With Joy We Meditate the Grace

With joy we meditate the grace
Of our High Priest above;
His heart is made of tenderness,
His bowels melt with love.

Touched with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For He has felt the same.

But spotless, innocent, and pure,
The great Redeemer stood,
While Satan’s fiery darts He bore,
And did resist to blood.

He in the days of feeble flesh
Poured out His cries and tears,
And in His measure feels afresh
What every member bears.

He’ll never quench the smoking flax,
But raise it to a flame;
The bruisèd reed He never breaks,
Nor scorns the meanest name.

Then let our humble faith address
His mercy and His power;
We shall obtain delivering grace
In the distressing hour.

Isaac Watts 1707-1709

If you are a Christian have you ever been so distressed by your sinfulness that you almost despair of God’s mercy and grace?  Ever feel you have been at the extremes of God’s love and on the edge of losing it as a Christian? I have.

In truth I’ve not, at the level of intellectual acknowledgement, doubted grace but I’ve had times where I’ve FEARED that I’ve gone beyond the cross in my sinfulness.  What a fool! What sin there is in that fear! Even then, even at the point of questioning the sufficiency of the incarnate Son of God’s perfect sacrifice in pleasing the Father and granting the fullness of new life by the great power of the Holy Spirit.

However we do, we get there sometimes and what is the remedy for such sin upon sin?  Resolve to live better? Work harder? Love more? Sing louder? Be nicer?

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!

We turn to contemplate grace in all it’s depth – which Watts did 300 years ago and records in this hymn.  Even in the depths of despair over our sin, we can be raised to real joy in the goodness and mercy of God anchored in Christ!

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Heb 10:19-23