Hymnterest

"Hymns are companions for life travelers," - Andy Griffith

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Jesus, With Thy Church Abide

Thomas Benson Pollock

Jesus, with Thy church abide; Be her savior, Lord, and Guide, While on earth her faith is tried: We beseech Thee, hear us, We beseech Thee, hear us.

Keep her life and doctrine pure; Grant her patience to endure, Trusting in Thy promise sure: We beseech Thee, hear us, We beseech Thee, hear us.

May she one in doctrine be, One in truth and charity, Winning all to faith in Thee: We beseech Thee, hear us, We beseech Thee, hear us.

May she guide the poor and blind, Seek the lost until she find And the brokenhearted bind: We beseech Thee, hear us, We beseech Thee, hear us.

     Within the past two months, I have started a new job with a new church doing youth ministry at this church.  So, far I’ve loved my time here and the congregation.  However, the church (generally speaking, not specifically) can be a messy place.  The church is a hospital.  It’s for the sick, not the healthy.   Jesus says, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Luke 5:32). The church is also run by flawed, fallen, fallible sinners (of which I most certainly am one).  This hymn is often on my mind in regards to the church.  Thomas Pollock is the man that wrote this hymn and can be treated very much so as a prayer.  When I read these words I see four main themes: the foundation, perseverance, doctrine, and the mission of the church.

     The first verse of this hymn, Pollock writes the thesis of the whole hymn: Jesus with thy church abide.  Pollock prays that the church would be founded on Jesus.  Without Jesus, the church is obsolete.  Matthew 7:24-27 reminds us that the wise man builds his house on a foundation, and the fool builds his house on sand.  Jesus is the rock, the foundation for the church.  As the hymn writer says, the church needs Jesus to be the savior, Lord, and guide- not fallible man.  The faith of the church will be tested, so the church needs to wholly have Jesus- not partially- at the center.

     The second verse of the hymn is about perseverance and continuity.  One of my favorite quotes is something that Kevin Twit said about the church: “The church is not a passing fad...”  The church has persevered for 2,000 years, ebbing and flowing, but we need to continue to ask for perseverance.  The hymnwriter prays asking for purity, patience, and trust for the church.  As I’ve said already, the church is a hospital, and the process of sanctification is to make people more like Jesus.  Thus, he prays that the church would be pure.  The “promise” that this verse is talking about is what Jesus said in the Great Commission: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  The church needs to trust that Jesus will be with it forever. 

     The third verse is about right doctrine.  The church needs to be preaching the Gospel.  The whole letter of Galatians is based on how there are different gospels, false gospels.  The church needs to be unified in sound doctrine.  The hymnwriter also prays that the church would be practicing evangelism (see Great Commission again).  

      The last verse is about the mission of the church.  Pollock asks that the church would guide the poor and blind.  This is the third time I’ve written this in this post: the church is a hospital.  The church guides the blind, seeks the lost, and comforts the brokenhearted.  

     Jesus loved the church.  Ephesians 5:25 says “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...”  Christ loved the church so much that he died for her.  We also should love the church and pray for its purity, perseverance, practices, and doctrine.  Every verse ends with the words “we beseech thee, hear us.”  The word “beseech” means to ask fervently and urgently; to implore.  This hymn should be a prayer that all of us offer up fervently and urgently.  To borrow a line from another hymn, “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord... From heaven He came and sought her to be his Holy bride; and with His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.”  We should be praying for our local church as well as the universal church, and Jesus with Thy Church Abide is a great hymn to pray for that through.  So, let’s pray for the church, often and urgently.

by Jeremy Britt

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Dear Refuge of my Weary Soul

Dear refuge of my weary soul, On Thee, when sorrows rise On Thee, when waves of trouble roll, My fainting hope relies To Thee I tell each rising grief, For Thou alone canst heal Thy Word can bring a sweet relief, For every pain I feel

But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail, I fear to call Thee mine The springs of comfort seem to fail, And all my hopes decline Yet gracious God, where shall I flee? Thou art my only trust And still my soul would cleave to Thee Though prostrate in the dust

Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face, And shall I seek in vain? And can the ear of sovereign grace, Be deaf when I complain? No still the ear of sovereign grace, Attends the mourner's prayer Oh may I ever find access, To breathe my sorrows there

Thy mercy seat is open still, Here let my soul retreat With humble hope attend Thy will, And wait beneath Thy feet, Thy mercy seat is open still, Here let my soul retreat With humble hope attend Thy will, And wait beneath Thy feet

     There are a lot of things that I do not know the answers to.  One particular issue that I find hard to deal with is that of pain and suffering.  The question is as old as Christianity itself: why does God allow bad things to happen?  After losing nearly everything, Job asks “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than hidden treasures...” (Job 3:20-21).  In our own time, people- perhaps you directly- are affected by tragic things such as rape, murder, physical ailments, miscarriages, death of a loved one, affairs, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse, cancer, job loss, disease, depression, loss of home or property due to weather, and the list goes on and on.  I don’t know why these things happen.  But what I do know is that these things do happen and it breaks my heart.  I weep when any one one of these things happen to the people that are closest to me.  And I know that in the midst of these trials that we feel alone and helpless.  However, we are not alone and we have a God that we can run to and cast our burdens upon!  This hymn reflects upon that very notion. 

    Anne Steele is the writer of this hymn, and she is no stranger to suffering.  Kevin Twit has written a great biographical essay about her life and you can find that here: http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/authors/anne_steele.html.  But just to give you a quick rundown of her life, her mother died when she was three, at 19 she had a hip injury that left her disabled, at age 21 the day before her wedding her fiancé drowned, and as Kevin Twit says, “the last nine years of her life, she was never able to leave her bed.”  Anne Steele truly was a woman who’s life knew suffering.  But out of her life we get hymns, such as this one, that show true reflection upon suffering.

     In the first verse, she refers to God as a refuge, or a safe place, for her weary soul.  As Christians, often times our soul becomes weary and burdened.  Steele says that God is a safe place for our souls to go during times of sorrow and heartache.  When sorrows rise and trouble rolls, she rests her hope on God. Like Steele, we can tell God every terrible thing that happens to us.  She says “for thou alone canst heal.”  Just like our salvation, it all depends on Jesus.  Jesus says “In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Christ offers us relief for our sorrows, and it is he alone that can give that relief. 

     The second verse deals with another thing that everyone of us deal with: doubt.  When we do not feel immediate relief we often times doubt him that can provide that relief.  The first line states “When gloomy doubts prevail, / I fear to call Thee mine.”  We question God just as Job questions him in Job 19:6-13.  “The springs of comfort seem to fail / and all my hopes decline.”  The further that we go into our suffering the more hopeless it seems.  However, the hymn writer declares that God is gracious, and that there is nowhere else to turn.  Even as hardships grow worse, she wishes to cling to the cross even more.  

     In my opinion, it is the third verse of this hymn that is the most important and hopeful.  So far, verse 1 is about fleeing to Christ in suffering and verse 2 is about doubting, but ultimately still clinging to the cross and asking for grace and mercy.  Verse 3 defends why she continues to run to Jesus in the midst of her suffering: because he tells us to.  We are called to seek out his face and he hears our prayers.  “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.  Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:1-2).  He will always hear the prayers of the sufferer. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

     In the last verse she concludes the hymn by saying the mercy seat is open and that is where she wishes to rest in.  On top of the Ark of the Covenant, one would find the mercy seat.  This is where God was supposed to sit in the holiest of holies.  So, when she wants to approach the mercy seat, she wishes to put all of her hope in God.  But, she says that she will follow his will with hope.  No matter what the Lord’s will is, she still wishes to remain at his feet.  That no matter what God should decide, she will trust him and love him all the days of her life.  

     Jesus says “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).  We can run to Jesus with our every need, especially during times of grief.  He bears our burdens and gives us rest.  In Him we find comfort and relief.  I do not know why certain things happen.  But I do know that we have a God who does not abandon us, but loves us.  He desires to hear our prayers during our times of suffering.  “The ear of sovereign grace attends the mourner’s prayer.”  This hymn is one of the most beautifully written hymns.  Anne Steele captures what it is like for the Christian to be in sorrow.  She speaks honestly and openly about suffering.  But in this hymn, she also states where she finds her hope: in Christ, for He is the refuge of our weary souls. 

  By Jeremy Britt

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Rock of Ages (Part 4)

While I draw this fleeting breath, When mine eyelids close in death, When I soar to worlds unknown, See thee on thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee.

     It’s time to wrap up “Rock of Ages,” a powerful and pleasant hymn for thankful sinners to sing.  If you’ve read our previous posts on this hymn, you’ve seen how this hymn is set in the tone of a courtroom drama, drawing imagery from Exodus 17.  You’ve seen how God has been vindicated as just, sinners were condemned to death, and God, out of His compassion, broke into the world in the form of Jesus Christ to save sinners from the sting of death.  You’ve examined with the writer of this hymn, Augustus Toplady, humanity’s inability to measure up to God’s perfect moral law, whether that be with labor, zeal or tears.  You’ve (hopefully) recognized with Toplady the empty-handed, naked, helpless and foul state of the sinner, and (perhaps more importantly), the fullness, beauty, condescension and purity of the Savior, Jesus, who washes sinners clean.  Now the, what do we make of the last stanza of this tremendous hymn?  

     It’s certainly the most biographical of the four verses.  Toplady has taken the courtroom drama to its climax: the final plea of the defendant.  And what would Toplady have us say as a plea for our life?  You guessed it, Jesus.  The first four phrases give you an idea of the scope Toplady has in mind.  From day by day life (While I draw…) to the final syllable of our time on earth (When mine eyelids close…), to our time of standing before the Judge of all the Earth and giving an account of ourselves (When I soar…See Thee on…), Toplady considers the Rock of Ages (God Himself), cleft for us (specifically in Christ), to be our only hiding place, our only shelter.  We should think of this plea, in a climactic sense, as still taking place in that judicial atmosphere of Exodus 17 (verse one), with the evidence of God’s perfection and man’s sinfulness having been clearly presented (verses two and three).  That is, “in light of God’s justice and my sinfulness, my only hope is Christ.”  

     I’m usually not one to use anecdotes or biographical information much in my posts.  I think the texts of the hymns should speak longer and louder than the stories or the people behind them.  However, I’m going to break my rule for a minute.  Did you know that Augustus Toplady wrote this hymn as the conclusion to an article in his magazine, Gospel Magazine (http://www.toplady.org.uk/toplady%20writings/Gospel%20Magazine.htm)? It’s true – this poem was the cherry on top of a long article highlighting the very things we’ve talked about in these posts.  Toplady was writing against the idea of achieving sinless perfection.  Specifically, he was seeking to refute John Wesley’s Arminianism.  In this article, he depicted a sinner’s hopes to achieve God’s favor by his own works as comparable to England’s slim hopes of ever wiping out their national debt (a metaphor most Americans will understand).  He ended the article with this poem, with the original title, “A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World.”  Let me give you two block quotes from that article that I think sum up the thrust of our study of this hymn.  The first is a response to an important question, “What return can believers render, to the glorious and gracious Trinity, for mercy and plenteous redemption like this?”

     We can only admire and bless the Father, for electing us in Christ, and for laying on him the iniquity of us all: -- the Son, for taking our nature and our debts upon himself, and for that complete righteousness and sacrifice whereby he redeemed his mystic Israel from all their sins; -- and the co-equal Spirit, for causing us (in conversion) to feel our need of Christ, for inspiring us with faith to embrace him, for visiting us with his sweet consolations by shedding abroad his love in our hearts, for sealing us to the day of Christ, and for making us to walk in the path of his commandments.

      The second is Toplady’s praise of Christ in light of the whole redemptive story. 

O thou covenanting, thou incarnate, thou obeying, thou bleeding, thou dying, thou risen, thou ascended, thou interceding Son of God: not all the seraphs thou hast created, not all the innumerable saints thy love hath ransomed, will be able to comprehend, much less to display, along the endless line of eternity itself, the length, the breadth, the depth, the height, of a sinner's obligations to thee!

      One final thought.  I hope this series has been beneficial to some.  It has been rousing and challenging for me.  There certainly is gold in these verses.  It’s extremely fun to read and think about hymns like “Rock of Ages.”  But, there’s really only one sure method of unearthing the gold: sing it.  Sing “Rock of Ages” to God and to yourself a few times today.  Go ahead.  Give it a hum.  

  By Davis Morgan

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Rock of Ages (Part 3)

Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling; Naked, come to thee for dress, Helpless, look to thee for grace; Foul, I to the Fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

     Empty-handed, naked, helpless, and foul.  Sounds like a bankrupt law firm, doesn’t it?  Not where we’d like to live, but definitely the street address where our sin puts us.  But I wonder, how often do we think of ourselves in these terms?  These are not the traits of highly successful people (at least not so you can tell).  We wouldn’t want them on our gravestones.  “Here lies so-and-so.  Husband, father, roofer, empty-handed, naked, helpless, and foul.”  If we were royalty we wouldn’t include it in our titles.  “His Royal Illustriousness, the Earl of so-and-so, empty-handed, naked, helpless, and foul.”  We’re taught to lead with our best, make a good impression, but personally I’d be overcome with joy if Christians started leading their introductions with these characteristics.  “Oh, Sam, you should meet George, he’s the most empty-handed, naked, helpless, and foul person I know.”  I dare you to put this epithet in your Facebook bio and see what people think.  

    What a humbling and healthy place this verse puts us in!  It’s a sobering thought: we’re needy. We’re as needy before God as newborn babies, except instead of simply needing milk and burps and to be kept warm and dry, we need salvation.  That salvation consists of both a positive and negative factor.  We are guilty of sins, and salvation means they must be punished.  We are not righteous, and salvation means we must meet God’s requirements of perfection.  In other words, we need more than a blank slate!  And that’s what Christ gives us!  The industry term for it is “Double Imputation.”  That is, our sin is imputed, or transferred, to Jesus, and His righteousness is imputed to us.  That’s what we see in this verse!  Our only hope is to cling to the cross where our sins were punished in Christ’s body and to be clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.  Our only hope is Double Imputation!  

    Our only hope to escape the sting of death (that sting being eternal separation from God) is to have the filth of our sin washed away.  Part of the reason the gospel is so sweet to those who receive it is because God gives them a holy awareness of how filthy their sin makes them.  Sin corrupts our nature and mars the image of God, which we were made to be, so much so that we cannot even clean ourselves or clothe ourselves enough to be presentable to the Father.  Only Christ can do that.  This is a theme we’ve seen multiple times in this hymn – the necessity and perfection of Christ as our substitute!  Think back to the first verse and the courtroom scene.  What happened?  The Rock (God) bore the judgment for the people, taking the blow intended for them, and pouring life-giving water out for them.  Who would have thought the Double Imputation principle could be wrapped up so far back into the Old Testament!  Remember from the second verse we said that the end of the rope is where we meet the Savior?  This verse starts at the end of the rope, fully aware of our neediness.  We must be washed or else we die.  This is a hard word for us, but it is a healthy word.  Praise God for not indulging our delusions of self-sufficiency and for providing such a great salvation for us!

  By Davis Morgan

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Rock of Ages (Part 2)

Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy law's demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and thou alone.

     We often count on the “labors of our hands”, don’t we?  We’re not fond of the idea that we can’t get it done.  We’re also not fond of the idea of a “law” or “demand,” especially one that we cannot fulfill.  Even when we fail, we usually refuse to think that there’s no way to climb our way out of the pit.  In short, we don’t like needing a savior.  That, however, is exactly the situation in which this verse places us.  

     If you read the previous post on this hymn, you remember that the leading image in the entire hymn is from Exodus 17 where God and the Israelites met in a courtroom scene of sorts.  In this courtroom, God faces the judgment due to the Israelites as their Substitute.  In the second verse, we see part of the reason God substituted Himself for Israel, namely it was the only way to restore them to Himself.  If Christ did not serve as our mediator, we would have to face God’s judgment, which would destroy us.  Only perfect obedience can face God’s judgment.  

     Most of us have long given up any delusion of sinlessness.  We know we are sinners at some level.  We are, however, slow to give ourselves over to the “Thou must save and Thou alone” mentality of this hymn.  We would not easily admit it, and we would almost never put it in writing; but most of us, somewhere in our hearts, harbor and even protect the thought that we can somehow contribute something to our salvation.  The hymn writer seems to have been down this road and, I think, offers us three categories that encompass most of our attempts to atone for our own sin: labor, zeal, and tears.  

     Labor is usually our first course of action.  We realize something in us is sinful and try to make up for it by being as close to perfect as we can.  We can’t get a perfect 100, so we try to achieve a 99.  Sometimes this looks like trying to inflate our own merits.  We exaggerated our moral fiber, our good works, and our proximity to perfection.  Sometimes we take the opposite route and try to deflate the law.  This might make us say that God really only wants us to try to be kind, caring, softhearted people.  But, God does not grade on a curve.  We can neither lower the bar to an attainable height, nor raise ourselves up to reach it.  This is an incredibly difficult truth to face, but it is true.  It is what drives sinners to cry for a savior.  

     Zeal comes next in line.  At some point, for many of us, we turn to piety as a surrogate savior.  We pour ourselves into spiritual activities; we are merciless in dealing with our sins.  This leads many of us to become spiritual leaders, even ministers sometimes.  We try to lead Bible studies every semester of college for our campus ministry. We sign up every year to teach Sunday school at church to reach the children before they’re corrupted by the world. We get a karaoke machine from the thrift store and head to the corner of Las Vegas BLVD to preach against immorality. We pass out tracts to everyone in the NYC subway. We push ourselves to the edge and hope our zeal can go on without respite (rest).  But, eventually, we drain ourselves and admit that we aren’t “on fire for God” anymore.  And, if piety has been our way of contributing to our salvation, this is a terrifying and depressing place to be.

     Then there are tears – feeling bad for our sin.  We make a bargain with God.  If you’re reading this, you’ve probably made this bargain in your heart before.  “I’m sorry God, and to make it up to you, I promise to feel really bad for a really long time.”  Sometimes it’s a genuine sense of guilt, which weighs heavy, like a whale on our backs.  At any rate, many of us know the self-deception of thinking tears will save us.  But, the Scripture, and this hymn agree: we cannot feel bad enough to save ourselves.  Put simply, whether labor or zeal or tears – all for sin could not atone.  

      But, don’t be downtrodden.  This is not a grim verse, not in the context of the entire hymn.  It is an ardent plea – Thou must save and Thou alone!  Sometimes it doesn’t feel good to be at the end of our rope, but that is where the Christian lives.  The good news is that the end of our rope is where we meet the Savior, the one who perfectly kept the law in our place, so that we can be restored to God.  

  By Davis Morgan

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Rock of Ages (Part 1)

Rock of Ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in thee; Let the water and the blood, From thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and pow'r.

      It’s wonderful to think how hymns sometimes help us understand Scripture.  That is the case with “Rock of Ages”.  This is a hymn I’ve been singing since childhood, and I have to admit that I’ve only begun to truly understand and appreciate it rightly in the past year.  The idea of the “Rock of Ages” is an allusion to a story in Exodus 17.

So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:4-6 ESV).  

      It’s a fairly simple story.  Israel’s thirsty – they get grumpy – Moses gets scared – God provides.  I, however, have long misunderstood its profound implications; and when I misunderstand the story in Scripture, I tend to misunderstand the hymn about it (which reinforces my misunderstanding of the Scripture, and on the cycle goes).  You see, I’ve grown up in the age of “button-pushing” – remote controls, video games, cell phones, and the ever-abused “Handicap-friendly door-openers.”  Therefore, when I first heard this story, to my childish mind, it simply seemed that God had invented a primitive, staff-activated water cooler.  Hit the Rock with your staff and water comes out.  Good parlor trick.  Nothing more.  I couldn’t understand why anyone would write a hymn about it.  Unlike Augustus Toplady (the writer of the hymn), I had not realized that this short, seemingly unimportant story was packed with radical meaning.  I knew, simply by virtue of growing up in a church environment that this “Rock of Ages” was the Rock Moses struck in the Wilderness between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, from which water flowed when the Israelites were dying of thirst – but the true significance of this imagery, both in Scripture and in the hymn, only recently began to make sense to me.  It’s difficult for the son of two teachers to admit, but it all comes down to a grammatical error on my part.  The key word in this hymn, which I have long misinterpreted, is the word ‘cleft’ in the very first line.  As long as I can remember, I have always read ‘cleft’ as a noun, meaning a cliff, crevice or outcropping.  Hence, the sense I took from this first verse is that the Rock simply represented God as a shelter, a hiding place, strong and impenetrable, under which I am untouchable.  Now, there’s nothing wrong or incorrect with this (except for it being a slight misreading of the language).  After all, it’s quite Biblical to think of God as our refuge and strength (Psalm 46).  The problem is not that this is an inaccurate concept, but an incomplete one.  Reading ‘cleft’ as a noun does not allow us to see, with clarity, the beautiful canvas that Augustus Toplady has depicted for us in this hymn.  

      The grammatical key to unlocking ‘cleft’ is to read it, not as a noun, but as a passive verb.  The passive verb (pv) form of ‘cleft’ (I promise this is all going somewhere) literally means to have been cleaved, severed, or even hacked apart.  Thus, the word ‘cleft’ as a pv describes a Rock that has been hacked in two.  When I read the phrase this way, I finally understand both the hymn and the story in Exodus 17.  

      The entire image in Exodus 17 is not that of a primitive water cooler installation, but rather a courtroom drama, in which Israel has filed suit against God.  Moses led the Israelites away from Egypt and now they were on the brink of death for lack of water and they were ready to mutiny.  Those familiar with the story know, however, that it was in fact God Himself who led the Israelites out of Egypt, not Moses; therefore, their mutiny was against Him.  The Israelites were, in a manner of speaking, ready to execute God, though they themselves were the true criminals.  They were guilty of grumbling against God, of not trusting the God who had brought them out of Egypt, who had parted the Sea, and who had defeated the Egyptians before their eyes.  The Israelites were clearly the guilty ones, and not God.  The Lord, however, told the Israelites He would stand before them at Horeb to face judgment.  Many people want to take God to court.  Some days I am one of them.  I think that in itself makes this hymn and this Bible story deeply contemporary.  This post is not the place to go too deep into that issue.  But, isn’t it wonderful to see that in the Bible we meet a God who DID show up at court, who DID sit in the stocks, and who DID face judgment, even though it was unjust? And, isn’t it wonderful that He did it for sinners?

     The simple fact is that the Israelites deserved to be the ones standing on the Rock facing judgment.  At the very least they deserved the judgment of dying from thirst.  Instead, God Himself, their Deliverer, was Himself the Rock at Horeb.  Moses raised his staff and brought it crashing down on the stone.  The judgment blow struck the Rock, and then something incredible happened – water came gushing out of the Rock.   The fierce justice meant for Israel was diverted onto God Himself, their Substitute, prefiguring the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, thousands of years later; and that substitution brought life and purity to criminals, sentenced to death.  

      NOW, the first line takes on a much greater, more complete meaning – “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”  And now we see the continuity between this line and the next line – “Let the water and the blood, from Thy riven (split or torn apart) side, which flowed be of sin the double cure” – the Rock where God bore Israel’s punishment is Jesus Himself!  This makes sense of a curious detail in the Apostle John’s account of the crucifixion.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. (John 19:34 ESV)

     At the very least, there’s a strange continuity between Exodus 17:4-6 and John 19:34, and it’s my belief that Augustus Toplady must have been thinking of these two texts when he wrote this first verse.  I’m sure that I’m unaware of some theological treasures to be found in the significance of both the blood and water, so I won’t attempt to unpack them entirely.  I’ll simply say, blood for atonement of sins and water for purification and cleansing.  

     “Rock of Ages” depicts a God who provided life-giving water for His people.  It invites us to sing about a Deliverer, not of attractive, dutiful, or noble people, but of unrighteous, ungrateful, and unsightly sinners.  This Hero “is able to save to the uttermost” – not just from the penalty of sin, but from the power and eventually the presence of it.  Now, that’s something worth singing about!

By Davis Morgan

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Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (Part 5)

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

Let us praise and join the chorus Of the saints enthroned on high Here they trusted Him before us Now their praises fill the sky Thou hast washed us with Thy blood Thou art worthy Lamb of God

This wonderful hymn has finally come to its climax and conclusion.  The writer has pushed one idea for this entire hymn: Christ has washed us with His blood, therefore, we should worship.  Because the Father sent the Son to die and called us out of darkness, opening our eyes and ears by His Holy Spirit, while we were still enemies; because He gives us grace to sing through temptation and persevere until the end, because He leads us by the hand; and because justice can ask no more of us than what Christ has abundantly provided in our place, there is only one response: praise to the Lamb who was slain, who washed us in His blood.  And then, there’s this last juicy cherry on top of the hymn: the Church.  In praising the Lamb who was slain, we join the ranks of all believers in all of time – the saints enthroned on high – who trusted this Savior, who walked by faith (Hebrews 11) and were mistreated as their Savior, who had “nowhere to lay their heads” in this world (Matthew 8:20), many of whom died as martyrs for the Church under the laughing scorn of the world.  More than that, we join the likes of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, David, Elisha, Mary, John the Baptist, and all those who inherited God’s promises before Christ came into the world.  And yet, God in His gracious providence, so ordered history so that we received, in life, a fuller, more glorious revelation of this Gospel than any of them.  How loudly should we sing?????  I’ve quoted this passage before at the beginning of this series, contrasting Mount Sinai (Law/Old Covenant) with Mount Zion (Gospel/New Covenant), and here it may be even more appropriate:

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)

It’s been a blessing to my soul and a lot of fun putting this series together.  If I’ve misread the hymn or the texts I’ve quoted, I welcome criticism and encouragement.  At Hymnterest, we’re always looking to improve our humble little enterprise.  Thanks for reading.  Now, I think it’s a good idea for us to close the series with a picture “of the saints enthroned on high” singing.

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

  “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”

  And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

  “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

  And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

(Revelation 5:11-14 ESV)

By: Davis Morgan

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Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (Part 4)

Let us wonder grace and justice Join and point to mercy’s store When through grace in Christ our trust is Justice smiles and asks no more He Who washed us with His blood Has secured our way to God

I’ve been reading Leviticus at the gym lately.  There’s an unlikely statement for you.  It’s true, though.  My wife got me using the elliptical machine about 10 days ago, and we’ve been going just about every day.  To keep my mind occupied on the machine, I usually pull up the Bible app on my phone.  Yesterday, while reading Leviticus (which is all about the priesthood of Israel), I came across this passage, detailing the protocol for cleansing a man who has been healed of leprosy.  

Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop. And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. (Leviticus 14:3-7 ESV) 

This verse of “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder” harmonizes perfectly with this Scripture passage.  It’s a perfect picture of the wonder of grace and justice joining to point to mercy.  The concept of Grace and Justice “joining” simply makes my head hurt.  How can God simultaneously be “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness...forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” and yet “by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)?  In fact, sometimes when I read the line When through grace in Christ our trust is/Justice smiles and asks no more, it’s difficult to shake the thought of justice closing his eyes and sticking his fingers in his ears for a moment as some terrible crime goes unpunished.  

But this passage from Leviticus suggests something different – not a perversion of justice but a perfection of it; and I think that’s what the hymn writer is getting at.  The thrust of this passage is that the leper, like the bird (and the sinner), is shown grace because perfect justice was executed on another.  In the case of the bird, another bird’s blood was shed so that it could fly away in the open field, washed in the blood of the substitute bird.  In the case of the leper and us, Jesus Christ’s blood (which is more costly than any other blood) was poured out so that we could be free, washed like the bird, in the blood of our Substitute.  Our standing with God truly is secure, because we have been washed in the blood of One who fully and totally bore God’s wrath for us.  When Christ had born that wrath on the cross he cried, “it is finished!”  That is why justice smiles and asks no more.  I’ve quoted this answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism before, and here it is just as applicable: 

“Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God…”

What a marvelous mercy!  That is why the hymn writer demands, “Let us wonder! Grace and justice join and point to mercy’s store!”

by Davis Morgan

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Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (Part 3)

Let us sing, though fierce temptation Threaten hard to bear us down! For the Lord, our strong Salvation, Holds in view the conqueror’s crown: He Who washed us with His blood Soon will bring us home to God.

    Before beginning this post, I made sure to read the previous posts on this hymn, and as I reflected on the themes and the thesis of this hymn (see Post 1 from March), I couldn’t help thinking of the thesis – our sins being washed in Christ – as a sort of theological disco ball, constantly throwing light into different corners of life, effecting every area of my being.  This hymn is obsessed with watching the disco ball turn and marveling at all the different angles and looks and colors and shapes that come out.  The angle that this verse looks at is that of singing over the wonder of the God’s love, even in the face of harsh temptation.  

    To backtrack a little, we’ve seen so far that this is an incredibly organized hymn, built around the theme of Jesus washing us in His blood and our appropriate response of loving Him, singing His name, and wondering over the gospel.  We’ve seen that Christ’s washing of us “quenched Mt. Sinai’s flame” – it turned away the just wrath intended for our sins.  It brought us from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion, a place of being near to God (“brought nigh to God”).  We’ve also seen that this all happened because of God’s character, not ours’.  God pitied us when we were His enemies.  We’ve seen that this washing opens our ears and eyes to see all this for the first time.  Christ’s washing of us reveals all the wonders of the Gospel to us.  With all this in mind, we certainly have much to sing about.  And yet, it seems we’re constantly struggling to do that.  

    You know the feeling.  Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to catch a tune because of everything that’s bearing down on you.  Sometimes a grey cloud follows us around and even infiltrates our own souls – it feels like everything without and within is stacked against our praising of God.  In fact, according to Scripture, this feeling is, more or less true.  Speaking about the war between the Spirit and the flesh, Paul says this: 

    For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. (Romans 7:19-21 ESV)

    Paul speaks of the presence of sin as a law.  It’s more than a little nuisance that creeps in sometimes when we get into bad habits – it’s a law that is at work in us.  It is, in fact, our default behavior model!  Even after receiving the Holy Spirit, it is a battle for us to resist sin.  Sin, or evil, literally battles with us, especially when we want to do the things that please God (like singing His worship).  I’m not ready right now to dig my heels in and say that the temptation to neglect worshipping God is itself sinful – that’s not the point – the point is that the temptation is motivated by the “Law of sin” that is at work in us (For more on this, I highly recommend the book The Enemy Within, by Kris Lungaard). 

    So how do we catch the tune?  How do we sing in the face of fierce temptation?   The hymn tells us:  by seeing Christ, the crown He holds for His beloved, and remembering that He who washed you clean will bring you home.  We could get into details here about what a “conqueror’s crown” is exactly, but this post is long enough as it is and you’re smart enough to piece it together.  The more important thing is the One holding the crown – Christ Jesus.  See, the wonderful thing about the Christian life is that Jesus does not simply save us and walk away.  Look at the words!  “He who washed us with His blood, SOON will bring us HOME TO GOD.”  Look how the disco ball throws light onto our everyday life here! It’s more than abstract theology and propositions.  This is theology for the rainy months, for the lonely Sundays, for the seasons of very real depression.  

    The tune of the gospel, the real melody, what makes it beautiful is not forgiveness, or atonement, or even eternal life.  It is Christ Himself! John Piper says fellowship with Christ must be kept in focus as the only thing that will satisfy us.  Even theological concepts are not, in themselves, satisfying or even important.  They only matter to the extent they bring us into closer fellowship with Christ.  Christ Himself holds the crown for us – but the crown is merely icing on the cake.  The main event is fellowship with Christ Himself and being brought home to God.  This is the motivation to sing despite of temptation. 

    One last note – don’t distance the word “sing” from what it actually means.  This verse is not about being interiorly satisfied by God.  It’s about actually singing.  Sing a hymn today.  Sing this hymn! Develop a habit of literally singing to God!  Neglecting this practice will deprive you of sweet fellowship with the Lord.  It doesn’t matter what you think of your singing voice.  I assure you God loves your voice and loves to hear you sing to Him.  

By Davis Morgan

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Gloria Patri

Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :

and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :

World without end. 

Amen.

As I was standing in church today, just as we do every Sunday right after the offering, we sang the Gloria Patri.  At least at my old church (Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church) this is the only thing that we sang on a weekly basis (unless you count the Chorus of ‘Amens’ by the choir at the end of the service).  So, I digress, I was standing there singing and I thought to myself, “This is such a mindless song to sing.... What does it mean?”  And to be completely honest with you, the second portion of this hymn I’m not completely sure I fully grasp what the author is trying to say.  Sometimes I am hesitant towards tackling old texts, but nevertheless I’d still like to explore this for a few minutes. 

What ever denomination you are, you are probably familiar with some version of this hymn or another.  Early I said “This is such a mindless song to sing.”  I want to clarify that statement for just a second.  What I meant is that we sing this song with out even thinking about what it means.  We know the words, we know the tune, and we know we do the 30 second song every week.  So let’s take a minute to realize what we are singing.  This song is old. I’m not exactly sure how old, but it was originally written in Greek, then it was translated to Latin, then finally to English.  This was also found in Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer.  From here on, I want to break this down into two sections: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost” and “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end.”

The first section gives praise to the Trinity.  The first Catechism question in the Westminster Confession of Faith states: “Q: What is the chief end of Man? A: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  Folks, our purpose is to glorify him.  Scripture is mighty clear about that.  In the opening of this hymn, the author comes out and says it literally “Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

The second section of this hymn is the easiest to overlook because we might not know what it means.  I’m going to tell you what I think this hymn is saying, however if I’m flat out wrong or am leaving something out, shoot me an email and I’ll correct it.  When the author says “as it was in the beginning,” I think it is talking the beginning of time, before our world was corrupted by sin. Before sin entered the world, this is what I think the author is saying because he continues to say “is now, and ever shall be.”  Now that Christ has died for our sins, we become clean through the washing in his blood.  Jesus’ death on the cross has secured eternal life for whomever believes in him.  We shall be in this state now and it will forever be this way.  “World without end” refers to this eternal life- Heaven or the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21.  This hymn points us to Jesus, for it is “he who saveth me, and freely pardon give” (Bonar, Not What My Hands Have Done). 

By Jeremy Britt

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Abide With Me

Henry Lyte

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide:

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:

When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Thou on my head, in early youth didst smile;  

And, though rebellious, and perverse meanwhile,  

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,  

On to the close Lord, abide with me.

I need thy presence ev'ry passing hour;

What but thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?

Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless:

Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.

Where is death's sting? where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes:

Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:

Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee:

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

     Over time I have grown to really love Henry Lyte hymns.  His hymns are so heartfelt and humbling.  A few months ago I did a post on “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” by Henry Lyte, so if you want more background information on Lyte and his interesting story, check out that post.  But now, I’d like to dive into this wonderful hymn “Abide With Me.”

    When we are alone, our minds can go to dark places.  The troubled life that Lyte lived can be evidenced in this hymn.  However, this hymn says that even during these times we have someone who will always be there for us. (at the death of Lyte’s mother, his father sent him away to boarding school and disowned him, see “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”). The hymnwriter is asking the Father to be with him, especially during the times of strife and struggle.  In verse 1, Lyte says “When other helpers fail, and comforts flee...”  This is a notion that everyone of us have felt at some point or another.  We put our hope and joy into people and into materials and time after time these do not come to fruition.  Sports, friends, pornography, etc. are only temporary satisfactions.  This is exactly what Lyte means.  After these temporary satisfactions “fail” and “flee,” all we can do is cry out to our only true salvation and stronghold, Jesus.  One of the best lines that Lyte writes in connection to this is in the 2nd verse “Thou hast not left me, oft as I’ve left thee.”  God is steadfast, God is good, and he will never leave us.

     Because he never leaves us, we get my favorite verse out of this whole hymn.  Verse 4.  Take a moment and reflect on these words: 

“I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless:

Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.

Where is death's sting? where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if thou abide with me.”

Y’all, with God there are no more tears, no more fears, no more sickness.  We can say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55 “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  If God abides in us, we will triumph, no matter the circumstances.

     John 15:4 records Jesus saying “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” It is he who sustains us, it is he who comforts us.  “In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

By Jeremy Britt

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Exam Week

Hey y'all,

These next two weeks of school are going to be crazy for me.  My work load is ridiculous and I'm trying to keep my head above water.  With that being said, Hymnterest will be taking another break for about 2-3 weeks.  If you will, pray for me to finish out the semester strongly and that God would be glorified through my school work.  

Also, it is currently a month and 2 days away from Davis' marriage.  Pray for Davis and Ashleigh in these next couple of weeks that God would bless their marriage and that the logistics of their marriage would go according as planned.  From what I hear, wedding planning can be stressful.

I will try to atleast post some hymn quotes on the Facebook Page. So, if you haven't "liked" the Facebook page, please do so!

Thanks guys!

Jeremy Britt

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Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (Part 2)

Let us love the Lord Who bought us  Pitied us when enemies  Called us by His grace and taught us  Gave us ears and gave us eyes  He has washed us with His blood  He has washed us with His blood He has washed us with His blood He presents our souls to God

Well at last we’ve made good on our promise of a follow-up to our post on the first verse of this great hymn.  If you look back to that first post, you’ll see that we pointed out how the first verse introduces the thesis of this hymn: that we should love and sing and wonder over the gospel of Jesus Christ, i.e. the fact that He has washed us with His blood and brought us nigh to God.  Part of that thesis introduces the subsequent verses (“Love, sing and wonder – a verse for each proper response).  This first verse deals with our response of love to God.

It would shock devotees of most of the world’s religions to read in this verse that God “pitied us when enemies.”  This is because Christianity alone offers a salvation that is ordained, initiated and accomplished solely by a holy and just God.  In the last post on this hymn we studied how God “hushed the Law’s loud thunder.”  This phrase is built on that idea.  Since man is sinful and God is holy and just, man and God are by nature enemies.  Scripture is not vague on this subject.  Paul’s letters are full of this concept.  In Romans, Paul reminds his readers that they were enemies of God by their fallen nature (Romans 8) and that even while Christ was dying to reconcile them to God (Rom. 4).  He tells the Colossians that they were enemies of God even in their mental faculties until Christ’s blood made peace between God and man (Col 1).  In Ephesians 2 we read that God’s people were alienated, separate from Him because of their sins, but that God, because of His rich mercy, saved them in Christ.  This is the way God dealt Jacob in the book of Genesis.  Jacob was an utter reprobate by all accounts, but God chose to wrestle him to the ground (literally!) and bless him in spite of Himself.  God’s love for Jacob was based on His own character, not Jacob’s!  In fact, if God did not save men when they were still enemies, Scripture would have no theo-centric right to commend loving of one’s enemies.  But when the gospel is clear – when it is clear that this holy and just God, who cannot permit sin to go unpunished, accomplished salvation for creature’s who hated Him, by pouring out His just wrath on His Son – then there is a just basis for loving one’s enemies: because it is God-like!  It is the very picture of our Savior, Jesus, who, having every right to curse us as His enemies, became man – He took on the very form of His enemies – and died a criminal’s death.

Well, that being said, what do we make of the rest of the verse? “Called us by His grace and taught us, gave us ears and gave us eyes.  He has washed us with His blood, He presents our souls to God.”  All through the gospels, we find instances of Jesus teaching people in quite confusing parables, and often, we hear the tagline: “He who has ears, let Him hear.”  In Luke 8, Jesus explains less vaguely, that He speaks to the masses in parables, so that “seeing, they may not see, and though hearing, they may not understand.”  Christ’s foggy stories served the purpose of leaving His listeners in a place where before they could see the gospel spelled out in the story, their hearts had to be changed.  They had to be given the ability to understand.  Nicodemus got this treatment one-on-one with Christ, when he came to Him with the proud self-assuming compliment, “we know that you are a prophet from God” and came home with the words ringing in his ears, “unless you are born again you cannot even see the kingdom of God” (John 3).

Finally, this verse gives us another angle on the refrain.  Christ’s blood doesn’t just bring us to God.  It brings us as Christ’s finished masterpiece to be presented to God!  It reminds me of Paul’s notes on marriage in Ephesians 5, where he demonstrates how Christ “gave himself up for [The Church], to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, that he might present to himself a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:26-27).  And, just as the Church loves her Lord, and a wife loves her husband, it is incredibly natural and wonderful for us to love the Lord who bought us, the Lord who took pity on us, and gave us ears and eyes out of His great mercy, and who washed us and is preparing us to be His beloved bride!  

By Davis Morgan

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And Can it Be (Part 2)

Charles Wesley

1. And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2. ’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies: Who can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine. ’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more. ’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; Let angel minds inquire no more.

3.  He left His Father’s throne above So free, so infinite His grace— Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race: ’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me! ’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me!

4.  Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray— I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

5.  No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine; Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th’eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own. Bold I approach th’eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Stanza 3 … The Incarnation: God’s Initiative

Now the worshipper is enabled to peer a little deeper into the root of this mystery and “strange” design. It is here we meet the person of Jesus Christ and learn of his great condescension, the depths of his mercy and the vastness of his grace. “He left his Father’s throne above, so free so infinite his grace.”  John 1:14  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” “Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.”

Phil 2:6-7   Jesus Christ … “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”   

Romans 5:6  “You see that at just the right time, when we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

Romans 5:12   “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” 

“ ’Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O My God, it found out me”

The incarnation and resulting salvation becomes personal …. The mercy of God in the gospel which is filling the earth – yet, it takes a “bead” on specific people and with laser-like precision penetrates the cold heart of a sinner. But this is not just some indiscriminate faceless person – “it found out me.” Notice the worshipper was not out looking for grace and mercy, but the fact that it found him was surprising, disrupting, and strange. His heart is full of awe and worship – “For, O My God it found out me.”      

Stanza 4 … Believer’s Response

Many think that Charles Wesley penned this hymn shortly after his conversion. This stanza is a testimony to the work of the gospel within our hearts. Notice the extensive use of the personal pronouns “my” and “I.” “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”

 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of the world … All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful and following its desires and thoughts.”  Ephesians 2:1-3  

“Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed thee.” A more vivid and accurate image of regeneration and the resulting changed life, perhaps has not been penned within Christian literature. His eye saw the “quickening ray”, he awoke, his chains fell off, his heart freed, he followed … God’s work of salvation is his sovereign work alone, but it is intensely personal and results in the act of believing. 

 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. “   Eph 2:4-5

Stanza 5 …  Blessings of the Gospel

“No condemnation now I dread; Jesus and all in Him, is mine.” What an amazing position for a person to find himself in. The transformation from being a prisoner, waiting on the gallows, to an inheritor of riches is both breathtaking and amazing. He finds his sentence of death not just commuted but pardoned! His slate has been wiped clean, but that is not all – he has become the inheritor of Christ’s righteousness.  

“Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:33-39

“Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness Divine.” Christ has not just become our great example (i.e., perish the thought of the moralists), rather he is our “living head.” In the language of the covenant  theologians  - He is our federal head!   

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3:27)

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law and profits testify. For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith.”  Romans 1:17 

“Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace ….”  Hebrews 4:16

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 26-27  

Though these words penned by Wesley are not recent, well over 250 years old, they harken us back to Calvary. Jesus’ great work of suffering upon that tree was that God would bring great glory to himself by saving a people. We are reminded in Hebrews that Christ endured the suffering of the cross “for the joy that was set before him.” His joy was to see the Father glorified through his act of obedience. “AND” the joyful result is that sinners are cleansed from their transgressions.  How can it be? We can only respond with Wesley “Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O My God, it found out me!”

By Clay Walden 

Clay Walden is an off campus faculty member of Mississippi State University and directs the university’s engineering outreach efforts. He lives in Ridgeland, MS and is married to Marsha Walden – they have two daughters Susannah (sophomore at Mississippi State) and Sarah (junior at Ridgeland High School). He is a Ruling Elder at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, PCA.

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And Can it Be (Part 1)

Charles Wesley

1. And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2. ’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies: Who can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine. ’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more. ’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; Let angel minds inquire no more.

3.  He left His Father’s throne above So free, so infinite His grace— Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race: ’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me! ’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me!

4.  Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray— I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

5.  No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine; Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th’eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own. Bold I approach th’eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

This hymn, written in 1738 by Charles Wesley, has become a favorite of many through the centuries. History tells us that Charles Wesley penned these words shortly after his conversion. The hymn contains some of the richest lyrics known within English hymnody exalting the mysteries of God’s grace as evidenced by Christ’s salvific work upon the cross. The words evoke a great sense of mystery and awe as the great themes of redemption are revealed - the bondage of sin, blood of Christ, release from condemnation, and the glorious wisdom of God. It is an appropriate hymn for reflection in the days leading up to Good Friday, as believers around the word focus attention on Christ’s passion.      

First Stanza … Man’s Questions

The hymn’s opening stanza begins by asking a series of questions.  These are questions that deal with issues of ultimate importance, probing our individual involvement with Jesus’ sacrificial death.  

“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood?”

The hymn begins in a strange and startling manner, the use of the conjunction “AND” is rather abrupt. It is as if Wesley is letting us in on an ongoing conversation or stream of thought.  He does not waste any time letting us know the object of his thoughts - and it is a very personal matter - the condition of his soul relative to the Savior’s blood. Clearly, there is much to be gained - so much so that the author is unashamedly questioning about whether or not he has a stake in such a vast treasure. May we have this same kind of honesty. 

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice for atonement through faith in his blood.” 

Hebrews 9:12  Jesus “…entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained an eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:22 “… without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”

“Died he for me who caused his pain?”  … “For me who Him death pursued”

Wesley places himself, as well as the worshipper, back in time as the one of the ones who cried for Pilate to act … “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” We are the ones, who were the occasion of the Savior’s painful suffering. Yet, despite this fact, while we were enemies, Christ died for us – the godly for the ungodly.   

Isaiah 53:4  “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

“Amazing love! How can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me?”  This is truly amazing love and the heart rejoices at the outcome. Wesley is astonished that his Savior, the incarnate God, should die in his place. He wonders openly with repeated and unanswered questions … How can it be? 

Second Stanza … Angelic Exploration

His first attempt at answering “how can it be?” is that it is incomprehensible. The best he can offer is … “ ’Tis mystery all” …  notice the irony “the immortal dies”  - the dying of the one who lives forever. This is not a riddle, not a contradiction, but it is a mystery – meaning its truth exists but, he just doesn’t have the foggiest idea as to the “how.”  Next, the question is proffered … “Who can explore this strange design?”  It can’t be intellectually owned, but the question can only be “explored”, because the bottom of the mystery is beyond our human ability to grasp. The plan of redemption was conceived and carried out by our Triune God – The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is incomprehensible!

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. His understanding no one can fathom” Isaiah 40:28.  “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens… they are deeper than the depths of the grave. What can you know?” Job 11:7

 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the times and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. … Even angels long to look into these things.” 1 Peter 1:10-12  

  “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? … For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!”  Romans 11:33-36

The author thinks that it is too great a mystery for a man to “explore”, thus, thinks it best, if perhaps, one of God’s angelic creatures is sent out “on mission” and return with an explanation. The “First born Seraph” is called upon.  Seraph is a six winged angelic creature only mentioned once in scripture. They are found calling out to each other “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:2-3). The primary Seraph returns from sounding out the depths of God’s love with the twice resounding answer to the mystery …  “Tis  mercy all, let earth adore.” The stanza concludes that it is vain to continue to send out the angelic hosts to explore this “strange” design. “Let angel minds inquire no more.”  The “how” remains a mystery, albeit glorious and merciful!   

[Stanzas 3-5 will be in Part 2]

By Clay Walden 

Clay Walden is an off campus faculty member of Mississippi State University and directs the university’s engineering outreach efforts. He lives in Ridgeland, MS and is married to Marsha Walden – they have two daughters Susannah (sophomore at Mississippi State) and Sarah (junior at Ridgeland High School). He is a Ruling Elder at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, PCA.

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Plans for the near future...

Hey all, 

March was a very hectic month for both me and Davis, but we have plans to get some posts back up and coming.  Coming up this week we will have a two part serious on the great Charles Wesley hymn "And Can it Be" by guest poster Clay Walden.  Also, in the following weeks we will have some other great hymns up that we haven't decided on yet. 

If there is a hymn that you would like for us to do, PLEASE tell us!  You can email us at [email protected], comment on Tumblr, Facebook message, whatever!  Just let us know.

Thanks for being patient with us,

Jeremy Britt