To Christ the Lord Let Every Tongue

1. To Christ the Lord let every tongue
Its noblest tribute bring
When He’s the subject of the song
Who can refuse to sing?
Survey the beauties of His face
And on His glories dwell
Think of the wonder of His grace
And all His triumphs tell

2. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
Upon His awful brow
His head with radiant glories crowned
His lips with grace overflow
No mortal can with Him compare
Among the sons of men
Fairer He is than all the fair
That fill the Heavenly train

3. He saw me plunged in deep distress
He fled to my relief
For me He bore the shameful cross
And carried all my grief
His hand a thousand blessings pours
Upon my guilty head
His presence gilds my darkest hours
And guards my sleeping bed

4. To Him I owe my life and breath
And all the joys I have
He makes me triumph over death
And saves me from the grave
To Heaven the place of His abode
He brings my weary feet
Shows me the glories of my God
And makes my joy complete

5. Since from His bounty I receive
Such proofs of love divine
Had I a thousand hearts to give
Lord, they should all be Thine
A thousand men could not compose
A worthy song to bring
Yet Your love is a melody
Our hearts can’t help but sing!

Psalm 34: His role, my role

I was reading Psalm 34 this morning. It was probably the 98th time I have read over these words. God has used this psalm so many times in the past. He seems to so often part the sky with his heavenly highlighter allowing me to see one phrase in a different way. Today was no exception. I realized that this passage delineates His role and my role. I found today that what He does for me, in response to what I do for Him, is so unequal, completely swayed to one side. Let me share with you what I found.

In short, my job is to:
seek Him, loot to Him, call to Him when I am in trouble, take refuge in Him, listen to Him, and fear Him.
All of these speak of relationship. The passage also outlines what it means to fear Him since that is called for three or four times in the passage. To fear the Lord is to keep tongue from evil, to seek peace and pursue it. Those are the only to do's given. Essentially God just wants me to look to Him.

In response, He will:
answer me, deliver me from all trouble and all fear, make me radiant, take away my shame, save me, encamp around me, bless me. He will provide for my every need as I taste and see His goodness. He will make sure I lack for nothing. He will teach me and give me many good days. He will see me, his ear will be attentive to my cry. He will be close to me, redeem me and not condemn me.

I would say there is a great disparity in what He expects of me and what He will do for me. I serve a God who only wants me to be in relationship with Him, and when I make the choice to turn my face toward Him, He will go above and beyond my imagination. He will be my all. Not because I made Him my all (for I often turn away) but because He is sufficient to meet every need I could ever have. "Lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

Imitators

In church this morning I heard a message from Ephesians 5:21 "submit to one another  out of reverence for Christ." I mulled over this the whole day. Submission is hard. As I listened to the sermon, I thought of ways, particularly at work, where I have not been submissive. Conviction is painful. I love how God points things out to me though as I read his word. See this verse is in a greater context. Ephesians 5 begins with the challenge to be imitators of God, and to love sacrificially like Christ loved us. The passage gives things that this doesn't look like: sexual immorality, impurity, drunkenness. But I love how God in his word makes things really practical. I can look at a list of don'ts and easily feel good about myself for I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't... and you could name a lot of things in there. But not doing something is not imitation. Doing something is imitation. So what is it that God does that we are to imitate. So he boils it down to three primary relationships all summarized in the short verse " submit to one another." See God respects people like wives should respect their husbands. God loves people like husbands should love their wives. God does not exasperate, but makes obedience possible. God obeys authority (even his own). God behaves in such a way that he cannot be spoken against by his boss. God treats people fairly. How do we imitate God? We submit to each other. We love each other. This is a hard teaching. But it is possible or he would not have commanded it.