Reading Hymns

I realize that hymns were written to be sung by congregations. But sometimes it’s a good exercise to read the lyrics in a hymnal. Have you ever done that? I hope you own a hymnal. Every Christian home should have one. And I hope you use it for good reading material.

A dear friend of mine gifted me with an artful collection of first verses of well-known hymns. It is spiral bound so I can just flip from one to another and have a work of art on display for a few days at a time. Not only are the decorated pages beautiful, but the words are very meaningful, especially when I stop to meditate on each phrase.

Right now, the hymn text I have up is the first verse to “Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” Not a hymn that is sung much any more, if ever. The first line says: “Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand.” Fain in an old word that means pleased, willing, with pleasure, gladly. Interesting! Do we gladly take our stand for the cross, knowing that it is a bloody, horrendously difficult place to be? But because of all that was accomplished there by our Savior, it has become a beautiful symbol of reconciliation, shelter, love, and wonder. I always say that if God could take the ugliest thing in the world (crucifixion) and turn it into something beautiful, then He can still take the ugly things in my life and turn them around for good.

The rest of the first verse uses these phrases to describe the cross: “a mighty rock within a weary land, a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way.” We must pause periodically at the cross to ponder the significance of what Christ’s sacrifice makes possible. When we do, we can appreciate the author’s last verse and take our stand with her (Elizabeth Clephane). “I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face; Content to let the world go by, to know  no gain nor loss, My sinful self – my only shame, my glory: all the cross.”

Deep, right? Has the cross become our refuge from the storms of life? Our protection from the burning sun? Our guarantee that death is not the end of what is good and right? Yes, it marks the end of pain, but also the passageway to an eternal existence free from pain and trouble. If our Savior, the perfect Son of God, endured the cross for us, can we not endure a lesser cross for His sake, through His strength? 

“The preaching of the cross is, I know, nonsense to those who are involved in this dying world, but to us who are being saved from that death it is nothing less than the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, J.B.Phillips).