Who is this?

Who is this, so weak and helpless,
Child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable shelter'd
Coldly in a manger laid?
'Tis the LORD of all creation, 
Who this wondrous path hath trod;
He is GOD for everlasting,
And to everlasting GOD.


Who is this - a Man of Sorrows,
Walking sadly life's hard way,
Homeless, weary, sighing, weeping?
'Tis our GOD, our glorious SAVIOUR,
Who above the starry sky
Now for us a place prepareth
Where no tear can dim the eye.


Who is this - behold Him shedding
Drops of Blood upon the ground?
Who is this - despised, rejected,
Mock'd, insulted, beaten, bound?
'Tis our GOD, Who gifts and graces 
On His Church now poureth down;
Who shall smite in righteous judgment
All His foes beneath His Throne.


Who is this that hangeth dying,
While the rude world scoffs and scorns:
Number'd with the malefactors
Torn with nails and crown'd with thorns?
'Tis the GOD Who ever liveth
'Mid the shining ones on high,
In the glorious golden city
Reigning everlastingly.


We must never lay aside the wonder of who Jesus is.  There is much in the contemporary churches which all too quickly puts aside wonder in favour of intimacy in worship and substitutes high energy praise songs for deeply convinced and convicted songs of awe.  This hymn is one of those that rather than sung TO God is to be sung to one another - the church reminding herself of the nature of our Lord.  Who is it that we serve?  Is it the god of our own imagination or The God who is perfectly revealed as One in Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit to whom we can be reconciled by entrusting our lives through surrender to and hope in Jesus?


If it is the god and idol of our idle minds we are lost and without hope.  If it is the One True God then we have a hope in us which sustains and transforms us until that Day when we will be with Him in His glory.


"On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” "Acts 4: 5-12