The Selah Service Reflections series features readings from the Psalms with music produced by Selah worship leader, Jeff Johnson. There is also a two minute time for silent prayer featuring the sound of the ocean outside the Abbey of Iona, Scotland.
released March 30, 2015
Trinity Bell
Stricken, Smitten And Afflicted
Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
By his Son, God now has spoken,
’Tis a true and faithful Word.
Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.
Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.
Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.
☩ Thomas Kelly (1804)
Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
☩ESV
Silent Prayer (2 minutes)
☩Ocean / Abbey of Iona, Scotland
Jesus Has Risen
That same day,
Two men walked up a road –
Posing over questions of a man that they once knew,
For they thought he would be their savior.
That same day,
One man walked up that road –
Joining the other two,
He quickly got involved in their discussion.
So they talked and they questioned and he answered them,
With scripture and passage proving things that had happened all too recently.
That same day,
Three men sat at a table –
The two men sat there staring,
As the one blessed the food,
And broke the bread.
When suddenly their eyes were made wide open,
Open to a man they thought had been long dead.
Yes, suddenly their eyes were made wide open,
Open to a man they thought had been long dead.
Jesus had risen,
Risen from the grave,
Risen from the gave just that day.
Jesus had risen,
Risen from the grave and broken all the bonds that ever held him,
That same day.
Today,
We walk up a long road –
Posing over questions,
Of a life that gives no answers in a word that rarely bares a clue.
But this same day,
Jesus walks up this road –
And he joins us,
Yes, he joins us,
Yes, he joins me and you!
Jesus has risen,
Risen from the grave,
Risen from the gave just today!
Jesus has risen,
Risen from the grave,
And broken all the bonds that ever held him –
Today!
© Jeff Johnson / Sola Scriptura Songs
Trinity Bell
Reader:
Jeff Johnson
Total time: 18:33
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Song information:
“Stricken, Smitten And Afflicted”
Jeff Johnson: Keys & voice
“Jesus Has Risen”
Jeff Johnson: Keys & voice
Original recording appeared on THE ANVIL OF GOD’S WORD (1977).
This new version was recorded in March 2015 at The Ark.
Artwork by Kathy Hastings (
www.kathyhastings.com)
