Hymn: “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” – John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
CommonTunes: REST (sometimes called ELTON), and REPTON
I love that many great poets - critically acclaimed, highly respected among literature scholars – wrote some meaningful poetic expressions of their Christian faith… and that some of those have been set to music, like this one.
The four-word phrase I’ve chosen for this hymnline is the ending of the first stanza. In context, it reads like this:
In purer lives thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise.
From pure motives may our service emerge. In the depth of reverence may we express our praise. What wonderful objectives for those of us who seek nearness to heart of God.
Reverence is becoming a rarely-practiced art. The noise of our worship doesn’t allow for that centering of our quiet self on “the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” (from Romans 11:33) Instead, the ecstatic joy of the Lord has become our strength.
Every now and then, though, the most exuberant worshiper has a strong craving to find the deeper reverence of solitude, one-on-One with the holy God… to be still and know for sure that God IS God.
Surface faith is nearly worthless. When the commitment and the submission are epidermic, it does little good… for the person or the kingdom.
O that we might in awe search out the depths of our faith experience – that we might be astonished at what we discover as the Almighty is quietly venerated. In the noiselessness, we might hear the still small voice more clearly and come away refreshed by the praise we render in the soundproof room of the soul.
Hear an A Cappella Singing of Two Stanzas of This Hymn (ELTON)
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