****GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH

William Williams intended to become a doctor until he heard the gospel.  When God saved him, he dedicated his life to Christian ministry.

 He became a deacon in the Church of England in the early 1700s.  But because he was committed to the doctrines of early Calvinistic Methodism, the church refused his ordination. 

So, encouraged by George Whitfield, he devoted himself to traveling throughout Wales, as an itinerant evangelist, preaching the gospel and establishing local fellowships of Methodists.  

Williams, who was known as the "Sweet Singer of Wales," wrote nearly 900 hymns. He wrote his first hymn, "GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH" in 1745.  It has been translated into seventy-five languages.  It is so loved in Wales that it is considered an unofficial national anthem.

The name, ‘Jehovah’ is an attempted English transliteration of the Hebrew name that God revealed to Moses.  That name is now more accurately transliterated as ‘Yahweh.’  Today, some modern hymnals use the title “Redeemer” instead, and I think it is probably fitting for the context. 

In Exodus 15, Moses and the Israelites sang; “You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.”

The imagery in this hymn is based on the accounts in Exodus where God redeemed His people from slavery and then guided and provided for them all throughout their wandering years.

After leaving Egypt, the Israelites wandered as “pilgrims through this strange, barren land.”

The fact that millions of people could remain lost for 40 years is a miracle.  The Sinai Peninsula between Egypt and the promised land of Canaan is roughly the size of W. Virginia.

As a Cub Scout, at the age of eight, I knew that the sun rose in the east and set in the west and I could locate the North Star in the night sky.  So, by fixing their eyes on the Sun and setting a straight course, they should have been able to cross that wilderness in less than a month.   But that was not God’s plan.

The first stanza speaks of “Bread from heaven.”  During their wandering, God fed them with ‘manna’, which fell from heaven each day.  (I am convinced that the manna was pizza.  you can read about that HERE.)

In the second stanza, the hymn refers to the “crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow” reminding us that God provided life-giving water from the Rock, which is a type of Christ.  And He led His people with a pillar of “fire” by night and a “cloud” by day.

Stanza three speaks of the “verge of Jordan,” the river that Israel had to cross to enter Canaan which was associated with death and destruction.  But God was their protector and “Strong Deliverer.”  Ultimately, the Promised Land was in view.

In the same way that God guided and protected His people then, Christ will bring us through this world and lead us safely to His new creation.  He is our Redeemer, our Provider, our Guide, our Protector, and our Deliverer so we can sing with assurance, “Songs of Praises, Songs of Praises I will ever give to Thee.”  

****ROCK OF AGES

Psalm 73 is a plea to God for protection. In it, David uses the metaphor of a rock to describe God’s ability to protect him from the evil deeds of his enemies.

  

Be my STRONG REFUGE, For You are my ROCK and my FORTRESS.  Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.  Let my enemies, who seek to harm me, be confounded and consumed.  

The metaphor is applied to God several other places in scripture.  It speaks of His strength and ability to rescue, protect and keep His people.  In Psalm 18:2, the Psalmist says, “The Lord is my ROCK and my FORTRESS and my deliverer; My God, my STRENGTH, in whom I will trust; My SHIELD and the horn of my salvation, my STRONGHOLD.” 

And Isaiah says, “the LORD God is an everlasting ROCK” (Isa 26:4).

So, God is pictured as a strong stone fort where we are safe from harm. We need the Lord’s protection from both human and demonic enemies.  

But more than that, we should never forget that we come into this world as sinners and enemies of God.  We need Him to protect us from Himself. And the only way to escape the wrath of His righteous justice is to find shelter in the Only One who can save us, the Rock of our Salvation; Jesus Christ alone. 

That is the metaphor Augustus Toplady used in his hymn, ROCK OF AGES.   In the first line, he personifies this cleft Rock; it is Jesus Christ.  

The word “cleft” is a noun that means a split or opening made by striking or cutting.  The allusion reminds us of the day when Moses asked the LORD to show him His glory.   But God said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”   “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the ROCK.  So, it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK, and (I) will cover you with My hand while I pass by.   Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”  (Ex 33:20-23). 

Did you see that?  Salvation is a work of the Lord.  It was God who put Moses in the Rock.  

And how is it that this Rock, Christ Jesus, is a cleft rock?   

We are reminded of how, after God saved His people and miraculously led them out of bondage, destroyed their enemies, and provided everything they needed in the wilderness, the people began whining and complaining that they were going to die of thirst.  So, the Lord told Moses to strike the ROCK with his staff and the water flowed out from the cleft of the ROCK.

That was a picture of the work of Christ at Calvary where Jesus, our Rock of salvation, was “smitten, stricken, and afflicted” by the LORD, “pierced for our transgressions… crushed for our iniquities” (Isa 53:4-5).

And from His side flowed His “precious blood” that cleanses our sins  (1 Pet 1:19), mixed with water “welling up into eternal life” (Jn 4:13-14).

Toplady’s hymn, ROCK OF AGES, is the prayer of a desperate man. In the second half of the first stanza, he continues his pleading with God, to wash him with the water and blood that flowed from Jesus’ side because, "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin." 

And then he goes on to admit that he is completely helpless; If God doesn’t save him, he will die. He has nothing of value or virtue; no goodness, and no merit.  All he can do is beg for God’s mercy and trust in His grace.   

Another commentary on this hymn can be seen HERE.   

****ONE DAY (GLORIOUS DAY)

The hymn, ONE DAY was written by Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman.  While he was a guest preacher at a Bible Conference around 1908, He handed the text to his organist, Charles Marsh, who composed the tune.  Chapman published it in 1910.

This is one of those songs that appear in many hymnbooks but, for some reason, always seems to be there just to take up space.  I don’t know why it is not one of our more prominent hymns.  Maybe it’s because of how it’s placed in the topical index.  It’s not categorized as a Christmas song, although the first stanza tells of Christ’s incarnation.  And neither is it listed as a resurrection hymn, although it sings of His death, burial, and resurrection.  It is just placed somewhere in the category, “The Life of Christ.”

ONE DAY is a hymn that recounts the glorious days in God’s story of redemption; the day of Christ’s birth, the day of His crucifixion, the day of His death and burial, and the day of His resurrection. 

The good news is that Chapman’s lyrics are making a comeback in a popular, new version titled, GLORIOUS DAY.  It was produced with a new music score, by Mark Hall and Michael Bleeker of Casting Crowns.  Except for the addition of a few lines, the original lyrics remain intact.

However, the new rendition has already generated some unfair criticism, mainly about the refrain:

“Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away; Rising He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming, O glorious day.”

 

The critic’s objection is that Jesus’ living doesn’t equate to His loving; His death didn’t save us, our sins were not carried far away by His burial, and His resurrection did not justify us.

But the arguments are foolish.  It is not hard to understand that the author’s intention was to recap the full scope and purpose of Christ’s ministry; His incarnation and perfect sinless life, His crucifixion, His death, burial and resurrection, and His Second coming, as an all-inclusive, once for all, completed work of God’s redemptive grace.

In fact, it reads like a poetic paraphrase of these words in Paul’s, summary statement of the Good News of the Gospel: “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

This hymn is rich in sound doctrine and packed full of allusions to Scripture.  One researcher broke it down and identified multiple scriptural referenced for almost every phrase.  He found over 75 supporting texts for this hymn.

Some of the more overt theological themes in this song include the doctrines of angels, sin, the virgin birth, the incarnation, atonement, propitiation, justification, redemption, resurrection, ascension,  and second coming. 

The song ends with a glorious proclamation of our hope.

ONE DAY the trumpet will sound for His coming.

One day the skies with His glories will shine;

Wonderful day, my Beloved One’s bringing;

Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine.

One day He’s coming, O GLORIOUS DAY!

****I CANNOT TELL (revised)

Londonderry Air is the name of the musical composition that is the melody for an old Irish hymn of the same name.  There’s not much redeeming value in the lyrics of the hymn but musically, it is an excellent composition that most people would recognize as the melody of the famous Irish song, Danny Boy.

A variation of that tune is used in the popular, contemporary secular song, You Raise Me Up.

There are at least 11 Christian songs that have been written for that melody including, He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need, by Dottie Rambo; What Grace Is Mine, by Kristyn Getty; and Lord Of The Church, We Pray For Our Renewing, by Timothy Dudley-Smith.  

One artist has skillfully adapted the text of the 23^rd Psalm to the melody and another singer used it in a public performance of the hymn, Amazing Grace.

One of the better songs set to Londonderry Air is I CANNOT TELL, written by an Irishman, William Young Fullerton.  As a young man, William heard the Gospel preaching of Charles Spurgeon and he was saved.  Spurgeon became his close friend and mentor. 

William Fullerton was a Baptist preacher, administrator, and writer.  He served as President of the Baptist Union and as Home Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society.  He was a frequent speaker at Keswick Conventions. His published works include biographies of John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, James William Condell Fegan, and Frederick Brotherton Meyer; and other missionary histories and devotional writings.  He also compiled several hymnals.

In 1966, Ken Bible made some careful alterations to the hymn while respecting William Fullerton's original work.  The result was this amazing song as it is written in many of our hymnbooks.  Although it has become a popular and appropriate song for the Christmas season, it is a great hymn of affirmation about the saving work of our Savior.

Philippians 2:7-8 may have provided some inspiration for this hymn;  “He (Christ Jesus) made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men…… He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on the Cross.”

The songwriter posed a number of unanswerable questions; Why would He do that for us?  What would compel Him to leave His Father, lay aside His splendor, and be born in a dirty feeding trough?  Why would He choose to suffer the humiliation and the agony of the cross?

There is so much we cannot know and may never fully understand about our Great God and Savior. But, there is plenty that we can know from His revealed Word. So, after the questions, come these great declarations of our faith;  BUT THIS, I KNOW, that Christ, the Lord is risen, and because He lives I’ll rise to life eternal. He took my guilty heart and I’m forever free.  The Savior of the World is Lord and King!

I CANNOT TELL

I cannot tell why He, the King of Heaven,

Should leave the peace of all eternity,

Why God, Himself, should lay aside His splendor,

To leave the Father's side and come to me.

But this I know:  Our silence filled with singing,

And all our darkness fled from heaven's light,

When Christ the Lord, so human, yet so holy,

In love was born a child for me that holy night.

I cannot tell why He, the Joy of Heaven,

Should give Himself to suffer for my sin,

Why Holy God should love me in my shamefulness,

Why He should die to draw my soul to Him.

But this I know:  That Christ the Lord is risen,

And praise His Name, He's risen now in me!

Because He lives, I'll rise to life eternal!

He took my guilty heart, and I'm forever free!

I cannot tell when He will rule the nations,

How He will claim His loved ones as His own;

And who can tell the holy jubilation,

When all His children gather round His throne?

But this I know:  All flesh will see His glory,

And skies will burst as all creation sings.

The Son will rise on one eternal morning,

When Christ, the Savior of the world, is Lord and King!

****PRAISE, MY SOUL, THE KING OF HEAVEN

One of the things I have noticed is that many of the greatest hymns of our faith have been authored by godly men and women who have been tested through extreme sufferings, losses, and persecutions.  And yet God has used them as testimonies to His goodness.

 

The Reverend, Mr. Henry Lyte, was one of them.   He was a frail, and sickly man who suffered most of his life with chronic asthma and tuberculosis.  Yet his friends described him as “strong in faith and spirit.” 

At the age of twenty-five years, he had just entered the ministry when a close friend and fellow clergyman died of a serious illness.  That experience changed Henry.  He said, “the death of my friend, who died happy in the thought that there was One who would atone for his delinquencies” made me study my Bible and preach in another manner than I had previously done.”

In 1834 Henry published an obscure collection of 280 hymns that he had written called, The Spirit of the Psalms.  They were not strict paraphrases but they were all loosely inspired by the Psalms.

 

His classic hymn, "Abide With Me," was the best known of his works for over 100 years, until Queen Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh.

  

The Queen had chosen another one of Henry’s obscure Psalms to be sung at her wedding ceremony.  That single event on November 20, 1947 (which was also the 100^th anniversary of Henry Lyte’s death) caught the attention of the whole world and Henry’s hymn was instantly popularized for use at weddings and funerals for decades.  PRAISE, MY SOUL, THE KING OF HEAVEN has probably begun more ceremonies than any other hymn in the English language.

The hymn is a free paraphrase of Psalm 103.  It is a declaration of the Goodness of God.   The author mentions several benefits of God’s grace but I think the most stunning line in the entire hymn, is in the first stanza.  It summarizes God’s goodness in just four amazing words: 

“Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven.”

 

And therein is the Gospel; God’s Good News.  

As sinners, we owed a debt that we could not pay.   The payment for our redemption was made by the Son of Man who "gave His life a ransom for many."  

Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.  And for all who have been ransomed, the disease of sin that results in spiritual death has been cured.  We have been made whole.  All our sins have been forgiven.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

“Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

“Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

“Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  (Psa. 103:1-5)

God is Good and this Hymn urges us to do now, what we will be doing in eternity; “PRAISE, MY SOUL, THE KING OF HEAVEN.”

****AND CAN IT BE?

I had a brief conversation with a friend, one day, about the Gospel. Jack professed to be a Christian but there was no evidence of it in his speech, his actions, or his life. When I began to question him about his faith, he said, “Hey! You don’t have to worry about me.  I’m okay with God; I did that thing years ago.”

That “thing” he referred to was a one-time event in his life when someone talked him into repeating a prayer and accepting Jesus into his heart. 

And so he had no interest in hearing the gospel. He believed that he was a good person and that he had done all the things necessary to ensure his favor with God. Jack passed away shortly after that.

The question each of us should ask ourselves is, What part did I have in my salvation?  What did I do to merit forgiveness and eternal life? What good have I done that God should show favor toward me?

For those of us who are saved, the answer to all those questions is, “NOTHING.”  We were depraved. We were destitute. We were spiritually DEAD. There was nothing any of us could do to merit God's favor. There was no good that we could do to satisfy Him. 

The Good News of the Gospel is NOT that "God Loves You."  It's NOT that "He has a wonderful plan for your life."  It's NOT that "He is standing and knocking at the door of your heart” hoping that you might invite Him in.

So, what is the Gospel?  In summary, it starts with the bad news; we are all sinners worthy of God’s judgment and wrath, and there is nothing we can do to erase our sin or buy our pardon. We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer.

The good news is that Jesus is the only substitute in every aspect of a believer’s salvation. He lived a perfect, sinless life of obedience to His Father and He did it for us.  He died a horrible death on the cross and endured the wrath of His Father, for us. He was victorious over sin and death for us. Our only right response, then, is to turn from our sin and trust Him for our salvation.

AND CAN IT BE? Was written by Charles Wesley and it is one of our greatest Gospel Hymns. It starts with a series of introspective questions: Is Jesus’ blood of any concern to me? Am I the cause of His pain? Did I cause His death? And then, as though the lights suddenly came on, the songwriter asks, “What is this amazing love? How is it that You, my God, should die for ME?”

The whole plan of redemption was decreed, by God, the Father before we were even created. It was secured by the Son of God, who is our Substitute, while we were yet dead in sin.

And verse two tells us that Jesus, in an act of mercy and grace, left the glory that was His and humbled Himself to become a man. And He suffered a horrible death for the sins of His people. 

Verse three describes our miserable, helpless condition; we were bound in sin and spiritual darkness without hope until God intervened. He broke the chains that imprisoned our souls, He shed His Light in our hearts, and He rescued us from the penalty of sin and death.

Finally, verse four is the glorious Good News; There is now, no more condemnation for those who believe. Jesus paid the penalty for us. God’s justice is satisfied. He imputed His Son’s righteousness to our account and He gave us new life. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Rom. 5:8)

  

This hymn should humble us when we realize that there is nothing we have done or can do to merit God’s amazing love, forgiveness, and salvation. “(This) is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (1 John 4:10)

The song doesn’t do much for our egos but it does magnify and glorify our Savior.

AMAZING LOVE!  HOW CAN IT BE THAT THOU, MY GOD SHOULDST DIE FOR ME?    

THERE IS A REDEEMER

If you’re 55 years or older, you will probably remember the Jesus movement that was spawned in the Southern California hippie drug culture of the 1970s.  And if you remember that, you will probably remember the controversial Christian singer and songwriter who rose to prominence from out of that culture.

Keith Green was born in 1953.   At a very young age, it seemed that he would become a musician.   Music was his passion; he wanted to be a pop-star and he was exceptionally talented.  At age eight, he began to perform in stage musicals.  At age 12, he published his first song and became the youngest member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. That same year he signed a five-year recording contract with Decca Records.

He had a secular Jewish background but, as a child, he was fascinated with reading the New Testament.  The first time Keith ran away from home, he was 15 years old. Even though he was on a fast track to becoming a teenage idol, he never quite achieved that success and by the late 1960s, he began experimenting with drugs and dabbling in various Eastern religions.

He met the woman he would marry, Melody Steiner, another songwriter, in the early 1970s.  That is when his life began to turn around.  She was also of Jewish heritage and had been exploring the teachings of mysticism and Eastern religions.   After they met, they began to explore the Christian faith together.  

At the age of 21, Keith and Melody heard the Truth of the Gospel at a church in the San Fernando Valley, and the Lord saved them.

They never turned back from the Christian faith.  Not only did his life take a radical turn, so did his music.  He was no longer interested in stardom. His songs began to reflect the Joy of knowing Jesus and experiencing His love.   From that time, Keith focused his work, on a series of Christian music projects, including working with the band, Good News.

Keith developed some strong convictions that left him feeling inadequate and undeserving of God’s grace.  And his convictions affected and irritated many of his friends and separated him from most of the others in his industry.  He started holding concerts for free and he questioned how other Christian musicians could, in good conscience, charge for their concerts or make profits from their record sales.

But in the final years of his life, Keith Green, the Firebrand, was tempered by the grace of a loving God.  He met John Dawson, of YWAM, and through that relationship, he began to re-discover the love of Christ.  After striving for years to measure up to God's holiness, and sometimes questioning his own salvation, Keith came to a deeper understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross―both to forgive his sins and to clothe him in His own righteousness.

Keith grew in grace without compromising his beliefs; he reconciled and restored all his relationships, and began to experience real peace.   He wrote personal letters of apology to those he had offended with this admission:

“I hope you can understand that I am a man of principle, and yet, like a pendulum, I have a tendency to go too far to make a point.  I fear that in the past I have done just that.”  

In 1982 he released his final, and most worship-oriented album, Songs for the Shepherd.

One of the songs on that album is THERE IS A REDEEMER.  It was written by his wife, Melody, in the late 1970s during the time she and Keith were starting Last Days Ministry (LDM), an outreach to the drug culture and to unwed teenage mothers; a ministry that is still continuing today.  The song had been set aside, unpublished until she presented it during the production of this last album.

Keith loved the song but wanted to make it longer so, within a few minutes, he had penned this prophetic third and final verse:

When I stand in Glory, 

I will see His face,

And there, I’ll serve my King forever, 

In that holy place.

Just a few months later, at the young age of only 28 years, Keith Green was killed in a small plane crash.  He was standing in Glory, seeing his Father face-to-face.

  

There is a Redeemer,

Jesus, God's own Son,

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,

Holy One,

Jesus my Redeemer,

Name above all names,

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,

Oh, for sinners slain.

When I stand in Glory,

I will see His face,

And there I'll serve my King forever,

In that Holy Place.

(chorus)

Thank you oh my Father,

For giving us Your Son,

And leaving Your Spirit,

'Til the work on Earth is done.

6-11-2016

****AT CALVARY

The story behind this hymn was told by Dr. Torrey, who was the President of Moody Bible Institute in the mid-1800s.  He told how he had received a letter from a pastor with a troublesome and rebellious son.  The father hoped that attendance at Moody would help. 

Dr. Torrey advised him that, even though he sympathized with him, his responsibility was to run a Bible school and not a reform school, and so he had to deny the father’s request. 

After many letters of relentless pleading, Dr. Torrey finally gave in with the stipulations that the son must meet with him every day and must abide by the rules and requirements of the Institute.

After months of private counseling, the father’s prayers were answered.  The boy, William Newell, was saved.  He eventually became a minister and later returned to Moody Bible Institute as a teacher.

It was a fascinating story but I want to focus on the text of the hymn.  It makes an excellent presentation of the gospel of grace which he originally wrote as a chronological account of his personal testimony in the form of a poem.

Verse 1 starts with his wasted past.  Note the first phrase, “Years I spent in vanity and pride.”  He was self-absorbed, self-sufficient, arrogant, and, even though he was a preacher’s kid, he was unconcerned about God and unreceptive to the message of the Gospel.

 

And that is the sinful condition of every man.  We are all born with depraved natures, incapable of doing good and bound for judgment and the eternal wrath of a holy God.  BUT GOD sent His Son to die for our sins AT CALVARY.

In verse 2, are the words, “At last, Then, and Until.”  They follow all those “years in the author’s “past.”

  

Then there came a turning point in William’s life and it wasn’t of his own efforts or good works.  In the words of his poem, it happened when, “By God’s Word, at last, my sin I learned.” That’s when the Spirit of God opened his ears to hear, and the Word of God penetrated his heart.

It’s through the preaching of the Gospel that men are saved.  We aren’t saved simply by warm fuzzy messages about how much God loves us.  A true Gospel message must bring us to a clear understanding that the law, God’s moral standard, has been broken and we are guilty and deserve judgment.

“Then, he said, I trembled at the Law I’d spurned.” Once William Newell realized his guilt, the Spirit of God convicted him and made him aware of his need for a Savior.  And the result of that was his turning to the Only remedy; the Only way to salvation; the Cross of Jesus Christ AT CALVARY

In verse three William describes the result of his new faith in Jesus Christ.   He expressed it this way, “Now I’ve given to Jesus, everything, Now I gladly own Him as my King.”

When God saves a man, there will be evidence of a changed life that surrenders to His Lordship and a heart that is naturally filled with His praises.

  

William Newell finished his poem with a great song of praise:

“Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span AT CALVARY!”

5/8/16

****MY SAVIOR'S LOVE

  

I selected this song for our Sunday worship because my Pastor's sermon was about how we (Christians) are to be prepared for persecution and suffering because our Lord suffered persecution.

In this hymn, the writer, Charles Gabriel, refers to the Lord as “Jesus the Nazarene” which references a statement in Matthew’s Gospel:

“He [the Lord Jesus] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’.”

What does that mean?  To be blunt, Nazareth had a lousy reputation; it was the “lowlife neighborhood on the other side of the tracks.”  Nazarenes were despised by most people including the people of Galilee.

When Philip referred to the Lord as “Jesus of Nazareth”, Nathanael’s derogatory response was, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

Later, followers of Christ (who were associated with Paul), before they were known as Christians, were called, “the sect of the Nazarenes” which was intended to be an insult and a put-down.  (And, by the way, the world STILL hates us because the world hates Christ.)

This kind of scornful contempt for the Son of God was prophesied:

(Ps. 22:6-7) “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;”

(Ps. 69:20-21) “Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.  They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.”

For Jesus to be called a “Nazarene” might allude back to Isaiah’s prophecy; “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him.

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.  He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

So all of this is to be expected.  We are all familiar with the first few verses in the second chapter of Philippians-- the “Humiliation of Christ.”  It details a remarkable description of how the Almighty God, the creator of the Universe, the Holy and Just One, would stoop so low and take on the form of a man and suffer and die for His creation.  Certainly, this humiliation would include rejection, persecution, grief, beatings, scorn, and maltreatment.

The hymn writer’s personal sense of “amazement” is that this One, so despised by humans, would love him enough to die for his sins.

MY SAVIOR'S LOVE

I stand amazed in the presence,

Of Jesus, the Nazarene,

And wonder how He could love me,

A sinner, condemned, unclean.

He took my sins and my sorrows;

He made them His very own;

He bore the burden to Calvary

And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory,

His face I, at last, shall see,

’Twill be my joy through the ages

To sing of His love for me.

Refrain:

How marvelous, how wonderful!

And my song shall ever be:

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me!

And that is the message of the gospel of grace, the Good News that the Son of God set aside His glory and humbled Himself to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

He suffered and died a terrible death, under the wrath of God, as our substitute, so that we, through faith in Him, might be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life.  How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

*HE LIFTED ME

There is a tendency, today, to disregard those stuffy old hymnbooks. People are drawn to more contemporary Christian music.  Some of it is not bad but there are lots of poorly written and doctrinally weak "7-11" and "Jesus-is-my-girlfriend" type songs that stir emotions and make us feel all warm and fuzzy about ourselves.

Not long ago, I rediscovered the great, old classic treasure, HE LIFTED ME.  The song exposes our human condition and inability to present ourselves worthy of God's grace.

It doesn't do much for my self-esteem, but it does make me feel all warm and fuzzy about my Savior.

  

In loving-kindness, Jesus came,

My soul in mercy to reclaim,

And from the depths of sin and shame

Through grace, He lifted me.

He called me long before I heard,

Before my sinful heart was stirred,

But when I took Him at His Word,

Forgiv’n, He lifted me.

His brow was pierced with many a thorn,

His hands by cruel nails were torn,

When from my guilt and grief, forlorn,

In love, He lifted me.

Now on a higher plane, I dwell,

And with my soul I know ’tis well;

Yet how or why, I cannot tell,

He should have lifted me.

Refrain

From sinking sand He lifted me,

With tender hand, He lifted me;

From shades of night to plains of light,

Oh, praise His Name, He lifted me!

I was discussing this with a friend and theologian, Ron Livesay, who explained it something like this:

“It's not like we were in danger of drowning and God threw us a lifeline to grab so that we could save ourselves.  NO!  

"We were hopelessly buried in the deepest sea, helplessly mired in the sand and mud.  We were dead.  

"With no way to save ourselves, God reached down, picked us up, brought us up, set us on a firm foundation, and breathed new life into us.”  

The Psalmist put it like this, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."  (Psa. 40:2)

HE LIFTED ME was written by Charles H. Gabriel in 1905.