714

The One Is Blest

Full Text

1 The one is blest who, fearing God,
walks not where sinners meet,
who does not stand with wicked ones,
and shuns the scorner's seat.

2 How blest the one who in God's law
finds goodness and delight,
and meditates upon that law
with gladness day and night.

3 That one is nourished like a tree
set by the river's side;
its leaf is green, its fruit is sure:
the works of such abide.

4 The wicked, like the driven chaff,
are swept from off the land;
they shall not gather with the just,
nor at the judgment stand.

5 The LORD will guard the righteous well,
their way to God is known;
the way of sinners, far from God,
shall surely be o'erthrown.

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Scripture References

Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Further Reflections on Confessions and Statements of Faith References

It is vitally important that worshipers understand the role of God’s law among us. God gives his law to us, not so that we can earn his favor by full obedience, for even those converted to God cannot obey this law perfectly. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 44, Question and Answer 114 says, “In this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience.” Instead, says Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 2, Question and Answer 3, through this law “we come to know [our] misery.” 

 

Yet in their new life of gratitude, God’s children “with all seriousness of purpose, do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God’s commandments” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 44, Question and Answer 114). They measure their good works of gratitude as “those which are done out of true faith, conform to God’s law, and are done for God’s glory” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 33, Question and Answer 91). 

 

In other words, though Christ has fulfilled the law for us, “The truth and substance of these things remain for us in Jesus Christ…[and] we continue to use the witnesses drawn from the law and prophets to confirm us in the gospel and to regulate our lives with full integrity for the glory of God according to the will of God” (Belgic Confession, Article 25). Therefore, the Ten Commandments with explanation are included in the third section, “gratitude,” (Lord’s Days 34-44) of Heidelberg Catechism.

714

The One Is Blest

Additional Prayers

Lord our God, giver of blessing and judgment, your Son Jesus lived the only true life.
Because of him, we can know you, love you, and delight in you.
Keep us watered by your grace and rooted in your Spirit
so that our ears will hear your voice and our feet will follow your path,
giving glory to you alone. Amen.
— Psalms for All Seasons (http://www.psalmsforallseasons.org)

A Prayer for Flourishing
O God, bless your wisest people today. You have rooted them into the banks of flowing streams, and everything in them is healthy. Their leaves are green, their limbs are straight, their fruit is abundant. It’s all blue sky, green leaves, red fruit, white water—the perfect picture of flourishing within your good creation. We want to be like these wise brothers and sisters. We want to flourish too. And so today we will ponder the gift of your law and thank you for it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
714

The One Is Blest

Tune Information

Name
WINCHESTER OLD
Key
F Major
Meter
8.6.8.6

Recordings

714

The One Is Blest

Hymn Story/Background

WINCHESTER OLD is a famous common-meter psalm tune, presumably arranged by George Kirbye (b. Suffolk, England, c. 1560; d. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, 1634) from a melody in Christopher Tye's Acts of the Apostles and published in T. Este's The Whole Book of Psalmes (1592) set to Psalm 84. Kirbye was responsible for most of the harmonizations in that psalter.
 
WINCHESTER OLD has long been associated with Nahum Tate's Christmas text, “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” ever since it was published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). The tune title refers to Winchester, an ancient town in Hampshire, England. 
— Bert Polman

Author Information

The 1912 Psalter was the first ecumenical psalter published in the United States and the most widely used metrical psalter of the twentieth century in North America.  The United Presbyterian Church invited all other Reformed and Presbyterian denominations to join them in the effort to provide a new versifications of the psalms; six Presbyterian denominations, as well as the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America joined in the effort in revising the 1887 Psalter (whose texts actually dated back to the 1871 Book of Psalms; the 1887 edition had added music to the texts.).  The 1912 Psalter included all the psalms in 413 settings, eight doxologies, and the three Lukan canticles (Song of Mary, Song of Zechariah, and Song of Simeon).
— Bert Polman and Jack Reiffer

Composer Information

George Kirbye (1570-1634) was an English composer who lived in Suffolk in the retinue of Sir Robert Jermyn. He was probably acquainted with the similarly employed John Wilbye. A contributor to East's and Ravenscroft's psalters, he published madrigals, many in a serious and Italianate style, in First Set of English Madrigals (1597). He is known to have owned many volumes of music by his leading Italian contemporaries. He contributed a madrigal With angel's face to The Triumphs of Oriana.
— Here Of a Sunday Morning (http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Kirbye.html)
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