Hymns4Him

This is a revision to the previously released study on this hymn – ed.

We all have childhood memories of coming into church on Palm Sunday, waving palm fronds.  For me, growing up in Miami, we had access to plenty of palm fronds in our neighborhoods, and some of those fronds were bigger than we were!  It was all in celebration of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, a bold statement of His royal Messiahship, just days before His passion.

And the music of Palm Sunday has included marvelous celebrations of that royal entrance into Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9-10.  And of course we love to hear the chorus Lift Up Your Heads, based on Psalm 24, in Handel’s classic oratorio Messiah.

Some of the greatest musical resources for us are found in our hymnals, including All Glory, Laud, and Honor.  The music we use for this was written about 1615 by Melchior Teschner, a church theologian/ musician, about a century after Luther posted his 95 Theses that launched the Protestant Reformation.  It has been given the tune name ST. THEODULPH, named after the man who wrote the words we use today, Theodulph of Orleans.  Here is his story.

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One of the most precious doctrines of the Christian faith is that of atonement.  Some of us will remember learning as children in Sunday School the simple definition that comes from dividing the syllables of the word to spell “at-one-ment.”  Our sins have separated us from God, placing us under His wrath and curse, and making us His enemies.  But by His sacrificial death for us on the cross, Jesus has taken that curse on Himself and removed the barrier between us and the Father.  Apart from His work, we would have been permanently barred from God’s presence and favor, but now by His atonement we are permanently and graciously “at one” with Him.

This is not a doctrine unique to the New Testament.  It has its origins in the earliest chapters of the Bible where Adam and Eve’s sin cut them off from God’s presence, resulting in their being driven from the Garden of Eden.  But God’s grace was evident from the very beginning of human history as God Himself provided a substitute as He took the life of an animal, shedding its blood, to make atonement for them, a covering for them in their physical nakedness, symbolizing His providing a covering for their spiritual nakedness.

And in an even more dramatic way, God enshrined this principle in the Mosaic sacrificial and ceremonial system with the provisions for observing the annual Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (literally the day of covering) for the people of Israel, described in Leviticus 16.  The two major sacrifices on that day taught His people about the parallel dimensions of expiation and propitiation.  The sins of the people were understood to be transferred to these substitutes.  In the first, what we remember as the “scapegoat” was led far out into the wilderness where it could never return.  This taught them that their sins were removed “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), never to be remembered against them (Hebrews 8:12).  This was the expiation side of atonement. In the second, with their sins once again transferred to the animal substitute, its blood was shed as it was killed, thus demonstrating that God’s justice was satisfied. This was the propitiation side of atonement.

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When a loved one or a dear friend dies, we who know the Lord experience what Paul wrote to the church in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “We grieve but not like those who have no hope.”  As Christians we know that death cannot hold us, but it still hurts terribly.  Tears are normal, and even beautiful, at the funeral service of one who has been called home to be with the Lord.  But our tears are unique, in that those tears of sadness and mourning are mixed with tears of joy and celebration.

There are few events in which the differences between a Christian and a non-Christian are seen in such stark contrast as at a believer’s funeral.  Pastors can testify how often they have seen the difference as they look out from the pulpit over the assembled congregation.  There have been those whose faces reflect either the misery of bleak hopelessness or just the struggle to hang on to pleasant memories.  And then there are those whose faces glow with that special smile, even through tears, that make it clear that they know “the secret!”

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Paul wrote in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”  We are carefully self-conscious in making sure that we don’t glory in other things than the cross (the negative side of Paul’s admonition).  But are we equally conscious to make sure that we do actually and whole heartedly glory in the cross (the positive side)?  The cross signifies something incredibly glorious to believers, as it points us to the enormity of God’s love for us in giving His Son to die on “that old rugged cross” as the atoning sacrifice for our salvation.  That’s the sentiment we feel, as in this beautiful quote from Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), letter 62. “Welcome, welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet cross of Christ; welcome fair, fair, lovely, royal King with Thine own cross.  Let us all three go to heaven together.”  (Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian, and one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.)

As a gruesome instrument used to execute the worst of criminals, the cross is what God used to accomplish the magnificent redemption of His elect.  When Jesus took our sins upon Himself, “He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), enduring that curse (Galatians 3:13) as He virtually became the worst of all criminals, with all of the sin of all of the elect of all ages placed on Him (Isaiah 53:6), though not becoming thereby a sinner Himself.  Though the cross is a terrible thing, for believers, Christ’s cross is a marvelous thing.  It’s in that cross that we glory.

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None of us feels that we have achieved the prayer life that we want to have, or that we ought to have.  Even the disciples instinctively knew that was true, as they were with Jesus day in and day out, hearing the way He prayed to His Father in heaven.  That’s why they asked Him in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  And then Jesus proceeded to give them the words to “The Lord’s Prayer,” which we ought to call “The Disciples’ Prayer,” since the actual Lord’s Prayer is what we have, recorded in John 17 as “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.”

Prayer is not only essential in the Christian life.  It is also one of the greatest privileges afforded to us, that at any moment and in any place, we can instantly stand in the throne room of heaven and talk to the God of the universe, addressing Him in this intimate, but reverent language, as our heavenly Father, knowing that our presence and our petitions are not only accepted, but welcomed.   One author has written that it is such an enormous privilege, and awesome honor … even frighteningly so … that when we enter a church worship service to come into God’s presence in prayer, we should not only be handed a hymnal, but even a seat belt and a crash helmet!

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None of us experiences a life free from trials.  They come in many forms and at many times.  Some are from without, as we experience loss or opposition.  Some come from within, as we are weighed down by discouragement and even depression.  Others are the result of debilitating illness or broken relationships.   Sadly, for some it can even be result of war.  Sometimes they catch us off guard, and if we are not spiritually armed, we will find ourselves struggling, wondering where God is, and if He has deserted us.  But what is common to us all is that we will experience situations where we cannot manage in our own strength, but must cry out to the Lord.

The Thirty Years War in Germany was such a time.  This conflict lasted from 1618 to 1648, as competing forces sought to gain control of the region, either Protestant or Catholic.  As armies engaged one another, common folk were caught in the middle.  One-third of the population of the country died during those years.  It wasn’t just the soldiers in battle (and the collateral civilian deaths).  It was also the diseases that spread from the decaying corpses in the fields, and the starvation that resulted from food supplies being destroyed by the retreating armies.  Back and forth the pendulum swung, until the Peace of Westphalia finally brought it to an end.

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How many of us remember singing as a child, wondering what an ebenezer was, and how to raise one?  The word comes from 1 Samuel 7:12, where we read that “Samuel took a stone and set it up … and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us.’”  This took place after the Lord had given Samuel and the army of Israel a mighty victory over the Philistines.  It was to serve as a lasting reminder of God’s goodness to His people.  Samuel had led the people in corporate confession of their sin at Mizpah, a confession that was joined with acts of repentance as they put away the Canaanite idols which they had allowed to be in the land.

In Hebrew, Ebenezermeans “stone of help” (eben = stone; ezer = help). Samuel wanted the people to remember, not just for a few days, but for years, for decades, for generations, how God had come to the rescue of His people when they humbled themselves before Him. They were vulnerable, with their enemies approaching, and they did not deserve God’s rescue, having been chronically unfaithful. And yet in His gracious fidelity to His covenant people, God intervened with thunder to throw Israel’s enemies into confusion and give His people a resounding victory over the invading force.

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In the Gospels, we don’t often read of Jesus calling on people to “believe” in Him or to “receive” Him.  What we do find, however, is Jesus regularly calling on people to “follow” Him.  This means that being a Christian is not just about what we think, as essential as that is.  It’s also about how our thinking transforms our actions.  That’s what James 2:14-17 means, where we read that faith without works is dead.  There is a cost to discipleship, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote so famously in his 1937 book by that title, as he warned about “cheap grace.”

We find the concept present in numerous scripture passages, and then reflected upon in countless sermons on those verses.

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One of the wonderful topical sections in all hymnals has to do with creation.  Psalm 19 calls us to rejoice that “the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament (the skies) shows His handiwork.”  If we will open our eyes thoughtfully, we will see that all around us every day.  We awake in the morning to the brilliance of the sun and hear the delightful songs of the robins and bluebirds in the branches of the trees.  We go outside on a clear night, away from street and city lights, and look up into the heavens to see amazing lights, even without a telescope.  But if we add that instrument to our investigative arsenal, we are astonished by the realization that every one of those hundreds of billions of tiny pinpoints of light is an entire galaxy, each with billions of stars of their own.

In the spring, we walk outside across bright green grass and are awestruck by the blankets of purple azalea flowers throughout the neighborhood bushes.  In the fall, we look across the glassy-smooth blue waters of a lake surface to gaze at the reds and yellows and oranges of the sugar maples in the splendor of their incredible pallet of color.  In the winter we can sit for hours in our living room in the warm glow of the fireplace, hypnotized by the snowflakes falling gently and piling up on the branches of the blue spruces in our front yard. And in the summer, we sit on the porch after mowing the lawn, admiring the kaleidoscope of colors from the annuals we have planted … the zinnias and marigolds and petunias and snapdragons, and relaxing near the hanging baskets of ferns and fuchsias.

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The theme of God’s love is one of the most prominent and beautiful in all of scripture.  There is not an event, a person, a book, or a page in which we cannot see His love revealed and chronicled.  Countless sermons have been preached on God’s love, hundreds of books have been written about Gods love, and dozens of hymns have been written about God’s love.  It is a love that has no comparison among human relationships, even those of the highest purity.  It is a love that is tied to all of God’s attributes, so that His love is holy, it is eternal, it is compassionate, it is gracious, it is wise, it is powerful, it is patient, it is kind, it is merciful … it is all of these and vastly more.

A concordance will take us to a seemingly unending list of verses that speak of God’s love.  It is a theme often prominent in the ministries of the greatest evangelists in history, men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, and Billy Graham.  It is a subject often given major treatment by theologians such as J. I. Packer, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, and Al Mohler. Entire sermon series and conferences have been published and promoted, dealing with the many-faceted dimensions of the love of God.

The love of God is not infrequently misrepresented and cheapened by describing it in shallow sentimental terms that convey the idea of a god who is just like a nice old grandfather at the beginning stages of dementia, who really doesn’t know much about what’s going on around him, but is just always smiling and nice to everyone and perpetually in a good mood.  Such a god is not the biblical God!  1 John 4:7 tells us that “God is love,” at the same time that Hebrews 12:29 tells us that “God is a consuming fire!”

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