****WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOR

A couple years ago, in another hymn commentary, I noted that the word, AWESOME, is one of the most commonly misused words in our culture.  It is used as a synonym for “cool” or “Impressive.”

But the biblical definition implies such great fear that it causes someone to fall flat on his face and worship.  The root word, “awe” is something reserved for God alone:  Job 25:2 says, “Dominion and awe belong to God.”

In scripture, nearly every use of the word "awesome," references either God Himself, His character, or something He has done.  God describes Himself as awesome because He is unique.  There is none like Him.  He is the ONLY One who is awesome.

The Old King James Version translators understood the word to mean terrible, as in Psalm 66 which says, “Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in Thy works!... Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men.”

An awesome God is a God to be feared.   And one of His most awesome deeds was in His judgment of sin at Calvary where His terrible, fearful, dreadful, wrath was poured out on His crucified Son for the sins of His people. 

If Jesus Christ is not your Savior, then God is your awesome, terrible enemy.

In his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards described God’s final judgment as truly terrifying and full of fire and wrath.  And that judgment isn't just fearful; it is truly violent and eternal.  Once this judgment begins, there's no turning back.   “Your most lamentable cries and shrieks will be in vain.”

But thank God, in contradistinction, we have a Wonderful Savior. 

Like AWESOME, that word, WONDERFUL, is also misused in our common speech.  We use it to describe something that is enjoyable, pleasant, or beautiful.  It’s a word used to communicate that everything is going great and you're totally happy.  

I once knew a man who overused it to the point that casual conversations were ridiculously annoying.

Him:    “How are you doing?” 

Me:     “Not very well.”  

Him:   “Wonderful!” 

Me:     "Well, not really, after yesterday.”   

Him:   “What happened yesterday?”  

Me:    “I had a tooth extracted.”    

Him:  “Wonderful!”

The word, WONDERFUL, is used in several of our hymns and it only appears in a few places in scripture.  And, in almost every case, it is attributed to the person of Jesus, His wisdom, or His miraculous power.

 The prophet, Isaiah said,

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, And the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His NAME will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  (Isaiah 9:6)

Our Savior is wonderful, not because He is pleasant, fun, or congenial.  He is wonderful because of Who He is and what He has done.

In the hymn, WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOR! Elisha Hoffman gives several examples of the wonderful things our Savior did for us; He made atonement for our sins, paid the price of our redemption, shed His own blood for our cleansing, and reconciled our souls to God.  And, now, He reigns and rules in our lives and gives us the power to overcome sin and live a triumphant life.  

****GOD OF OUR FATHERS

For seven years, I tried to make sure that the songs we sang in our church were doctrinally sound, God-centered, and appropriate in the context of my pastor’s sermons. So, I avoided using songs for special secular holidays, because most of them were inappropriate for Christian worship services.

It is easy to become distracted and focus attention on someone else or something other than God, especially around national holidays. I have seen churches waste far too much of their time with patriotic music and productions designed to rally allegiance to our country. 

On one Memorial Day Sunday, I selected this hymn because it is a reverential prayer that focuses on God.

The first stanza is not about the greatness of our forefathers or even our nation; Our Lord is the subject, and it is about His power, majesty, and greatness as He has revealed Himself in creation. He is worthy of our praise!

The second stanza reminds us that our freedoms and blessings have come by His leading and guiding. The greatness of our nation is a result of godly men who established it on God’s Word and His Laws. He is worthy of our obedience!

The third stanza refers to our conflicts, sacrifices, and wars. Our nation is not great because of our military power. It is great because our God is a mighty warrior with a strong arm. Nations rise, and nations fall, but it is God who raises them up and He takes them down. He is worthy of our loyal allegiance.

The Lord commands us, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you."  (Ex. 20:2

And I think it is appropriate to honor our Christian forefathers who struggled, sacrificed, and even died to protect the blessings and freedoms that God has provided. 

And the way to honor them is to love the God they loved. To Honor His law the way they did. To struggle against those who would defy Him. To stand firm on His Word and teach it to our children.

America cannot remain free without the God of the Bible. Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote, “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and ample rivers, and it was not there; in the fertile fields, and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

I would summarize it like this; America is great because she serves a great God, and if America ever ceases to serve Him, America will cease to be great.

The fourth stanza reminds us that we still need God’s mercy and grace in our time. Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”  

And Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  

Our nation has enjoyed much prosperity and freedom because our forefathers honored the Lord. But He will not continue to bless a nation that disobeys and dishonors Him. He is Worthy of our love and trust!    

 

****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.”  

****JESUS IS ALL THE WORLD TO ME

Money is not inherently bad, and God certainly blesses some with wealth. But the Proverb warns us that the LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

And Mark tells us, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  (Mark 10:25)

One day while Jesus was speaking to a crowd, He warned them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Then He told the story: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’  So, he said, ‘I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 

But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ (Luke 12:13-21)

That was a parable, but a similar situation occurred in real life.

“As (Jesus) was (walking), (a man) came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’

Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honour your father and your mother.’

He answered and said, ‘Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.’

Then Jesus, said to him, “One thing you lack: Go (and) sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

But (the man) was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mk. 10:17-22).

William Thompson was also a man of great success and wealth.  He was born in 1847 and he first began writing music at the age of 16.  When a publisher offered to purchase some of his songs for about $6.00 each, he rejected the offer and started his own music company.  He sold millions of copies of his popular secular songs.  He became so wealthy that people referred to him as the “Millionaire Songwriter.”

But one day he met the evangelist, D. L. Moody, whom God used to turn his heart and change his life.  Dr. Moody challenged him and said; “William, your songs are good, but why not write some songs that will bless people’s hearts and lives and bring them to Christ?”

That’s when William realized that his business and success overshadowed his devotion to his God.  That’s the day he committed his work to his Savior and he began to write hymns to the glory of God.  And, about that day, William said, “From that day on I have written ONLY SACRED SONGS, and it’s a decision I have never regretted.”  

Some of his acquaintances believed that William Thompson wrote this song, JESUS IS ALL THE WORLD TO ME, as a personal testimony to his love for his Savior. 

****NOW I BELONG TO JESUS

NORMAN CLAYTON was born in 1903 and died in 1992.

During his childhood, he learned to play the pump organ and the trumpet which he played in churches for over 50 years.  In his early adult years, he worked at various occupations including dairy farming, office help, construction work and, during the depression, he worked in a bakery.

It was in the early 1940s that Jack Wyrtzen recruited Norman to be the organist for his ‘Word of Life’ rallies.  Norman proved to be very helpful to Jack in several different ministry functions for about 15 years. 

When Word of Life publishing merged with the Rodeheaver business he joined them as a writer and editor.  During those years he published about 30 songbooks containing several hundred of his own hymns. 

One observation, from those who knew him well, was that Norman made a lifelong practice of memorizing Scripture.  It was said of him, that whenever he began to write a new hymn, he studied the Bible to ensure that each phrase, in his songs, was biblical and doctrinally correct. 

In his song, NOW I BELONG TO JESUS, Clayton is clear about our sin nature.  In the second and third verses he speaks of sin’s degradation, it’s sorrow and shame, and the enslavement and control it has over each of us.  But the text also proclaims the Good News, “He gave His life to ransom my soul, now I belong to Him.”

Even though there is very little information available about Norman Clayton, there is a moving anecdotal story about this hymn.  It was told by Lindsay Terry, in his book, ‘Stories Behind Popular Songs and Hymns.’

A missionary, Roy Gustafson, was once invited to preach at a prison in Jamaica.  He sang and preached the gospel to a thousand men that day.  After the service, he met with a small group of condemned prisoners who were to be hanged from the gallows in a couple days.

Roy started with his own testimony and then sang Norman Clayton’s song, NOW I BELONG TO JESUS. One of the men, a wicked, condemned killer, said, “I’m going to die on Tuesday morning, sir.  Can I be saved?”

Roy opened his Bible and read and explained several passages from the Word of God including Romans 3. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  …being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ  whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The prisoner bowed his face to the dirt floor sobbing and called on the Lord to save him. Then, smiling through his tears, he asked Roy to sing the song again.  And with a little help, he began to sing along.  

When the guard returned to let the evangelist out of the prison, he looked back and saw the man still singing, “Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, Not for the years of time alone, But for eternity.”

****ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING

About 800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn that personified the elements of creation with familial gender terms: He referred to the Sun, wind, and fire as, “our brothers.”  The moon and water he called "our sisters.”  And he revered the earth as our “Our Mother, our dear Mother.”

 

That’s weird but, in his defense, some hymnologists and church historians have suggested that those phrases were only used, symbolically, to praise the Lord in the way the psalmist personified creation in Psalm 145 which says, “All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, And Your saints shall bless You.  They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power.”

That may be true but, in the biographical accounts we have on St. Francis, there are good reasons to be skeptical.  In fact, if a strict translation of that poem was the actual text of the song, we wouldn’t be singing it today because St. Francis’ lyrics imply some serious theological problems.

St. Francis was canonized as the patron saint of animals and he is venerated by ecologists for his love of nature.  So, his hymn could be construed to endorse all kinds of false doctrinal beliefs such as mysticism, animism, pantheism, and other aberrations of non-Christian religions, some of which have crept into and are embraced by Christians even today.

  

Just to be clear, we should and do see evidence of God’s handiwork in His creation.  We marvel at the way He works all things according to His purposes.

 

But there is an absolute distinction between God and His creation.  God is God over all creation; He is not part of it.

I am not saying that Francis intended or even believed in a pantheistic worldview, but there are plenty of people in our churches today, who are willing to read some kind of earth-worshiping theology into his words.  And so, theologians have been right to approach this hymn with caution.

Early in the twentieth century, William Henry Draper rescued and wrote a loose translation of St. Francis’ hymn.  It was originally intended for use as a children’s hymn. 

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING is a good, doctrinally sound, hymn that reads like a paraphrase of Psalm 148 where we see that everything was created by God and everything exists for the praise of His Glory.  And, in the last stanza, Draper inserted a doxology that affirms the triune nature of our God.

 

His, much-improved hymn is the song we sing today.  It’s been published in almost all English hymnals for nearly a century and is listed among the most loved Christian hymns of all times.

Last year, Sovereign Grace Music released a new, version of ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING.   Three stanzas were removed, leaving only the first and last.  And then, two new ones have been added.  Stanza three is a gospel-centered verse about Christ’s atoning work, and the last stanza affirms our hope; Jesus is coming again.

Here are the new lyrics:

(3)    All the redeemed washed by His blood,

Come and rejoice in His great love.

O praise Him! Alleluia!

Christ has defeated every sin.

Cast all your burdens now on Him.

O praise Him! O praise Him!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

(4)    He shall return in pow’r to reign.

Heaven and earth will join to say,

O praise Him! Alleluia!

Then who shall fall on bended knee?

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING.

O praise Him! O praise Him!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

In my opinion, this new version is a great improvement that turns a good hymn into an excellent hymn and still retains a respectful attitude toward the decrees of Psalm 148, “Let (all creation) praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.” (vs.13)

****WE'RE MARCHING TO ZION (COME WE THAT LOVE THE LORD)

WE’RE MARCHING TO ZION is another hybrid song.  It combines an excellent, old Isaac Watts hymn, COME WE THAT LOVE THE LORD, with an added refrain written by Robert Lowry.

Watts’ original hymn had at least ten stanzas; most hymnbooks today contain only four or five.

Isaac Watts lived in a time when most English churches insisted on singing Psalms only.  You may remember, young Isaac didn’t like that and complained to his father who said, “…if You don’t like it, then why don’t you write something better?”  

So, he did.  In fact, he gave us over 600 hymns most of which focus on the Sovereignty of God.

Today’s worship wars are nothing new.  Those hymns, written by Watts and others, stirred up a lot of conflicts, anger, and violence in the Church of England during the early 1700s.   In some cases, people were beaten, imprisoned, or even killed.  

In their attempts to avoid conflicts, some congregations split or dissolved.   Others, like many churches today, tried to mitigate their disputes by arranging a sort of compromise.   They didn’t go so far as to offer a choice between traditional and contemporary services; they just rearranged their services by singing Psalms at the beginning and then, after the preaching, they would sing hymns. 

But that wasn’t really a compromise because church members remained at odds.  What usually happened was that many of those who could not accept the hymn singing would just stand up walk out of the services after the preaching. 

Isaac Watts was an obnoxious genius who had a finely developed skill in the art of sarcasm.  There are some historians who suspect that his sarcasm may have been at play here in this hymn where, in his second stanza, he wrote, “Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God,” as a cutting indictment against people who walked out of the church services during the hymn singing.

The refrain, composed later by Robert Lowry, was a good addition both musically and lyrically.  The transition from Watts’ verses to Lowry’s refrain is natural and comfortable in its style.  Musically, it feels right.   Lyrically, it picks up the theme from the fifth stanza -- “We’re marching through Emmanuel’s ground to fairer worlds on high.” 

When Lowry wrote “We’re Marching upward to Zion,” it was a reference to the City of God.

We are exhorted to, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I say, Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4)

And scripture gives us encouragement by the example of Christ; “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:1-2)

This hymn is a picture of God’s people rejoicing.  We don’t always feel joyful; our conditions in this world are sometimes difficult and disappointing but we don’t just wander aimlessly through life dragging our feet with uncertainty.  As heirs of God’s love and grace, we can rejoice and march through life with purpose and confidence because we know where we are going.  WE’RE MARCHING TO ZION, that beautiful city of God.