Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

people."
eat."
Lesson Helps for the Week of February 6, 1955
C. Y. P. U. TOPIC
February 6, 1955
Charles R. McBurney
WHAT'S IN MY PSALM BOOK
Psalm 100
In my Psalm Book are God's own
songs for me to sing. There is much to
say about them, too, but comments are
intended merely to prepare for singing.
Any group can enjoy at least ten songs in
an hour's meeting, with time out for
prayer and reading and precentor's sug
gestions.
There's praise in my Psalm Book.
Gladness, thanks, service, noise are some
ingredients of the praise I sing in Psalm
100. Praise for deliverance, for a goodly
theme,
for victory, for justice I sing
about in Psalms 30, 45, 66, 96, 98, and
a host of others. Psalm 145 on page 350
is one of my favorites, but I'll be just
as happy to sing yours.
There's anguish in my Psalm Book.
Disaster, defeat, discouragement, remorse,
indecision, helplessness are expressed in
Palms like the 6th, the 38th, the 42nd, the
55th, the 88th, the 102nd, to mention only
a few. But when I make my anguish a
theme for song, the depths are full of
hope. In the compass of one short Psalm,
which I hope you will sing with me, I
travel in song the entire distance from
despair to exultation. I am
thinking of
Psalm 13 on page 23. Or would you pre
fer Psalm 130
There's vision in my Psalm Book. I see
the godly man in Psalm -15, the godly
home in Psalm 128, the world won to
Christ in Psalm 67, enduring peace and
prosperity in Psalm 85, our loving heav
enly Father in Psalm 103.
upon the Lord continually are
"Mine eyes
set"
for
the sight of goals worth attaining. In the
first four stanzas of Psalm 97 on page
233 we can sing together of Christ on His
throne, a vision of eternal power and
glory.
There's prayer in my Psalm Book.
There are the prayers Christ taught His
disciples: prayer for the keeping holy of
God's name in the final stanzas of Psalm
72; prayer for the coming of His King
dom in the refrain of Psalm 57; prayer
for obedience to His will in part 5
Psalm 119; prayer for daily food in part
3 of Psalm 119; prayer for forgiveness in
Psalm 51; prayer for deliverance from
evil in Psalm 141; ascribing kingdom,
power, and glory to Him in Psalm 96.
Many of these prayers I offer when I
sing from that favorite prayer Psalm on
page 347, the 143rd.
There's music in my Psalm Book. God
W
42
of
provided the words, not the tunes, but He
asked me to sing, and I find in my Psalm
Book, leafing rapidly through,
some
tunes so well known and so respected all
over my country that Psalms may be
sung by any group if words only are pro
vided. Such tunes, with favorite passages
already attached to them, occur on pages
8, 43, 118, 132, 156, 246, and 347. There
are simple tunes, easily sung
over and
over, like those on pages 52, 91, 102, and
137 ; tunes with power and movement like
those on pages 110, 119, 171, and 175;
tunes with lingering beauty and depth
like those on pages 57, 140, 223, 327, and
341; tunes that challenge the best of
choirs, yet can be sung by all, like those
on pages 49, 106, 225, and 336. On pages
13, 51, 86, 87, 165, 213, 219, 224, 283, and
288 I find tunes from medieval and
classical masters; on pages 7, 12, 46, 197,
and 237 I find melodies from Psalters
of Psalm-singers across the seas and the
centuries; on pages 6 and 281, tunes re
corded from childhood memories of God's
praise; and on pages 131, 195, 210, 227,
283, 314, 325, and 327, tunes from the
hearts of Psalm-lovers whose voices we
remember or hear still in our midst.
Before I ask you to use up the rest of
our meeting time in singing
with me
some samples from this list, would you
like to concentrate for a moment on the
poetry in my Psalm Book The prose
version will serve, for Psalter poetry con
sists in a rhyming of thought, a rhythm
of ideas. Have you ever tried reading
Psalm 19:7-11 by dividing into two
groups and having
one group read the
first part of each verse and the other
group the last, Beautiful that way, isn't
it Or turn to Psalm 73:23-28 and have
the groups read alternate verses. Or use
our text, Psalm 100, that way, reading to
gether the last verse.
I have mentioned a few of the things
in MY Psalm Book. What's in yours
Do you find faith, repentance, challenge,
and resolutions Where And what else
JUNIOR TOPIC
February 6, 1955
by Mrs. Philip W. Martin
JESUS AND A BOY'S LUNCH
Scripture: Mark 6:31-46
Memory Verse: "And they say
We have here but five loaves, and two
unto him,
fishes. He said, Bring them hither to
me."
Matthew 14:17, 18
Psalms
February Memory Psalm 25: 3-6, page
57
Psalm 86: 9-11, page 209
Psalm 31:1-4, page 71
Psalm 116:8, 9, 11, 12, page 282
I think that every boy and girl likes a
picnic and I know that some grown-up
boys and girls like picnics, too. Today
our story is about a picnic, but I know
that you and I have never been to a
picnic like the one in our story.
John the Baptist had dared to tell
King Herod that he was a sinner because
he had taken someone else's wife to be
his wife. Herod put John in prison but
was afraid to kill him. But on Herod's
birthday the daughter of this woman had
danced for the king and his men friends,
so
Herod promised her whatever she
wanted. She asked for the head of John
the Baptist! So Herod had John be
headed in the prison. The disciples told
this sad news to Jesus. This made Jesus
sad, too. There were so many
people who
wanted to see Jesus that He didn't even
have time to get a bite to eat. So Jesus
suggested to His disciples that they go
some place where they
could be alone for
a little while. The only way to get away
from the people was to go by boat across
the sea of Galilee to a desert place.
But the people saw them leave and
they were so anxious to see Jesus that
they ran around by the shore. They ran
so fast that they were waiting
on the
shore when Jesus and His disciples ar
rived by boat. Jesus saw the need that
the people had of Him so, tired and sad
as He was, He got out of the boat and
taught the people many
things. The sun
had come to its height and it was now
going down, down, down. Soon the day
would be done and the people had been
so anxious to see Jesus that they hadn't
taken food with them.
The disciples interrupted Jesus and
said, "Master, it's getting late. You are
tired and the people are hungry. Tell
them to go home now.
Pretty
soon the
stores will be closed and it will be too
late for them to get anything to
Jesus turned to His disciples and said,
"Give ye them to
eat."
This surprised
and shocked the disciples. They began to
figure how much money they had. "We
haven't enough money to buy enough
bread to even begin to feed the great
crowd of
Now while the rest of the disciples were
trying to figure things out, Andrew had
been going through the crowd to see if
they had food they could share. But all
he found was some food which a little
boy had thought to bring along. So An
drew told Jesus about this little boy and
said, "But he has only five barley loaves,
and two small fish: and they won't