Hymn 625 - Oh, Blest the House, Whate'er Befall

This weekend we enter the second have of the Church Year with the Trinity Season. The coming 20+ weeks of the church year will focus on the RESULTS of Christ's work for us in our lives. This weekend we will be looking at the Family. The family has been created by God, and it is blessed by God. This hymn reminds us that the family is completed in Jesus. 

The hymn was written by a very popular German hymnwriter in the 18th Century by the name of Christoph Pfeil. His hymn was originally eight verses long and was shortened by Catherine Winkworth when she translated it. 

The hymn highlights the blessings that God imparts to us through the family, and weaves in Bible passages and historical accounts from the Bible as examples for us. Pfeil reminds us that Christ completes the family. Without Jesus as the center of the family, the family is incomplete. For "if He [Jesus] were not dwelling there,
 How dark and poor and void it were." 

Verse 2 is based in part on Psalm 128: "Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways." Faith in Jesus is going to bring about results. We will walk in His ways when we are brought to faith in Him. We will not be perfect, but knowing that His way is good and best, we will desire to live as He desires.

Parents who instruct their children in the Word and point them to Jesus who is our all in all, will be blest (v.3). That doesn't mean that our children will not fall away from the Christian faith. They may reject Jesus as they get older. But the foundation parents give their children will help protect them from the world and its temptations. 

Two examples from Scripture are alluded too in this hymn. One is Luke 2:41-52 and the other is Joshua 24:15. Mary and Joseph served as a godly example of raising Jesus, bringing Him to the LORD's house, and instructing Him in the Christian faith. They are an example for us. Joshua is another example. The last verse of the hymn is a paraphrase of Joshua's words: "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." What an confession and example for us! "I and my house will serve the LORD!" May it be true for all of us!

May the LORD bless your worship this weekend, and give you strength in you family callings, assuring you of the forgiveness that is found in Jesus!