfulness.

Father-like, He tends and spares us,
Well our feeble frame He knows;
In His hands He gently bears us,
Rescues us from all our foes:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Widely as His mercy flows.

Frail as summer’s flower we flourish,
Blows the wind and it is gone;
But while mortals rise and perish
Our God lives unchanging on,
Praise Him, Praise Him, Hallelujah
Praise the High Eternal One!

Angels, help us to adore Him;
Ye behold Him face to face;
Sun and moon, bow down before Him,
Dwellers all in time and space:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace.

Henry Francis Lyte was a Scottish pastor and hymn writer in the 1800’s.  In addition to this week’s hymn, he also wrote great songs like “Abide with me” and “Jesus, I my cross have taken.” Lyte battled tuberculosis all his life, but was a man of strong faith and wrote many, deep, powerful hymns including this week’s “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven.”

Once again you can thank Pastor Alistair Begg for this week’s hymn. While preaching a sermon on the story of Ruth in the Bible, he quoted a line from this hymn – “Praise Him for His grace and favor.” To be honest, this hymn is one of those songs that is both challenging and easy to comment on all at the same time. “Challenging” in the sense that there are some great lines in this song that cause one to think. “Easy” in the sense that there is so much “meat” on the bone that you could almost breakdown each verse into it’s own “Hymn of the week.” So since this is such a great song of praise, and since it has so much “meat” to comment on, I have decided to highlight parts of this song over the next several weeks.  As we prepare our homes and hearts for Thanksgiving, I hope that you will “feast” on the richness of this song, and let your song be a song of praise and thanksgiving to our great King of Heaven.

In verse one, there are four words that describe us as children of the great King of Heaven.  These adjectives, however, aren’t regal.  They aren’t typical words used to describe royalty. But they are words that describe the throng of believers who have called on the Lord Jesus Christ. They are His chosen ones.

Here are some definitions and scriptures that illustrate these four words:

* Ransomed – “a means of deliverance or rescue from the punishment of sin, especially the payment of a redemptive fine.” Psalm 35:10 says “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”. Matthew 20:28 tells us that “..the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minster, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

* Healed – “to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from ailment.” In Matthew 8:16, the Bible tells us Jesus healed all that were sick. Matthew 12:15 says that great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.  By His stripes, we are healed.

* Restored – “to bring back to a state of health, soundness, or vigor.” In the Old Testament, restoration occured at the alter, at the temple, with the priesthood, and with the nation of Israel. In the Gospels, there are many accounts of sight being restored. In Mark 3, a hand is restored.  Our God is in the restoration business, and as Revelation 22 reminds us, one day even “Eden” will be restored.

* Forgiven – “to grant pardon for or remission of an offense, debt, etc; to absolve.”  In Matthew 9:2, Jesus speaks truth to the paralytic man. “Your sins are forgiven.” In Luke 5:20, Jesus said “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus dealt with man’s most important need – to be cleansed from sin. He has also spoken those words personally to you if you have heeded His invitation to become one of His children. “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Who me? As a father of three children, the “who me?” question was not uncommon in our house.  It is that response that you get when someone has eaten all the cookies in the pantry – “Tyler, did you eat all the Oreo’s?” “Who me?  Or that response when someone knows they are going to be in trouble. “Grace, was it you that left the garage door open and let these bugs in the house?” Grace responds sheepishly “Who me?” Most of the time, our “Who me” response is a response knowing that we are guilty, but not really wanting to openly admit our guilt.

The author of this hymn also had a “who me?” kind of response in verse one – “Who like me His praise should sing?” His “who me?” response, however, is not an attempt to distract or get out of something.  He recognized that he was guilty.  But he also knew who he was in Christ.  He had been ransomed.  He had been healed.  He was restored to a right relationship with God. He was forgiven. He could not help but praise the great High King of Heaven for what the Lord Jesus had done for him.

I pray today that you will encourage your soul to praise the King of Heaven.  He has blessed us in so many ways, and is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving.