I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word…And I have made Your name known to them and will yet make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:6, 26
Dear saints, let us pray that, in the Lord’s table meeting, the saints would learn to link the section on worshipping the Father to the section on the remembrance of the Lord and would follow the Spirit’s leading to call hymns and offer praises according to the Father’s being and attributes (John 17:6, 26; see Hymns, Table of Contents – “Worship of the Father”; Hymns, #18, ss. 1-2, 7-8).
Hymns, #18, stanza 1 and chorus:
How faithful and trustworthy too,
My Father God, art Thou;
The universe and all therein
Thy faithfulness avow.How stedfast is Thy faithfulness!
For this I worship Thee;
It is established in the heav’n,
And ever stands for me.Now we need to consider our calling of hymns in the section of worshipping the Father at the Lord’s table. We need to call hymns according to the Father’s being. The Father’s name was not revealed until the Lord Jesus came. He came to reveal the name of the Father (John 17:6, 26), the person of the Father. Thus, we have to call hymns according to the Father’s person, the Father’s being.
We also have to call hymns according to the Father’s attributes, such as His love, His kindness, and His glory. In the table of contents of our hymnal under the section entitled “Worship of the Father,” we have a number of hymns categorized according to the Father’s attributes. These attributes include His faithfulness, His greatness, His wisdom, His mercy, and His love.
We praise the Son according to His person and work, but there is no work with regard to the Father. We should praise the Father according to His being and attributes. We have to differentiate and discern the hymns according to these two categories: the Father’s being, what the Father is, and the Father’s attributes. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” Lesson 5)
More details via Beseeching.org, day 413.
