Besides prayer and reading of the Word of God, their seems to be no better way to start your day than with “hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19).
As I was singing these two spiritual songs this morning (My Saviors Love and No Not One), I smiled when I noticed that they were both about Jesus. These are my two favorite hymns, and I love to sing them at the top of my voice. Off and on for the last year or so I start my morning by singing these hymns.
Detractors have tried to make a case to me and to others that the free from sin message has an over-emphasis on sin and an under-emphasis on Jesus. The reason I smiled this morning is that I found myself singing these two beautiful hymns, not about holiness and the free from sin message, but about Jesus my Savior, who is the author and finisher of my faith.
It was just another confirmation that I am on the right track.
Here are some of the verses from these two hymns, and comments on why these hymns mean so much to me.
My Savior’s Love
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he would love me a sinner, condemned unclean.
I do not want to glory in my past sins in any way, shape, or form, but this verse rings so true to my heart. I was a very depraved young man before Jesus rescued me. Some of the wicked things I have done, I have dared only to tell Jesus. The memory of my past sins are so hideous that they almost make me shudder sometimes when Satan tries to cast them back into my face.
I truly can testify of my amazement of how Jesus could love me when I was a sinner, condemned, and very unclean.
For me it was in the garden He prayed: “not My will but Thine.” He had no tears for His own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine.
I love to meditate on the crucification of Christ. I love to look at the pictures in the book The Passion: Photography from the Movie The Passion of the Christ and weep and thank Jesus for what he went through just for me. I am part of “the joy that was set before him” for which He “endured the cross” (Heb 12:2). One of my favorite pictures is of Jesus being scourged (Mar 15:15) for “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1Pet 2:24).
Jesus bore this all for me, that the deep and horrific wounds of the sin inflicted on my soul could be healed and I could be made whole. No one in their right mind who meditates on the power of God and the suffering of Jesus can stand up for sin in a believer. What great darkness is it when poor souls plead for sin and disobedience as unavoidable before the resurrected Savior who has conquered sin, death, and the grave. Oh, glory be to the name that is above all names (Phi 2:9)! How could I but love a Savior such as He!
In pity, angels beheld Him and came from the world of light to comfort Him in the sorrows He bore for my soul that night. He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own; He bore the burden to Calv’ry, and suffered and died alone.
Are you ever lonely? Jesus was forsaken of man and God (Mat 27:46) and suffered and died alone. Jesus understands like no one else can. With the weight of the sins of the world, all his disciples save John and a few women having forsaken him, “smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa 53:4) he died for you and me. Oh, what a Savior!
I know what it means to be lonely. To be forsaken by 20-plus years of friends from the Church of God Restoration that I loved so dearly. To be cut off and cast out like a dead dog by ministers whom I held in high esteem. To be told by my dear wife that I am not saved.
Oh yes, it hurts sometimes, but I have a friend that knows like no one else how it feels. He comforts me and consoles me and helps me along, for He not only was alone, but He suffered and died alone.
When, with the ransomed in glory, His face I at last shall see, ‘Twill be my joy thro’ the ages to sing of His love for me.
Well, it is my joy to sing of his love for me now. I can hardly take it in what it will be like in heaven. I enjoy singing very much, and it is a big part of my devotion to Jesus. I love the old fashioned hymns about the blood, about Jesus, and what it will be like to be in heaven.
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful! And my song shall ever be; Oh how marvelous! Oh how wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me!
Pray for me that this song and the Savior’s love shall ever be marvelous and wonderful to me. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Cor 10:12).
No Not One
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, No, not one! No, not one! None else could heal all our soul’s diseases, No, not one! No, not one!
Buddha can’t, Hira Krishna can’t, Mohammed can’t, and the pope can’t. Only Jesus can heal all our soul’s diseases!
No friend like Him is so high and holy, No, not one! No, not one! And yet no friend is so meek and lowly, No, not one! No, not one!
No friend like him, so high and holy. “The Word was God” (Joh 1:1); “His name shall be called… The mighty God, The everlasting Father” (Isa 9:6); “Christ, who is the image of God” (2Cor 4:4); “Who is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15); “The express image of his person” (Heb 1:3).
And yet no friend so meek and lowly. “Who went about doing good” (Act 10:38); “Have washed your feet” (Joh 13:14); “A friend of publicans and sinners” (Luk 7:34); “Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Mat 20:28).
There’s not an hour that He is not near us, No, not one! No, not one! No night so dark but his love can cheer us, No, not one! No, not one!
What a comfort this is to know. “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2Tim 1:12); “He is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb 2:18); “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb 7:25).
Did ever saint find this Friend forsake him? No, not one! No, not one! Or sinner find that He would not take him? No, not one! No, not one!
I have never found him to forsake me. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mat 29:20); “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5).
And he will never refuse a sinner, no matter what John Calvin says. “Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9); “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Eze 33:11).
Was ever a gift like the Savior given? No, not one! No, not one! Will He refuse us a home in Heaven? No, not one! No, not one!
No greater gift was ever given than Jesus. Nor will he refuse those who serve him “in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luk 1:75).
Jesus knows all about our struggles, He will guide till the day is done; There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, No, not one! No, not one!
He will never leave or forsake us. Truly there is no other friend like Jesus!
August 18th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Thanks for your personal reflections on the hymn, “Our Great Saviour” (“I stand amazed in the presence.” Today is the 153rd anniversary of the birth of the author/composer, Charles Gabriel.
Your enjoyment of the old hymns is heartening. As to singing them at the top of your lungs… I trust everyone who hears you enjoys them too! Please check out my daily blog on hymns. You may find more favourites there!