We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought

We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learn'd Thy wisdom, grace and power
The things of earth have fill'd our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
LORD, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.


We have not fear'd Thee as we ought,
Nor bow'd beneath Thine aweful eye,
Nor guarded deed, and word, and thought,
Remembering that GOD was nigh.
LORD, give us faith to know Thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.


We have not loved Thee as we ought,
Nor cared that we are loved by Thee;
Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And feebly long'd Thy Face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
To feel and own the love Thou art.


We have not served Thee as we ought,
Alas! the duties left undone - 
The work with little fervour wrought -
The battles lost, or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
For Thee to toil, for Thee to fight.


When shall we know Thee as we ought,
And fear, and love, and serve aright!
When shall we out of trial brought
Be perfect in the land of light!
LORD, may we day by day prepare
To see Thy Face, and serve Thee there.


We live in troubling days - I don't simply mean the thunder clouds of financial doom and gloom, the depressing and heartbreaking realities of war and unrest around the world - we live in days where 'I' has become the most important word in life.


The ipod and iphone and itunes capture the mood of this generation.  We are obsessed with what we want, with ourselves, our self-empowerment, and the choices and opportunities that are presented us each one of us.  Church is all too often pandering to the i-feed culture of satisfaction.  The hymn above challenges us to look again at our obsession with ourselves.


It is first in the plural, the communal, the 'we' of an all inclusive self-critique. Secondly it's standard for weighing up how we are doing is not self-satisfaction but rather the perfection that awaits the people of God in his presence of The Future promised in Jesus: the standard is God Himself.


We are God's people and do we not need a healthy shot in the arm (and kick up the... erm... bum) that will awaken us to the reality that God is not the centre of OUR universe rather it is HIS universe in which our chief purpose is to give Him praise and glory due to Him.  


We will always, this side of eternity, be too weak, too feeble, too selfish, too much ourselves to fear, to love and serve  Him as we ought; but we may do so in ways that anticipate the Day of perfection! 


"...It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son..." Revelation 20:6-7

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