Hymns4Him

Mercy is one of the attributes of God.  And the Bible has much to say about showing mercy to those in need.   One of the best-known passages about this is Micah 6:8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (KJV).  How challenging to see that He has said that not only are we to “do” mercy, but actually to “love” mercy!  As an attribute of God, we see it in the way He acts with such patience and kindness to those in need.  Mercy is not only a divine quality that is at the very heart of God in His grace; it is also a quality which we should be cultivating.  For example, think of the way Isaiah so often points to the treatment of the widow and the orphan as evidence of the way He expects His people to respond to those who are hurting.  And in Hosea 6:6 we read that without a heart of mercy, our rituals of worship are displeasing to the Lord.  “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”  And we read the same thing in even stronger terms in Isaiah 1:13-15.

Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;

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“May Jesus Christ be praised!”  This should be our prayer every day as we awaken, the desire of our hearts that in this and every day, we would think and act and live in such a way that Jesus Christ would be praised.  That’s at the center of the hymn “When Morning Gilds the Skies.”  We sing that request twelve times in the six stanzas found in most hymnals today.  And if your hymnal includes more of the 14 stanzas available, you will sing that phrase 28 times!

The hymn is based on an anonymous German hymn from the 18^th century. “Beim frühen Morgenlicht” (“With the early morning light”) is the opening line of the original German hymn. While we are uncertain of the exact origins of the text, it first appeared in “Catholic Songbook for Public Worship in the [locale of] Biszthume, Würzburg.” It appears in an altered version in an 1855 Franconian collection of folksongs, “Frankische Völkslieder.” Our English versions are not so much a literal translation of the original as they are a new poetic creation based on themes from the original.

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No, not a diet of bones, but of Bonars, Horatius Bonars, that is.  Horatius Bonar’s hymns are some of the most beloved songs that we find in our hymnals and in our repertoire of evangelical singing.  A congregation will be well fed on a diet of the great truths he has so wonderfully expressed in his hymn texts.  In the British Isles and in America, it would not be difficult to identify nearly 100 of his hymns that continue in use today.  These would include “O Love of God, How Strong and True;” “Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power;” “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say;” “Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face;” “Not What My Hands Have Done;” “I Was a Wandering Sheep;” “No, Not Despairingly Come I to Thee;” “Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ;” “A Few More Years Shall Roll;” “Go, Labor On;” “Fill Thou My Life, O Lord My God;” “When the Weary Seeking Rest;” and “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord.”

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The goal of the Christian life should not just be wanting to get ourselves to heaven.  No, it should be that of honoring God by seeking to be more like Jesus.  That’s clearly what Paul was seeking as he wrote to the Philippians from his Roman imprisonment.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Many regard this as an early Christian hymn because of its literary elegance and poetic rhythm.  It is a major theological statement, as it describes first, Jesus’ humiliation (“even death on a cross”), and then second, His exaltation (“highly exalted Him”).  That is the pattern we can expect in our lives: first being humbled as we struggle with sin in this present evil age, and then second as the Father promises to raise us up in exalted glory in the heavens. 

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Philip Bliss (1838 – 1876) is one of the greatest names in American hymnody, especially in gospel songs, second only to one of his peers, Fanny Crosby (1820-1915).  Every hymnal published in America in the last century will be found to contain numerous hymns by Bliss.  These will include both words and music for “I Am So Glad That Our Father in Heaven,” “Man of Sorrows, What a Name,” “The Light of the World Is Jesus,” “Dare to Be a Daniel,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” and “Wonderful Words of Life.” In addition to those, he wrote words for “With Harps and with Viols” and music for “It Is Well with My Soul,” all these and more written just during the 12 years before his death.

One of his best-known is the focus of this study” I Will Sing of My Redeemer,” probably the last hymn that he wrote before his tragic death. 

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For many of us, one of the first prayers we learned as little children was after the sun went down, as we knelt with our parents beside our bed, asking the Lord to grant us sleep as He watched over us through the night.  We prayed …

Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

How wonderful to know that while troubles swirl around us, we can trust the Lord to keep us secure under His powerful, watchful care.

In Psalm 4, we call on the Lord to come to our aid when we are in distress.  “Be gracious to me and hear my prayer” (vs. 1).   “Lift up the light of Your face upon us, O LORD!” (vs. 6).  And in the awareness of all the hostile challenges that are arrayed against us, we rest in the confidence that He will care for us as we rest peacefully, trusting in His fatherly care and goodness.  “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety” (vs. 8).

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Because God is the God of perfect justice, we who have been made in His image have an innate longing for justice.  In fact, without a belief in the existence of this God and the moral law He has established, there is no explanation for the source of this longing for justice found in human hearts.  Apart from that awareness, how is it that in every culture and in every age, there has been a concept not merely of right and wrong, but more specifically of justice?  In many instances it may be perverted and imperfectly applied, but it’s always been there.  When we hear a news story about some terrible thing that has been done to an individual, we feel frustrated if the guilty party/parties are not apprehended and prosecuted.  This is true in the case of the career criminal, the drunken driver, the mean-spirited employer, the bribe-taking lawmaker, the child-abuser, the unfaithful spouse, the mean-spirited racist, or the wicked totalitarian government that brutalizes its citizens and invades its neighbor’s land.

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What a wonderful invitation Jesus extends in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.” This continues to be an evangelistic invitation from Jesus, the greatest evangelist of all time!  Who can tell how many gospel sermons have been preached from this passage, urging sinners to come to Jesus?  These are not just those living in settled wickedness and open defiance of God, as they realize more and more the debilitating, destructive effects of their ungodly lifestyle and all the misery this is bringing upon them and those they care about.  It is also for those living in spiritual complacency and devotional indifference, as they realize the emptiness this brings and the futility of trying to live based on their own efforts, and the growing uncertainty about whether or not they will find themselves in heaven in God’s favor.  As C. S. Lewis wrote, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”

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Do you ever think about those who have gone before us into heaven?  We speak correctly when we say that they have died.  But we should always also remember that they are now alive, more alive than they ever were in this life, alive in the presence of the Lord, and of the angels, and of the saints of all ages.  When we die, we who are in Christ will also immediately be in the presence of the Lord, as Jesus promised the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43).   

And that should always be our primary focus … seeing Jesus no longer darkly through a glass, but face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). Our greatest joy in heaven will not be the things we have left behind (our physical ailments and struggles with sin), and not even the things we will acquire (glorified bodies and the beauties of heaven) and the relationships we will renew (with deceased loved ones) and the relationships we will establish (with the saints of Bible and church history).  No, the greatest joy will be our ability to see Jesus in His unveiled glory, to enjoy the intimacy of a richer fellowship with Him, and to join in the songs of the saints and angels before the throne: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12). 

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There are a number of hymns which include a key phrase that is repeated in each stanza, either at the beginning or the end.  One of those is the 17^th century hymn, “Sing Praise to God, Who Reigns Above.”  (It is sometimes rendered as “All Praise to God,” rather than “Sing Praise to God.”)  Each stanza concludes with the words, “To God all praise and glory.”  There is no better summary of what worship is all about than that.  Too often today in many churches, and in many hearts, worship is all about us … the kind of music we like, the way the message makes us feel, how it helps us have a better quality of life, or the way it motivates us to live more selflessly for the benefit of others.  But shouldn’t worship be about God, above all else?  That’s certainly what we find in the Bible’s examples and instructions about worship, from the Old Testament sacrificial legislation to the descriptions of heaven’s worship in the book of Revelation.

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