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The classic hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” was based on Lamentations 3:23, as is this song. Jeremiah wrote this text as he looked upon the destruction of his beloved city of Jerusalem while being taken into exile. This was a time of deep anguish and pain as the dreams of a theocratic Israel were dashed. Yet, he relied upon the daily renewing of God’s mercies for strength. This song is taken from that text. 
Mark Twain said, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” That was his coming of age. It is when you get to a point in your life that you realize that no one takes you as seriously as you do, that you don’t know it all, that you’re not smarter than everyone else, and that maybe you’re dad wasn’t such a dunce after all. 
I spend my first summer overseas in Slovakia in 1998, living in a communist dorm and eating pastries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I lost 20 pounds that summer. Seriously. Anyway, I met and shared Christ with a young man named Juraj (“George” to us) who had the strangest combination of understanding God’s character yet refusal to embrace Christ. I learned a lot from Juraj that summer, but to my knowledge, he has never given his life to Christ.  This song is based on one of my favorite scriptures: Romans 11:33-36. It is Paul's doxology of exasperated praise after spending 11 chapters plunging the depths of God’s mercies in the gospel. No one knows God’s mind. No one can ever counsel the Lord or question. No one can give Him anything. Because all things come from Him, are sustained in Him, and find their ultimate meaning and fulfillment in Him. God started all of this and all of this finds its end in Him. 
This is a modern hymn-walk through the gospel. Beginning with my own sin and rebellion and moving through the miracle of salvation, this song charts the entire trajectory of Christian life. 
Solomon in all of his wisdom wrote in Ecclesiastes that “all is vanity” and that the “great experience of wisdom and knowledge” is “but a striving after wind (Ecc. 1).” Some 700 years later, the Apostle Paul builds on this idea but exposes the one knowledge that isn’t vanity: the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil 3).” This song exposes a longing to chase after the knowledge of Christ and to forsake all else. 
A desperate longing for the presence of Christ. His love surrounds us and penetrates us. Kind of like the force. In Psalm 139 David wonders, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me’, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” He concludes with the prayer of contrition: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” 
God reveals Himself in many ways but probably not as often or in the ways we desire most. I would love to have God on speed dial so that I could talk to Him and hear what he has to say. But God’s ways are not mine: I must learn to rely on faith, what He has revealed in scripture, what He has revealed in nature, and even the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within. Sometimes I can hear Him loud and clear in these ways. Other times I listen and hear nothing. This song is about when I called out to God but heard nothing. 
A longing for the realities of heaven in the here and now is one of the best ways to cope with the difficulties of life. We were created to have fellowship with Christ eternally and until we are with him, we are content with the strivings of faith and hope. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. 
Ah, yes, the song that goes with the picture where I have all kinds of stuff written on my face. The main text is Luke 6, where Jesus blows our categories of success, spirituality and love. He takes our affinity for human strength, effort and achievement and turns it on its ear. His values reverse ours. We love the wealth of affluence, Jesus says “blessed are the poor.” We love the strength of the NBA athletes, Jesus says “my strength is made perfect in weakness.” We love to stupidly plod through life without a thought or care in the world, and Jesus says “blessed are those who mourn.” Everything is backwards. |
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