Then Sings My Soul

As I was spending time with the Lord this morning, that old hymn "Then Sings My Soul" came to mind. The entire hymn summarizes everything the Lord was speaking about with me today, so I encourage you to go to http://www.stinalisa.com/HowGreatThouArt.html and listen to that beautiful rendition.

The song goes like this...

O Lord, my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

I'm continually amazed every time I look at creation and see "the works Thy hands have made." It's like a point of realization - just how awesome our God truly is. Like Psalm 19:1-2 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

I love walking through the hills near my home - along the Yarra River at Warrandyte and among the many walking tracks of Fourth Hill. This is not my first brush with death (I had a benign tumour removed from behind my left eye in 2001), and since then I've gained a new perspective on God's creation. It truly is His handiwork, and there is a deep communion that can be found in spending time with the Lord in "the cathedral of nature", as John Muir called it. Sometimes I love to run my hand down the bark of a tree - a very tactile experience - or smell the heady scent of grasses and flowers in bloom (yes, it does sound like a cliché, but I do "stop to smell the roses" :-)

But this is an important dimension of my experience with the Lord. The Bible is the basis of an in-depth revelation of God's character and purpose, yet nature is the context out of which God so often reveals Himself to me.

Then sings my soul my saviour God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul my saviour God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

This beautiful chorus sums up my response to the Lord. I was reading Romans 12:1 again yesterday, which says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." In view of God's awesome glory, as revealed in creation, and in view of God's amazing mercy, as revealed in the Gospel, what response can I have but to sing out: "How great Thou art!"

And when I think that God, His son not sparing
Sent him to die; I scarce can take it in
That on the cross my burdens gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.

This is where the revelation of God's love and mercy reaches its height. This God, who created all I see, was so personally concerned about me that He intervened in history. Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." As another hymn puts it: "Amazing love! How can it be? That Christ my God should die for me?"

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim my God, how great Thou art.

This is our great hope. Beyond cures for cancer, beyond life itself, is the hope of the return of the Lord Jesus, when all that He accomplished on the Cross will be outworked in the whole of creation (see Romans 8:19-22).

Then sings my soul my savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul my savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
How great Thou art.

I now think I understand what James means when he wrote in James 1:2: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds..." The joy is not in the pain itself, but in the hope that we see through the pain.

Lord, I want to thank You for all that You have done for me. Your unfailing love, Your plan that cannot be overturned, Your constant presence with me. I look forward to walking with you in the weeks and months to come.