Following the earlier service Hope in a Thousand Storms on 10 October 2025, Wesley Methodist Church continued its journey of lament, surrender and trust through the Hymn & Praise Service during Sunday Traditional Service on 26 October 2025, the ninth Sunday in Kingdomtide.
It was a morning of reflection through song — a reminder that worship holds space not only for joy but also for the ache and surrender that come with faith. During Kingdomtide, the Church celebrates Christ as King and Sovereign over all creation and turns its focus to living out God’s justice and mercy in the world. This Sunday’s theme carried that heart forward — declaring the glory of God’s Kingdom even amid life’s storms.
GATHERING
The service opened boldly yet reverently, as two worship leaders read Psalm 147:1–11 with the congregation. As soon as the hymn Praise the Lord Who Heals was sung, the choir, robed in white, processed into the Sanctuary — symbolic of God’s presence gathering His people — a simple but striking image of light entering the sanctuary and into the storms of our lives.
The reading of Psalm 73 followed, echoing the psalmist’s struggle to understand why the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer. Yet, as the psalmist enters God’s sanctuary, his view shifts — he sees life through eternity’s lens, realising that God’s justice and goodness endure. The congregation responded with As the Deer, surrendering our difficult situations and expressing our trust in God who alone is our “strength” and “shield”.
CORPORATE LAMENT
After reading Psalm 22:1–11, the congregation entered a moment of stillness — a collective breath between pain and praise. During the reflective song How Long, O Lord, How Long, worship leaders read Lamentations 3:19–26, reminding everyone that hope can coexist with sorrow.
Dr Irwin Seet shared the story behind Precious Lord, Take My Hand. Its composer, Thomas A. Dorsey, wrote it after losing his wife and first child — a cry from a heart so broken that he nearly abandoned his ministry. Yet comfort from those around him rekindled his faith. The hymn became both lament and testimony: that God’s hand can still hold us when we can no longer stand.
After Dr Seet shared the story behind Precious Lord, Take My Hand, worship leader Alice Ling then shared the story behind I Need Thee Every Hour, written by Annie S. Hawks, a young mother who, in the middle of daily chores, suddenly felt the Lord’s nearness and realised how impossible life would be without Him. Years later, after her husband’s death, those words she wrote in calm became her source of comfort in grief.
SURRENDER AND TRUST
The service reached its peak after the reading of Psalm 40, leading into A Thousand Storms, a song of surrender that carried forward the spirit of the earlier service, Hope in a Thousand Storms.
Bring the rain of a thousand storms,
it cannot wash away my worth,
nor drown the praise for you in my heart.
Holy are you, Lord…
It was a declaration that even through trials, worship belongs to the One who is holy and unchanging — a reflection of 1 Peter 1:15–16, which calls us to holiness amid struggle and transformation.
SENDING FORTH
The service closed with I Waited Patiently for God (a reflection on Psalm 40) to the tune of Amazing Grace, followed by What a Friend We Have in Jesus and Have Thine Own Way, Lord — hymns of surrender wrapped the morning in trust and peace.
The choir’s recessional to There is Hope symbolised our sending — to live out fellowship and encouragement where God places us. Rev Ian Lee closed the service proper, reading the Beatitudes and saying a prayer of sending — a reminder that worship doesn’t end with the final note but continues in lives open to God’s shaping.
May all who listened be reminded that God meets us not beyond the storm, but within it — holding, healing and making us whole.
View and download more Hymn & Praise Sunday photos here.
(Photos by CJ Goh, Julian Wee and Melvin Quah)
Read also: Hope in a Thousand Storms: Till the Song of Victory
