HYMN FOR PENTECOST 20 With Broken Heart and Contrite Sigh
- Gracia Grindal
- 4h
- 3 min read
Text: Cornelius Elven (1793-1873). Tune: Penitence
1 With broken heart and contrite sigh
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free
O God, be merciful to me.
2 I smite upon my troubled breast,
With deep and conscience guilt oppressed;
Christ and His cross my only plea:
O God, be merciful to me.
3 Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see:
O God, be merciful to me.
4 Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me.
5 And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.
REFLECTIONS
(Sorry I didn't get this out to you on time. I have been in Norway and Denmark and couldnt access the site.)
The story of the Pharisee and publican is a picture of the world in which we are living. There are a lot of people very sure of their piety and opinions and look down on those who do not share it. Pharisaism is not new, but today we see it vividly before us. People think those on the other side are evil or stupid or something else.
Alexander Solzhennitsyn, who suffered the terrors of the Stalinist death camps, saw what it was and its remedy. While thinking of the brutal guards who could do unimaginable things to their prisoners, he realized that they were certain that all the evil lived outside of them and in the other whom they were trying to destroy so the regime would be successful. What he discovered was that the line of evil ran directly through every heart, his own included. Realizing that, he disavowed the Stalinism he knew, and became a Christian because he knew that he was as capable of the evil of his persecutor as the other was.
To be a Christian is to admit that one is a sinner in need of a Savior. It makes one aware of one’s own complicity in evil. It makes one humble. That is what Jesus is teaching us here. Those who say the right and acceptable things, virtue signaling is what we call it today, are not always those who do the right. And that person could be me. This parable should make us examine our own hearts. As the hymn say so well "Far off I stand with tearful eyes, Nor dare uplift them to the skies; But Thou dost all my anguish see: O God, be merciful to me.
HYMN INFO
Elven, Cornelius, was a Baptist pastor in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. He wrote it for his own congregation in 1852. It was used in several hymnals especially in the hymnal Psalms and Hymns, 1858. It uses the lesson for this next Sunday as a confession for every singer.
LINKS
Accra Wesley Cathedra
Saint Patrick Presbyterian Church
Methohymns Official
NB:
For those thinking of Christmas gifts, you might consider the book Jesus the Harmony. It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies.
Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145