Wonderful Merciful Savior

Wonderful merciful Savior
Precious Redeemer and Friend
Who would have thought that a Lamb could
Rescue the souls of men, Oh You rescue the souls of men!

Counselor, Comforter, Keeper
Spirit we long to embrace
You offer hope when our hearts have
Hopelessly lost the way, Oh we hopelessly lost the way!

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace our
Hearts always hunger for, Oh our hearts always hunger for!

Almighty infinite Father
Faithfully loving Your own
Here in our weakness You find us
Falling before Your throne, Oh we’re falling before Your throne!

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace our
Hearts always hunger for, Oh our hearts always hunger for!

Although maybe not a hymn by historic standards and not found in any old hymnals, this song is one of my favorites by the group Selah.   I have attached a youtube link for those not familiar with this particular song.  

This song, in my mind, meets the standard of a hymn because it contains deep spiritual truth and reinforces an important Christian doctrine – the doctrine of the trinity.  I love how this song, it it’s own unique way, describes Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father.  But in the chorus, we are singing to only one “You.”  God is the one that we praise.  God is the one we adore.  But we worship Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Distinct yet the same.  Three in One.  Completely fathomable by a human mind?  No.  But no less true and no less critical to our basic understanding of historic Christianity.

Couple of comments on the lyrics:

• “Who would of thought that a Lamb could rescue the souls of men” – The interesting thing for someone who spends any time reading the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) will come to the conclusion that a lamb could not, and cannot rescue the souls of men.  The Old Testament sacrificial system was inadequate.  It was temporary.  It was a picture of what was to come, but was unable to permanently accomplish what we needed.  It couldn’t reconcile us to God.  We were still enemies of God, even if the priest sacrificed the lamb.  We needed a Savior.  We needed a perfect, spotless Lamb to rescue our souls from sin and death.  I hope you can testify with the author of this song by saying “Oh, you rescue the souls of men!!! because that is what He did for you.

• “Faithfully loving your own” – I really like this phrase because it describes how God truly loves us.  When we are unfaithful, He loves us faithfully.  When we deserve judgement, He loves and gives us mercy.  And He doesn’t love us as strangers or aliens, but He loves as His own.  The earthly parallel is like a father loving his own children.  A father loves in spite of.  A father loves faithfully because his children are his own.  That is how God loves you today.  Faithfully, because you are one of His.

As a child of the 1970’s, one of the things I grew up with was “Schoolhouse rock” during Saturday morning cartoons.  This show tried to educate it’s viewers with simple little songs.  Songs like “I’m just a bill” or “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function” are probably two of the most familiar ones.  There is a less known “Schoolhouse rock” song entitled “Unpack our adjectives.”  It is a song about all the adjectives that we used to describe things.

This song reminded me of a couple of “Schoolhouse rock” themes.  The first is that our praise often times comes from describing the who God is and His wonderful qualities.  He is wonderful.  And Merciful.  He is a Saving and Forgiving God.  The Holy Spirit is a Comforter and Counselor and we should praise Him for His qualities.  And finally, God the Father is Almighty, Infinite, Faithful, and Loving.  We have plenty of adjectives to “unpack” when we talk about who God is.  The second theme/question I had is “what’s your function?”  What am I and what are you created to do?  Our function is to praise Him.  As the catechism reminds us “Man’s primary purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”  We are to praise God for His mighty works.  To praise God for His saving grace.  And to praise Him for His wonderful qualities.

I hope today that you will pause, take a few moments and “unpack your adjectives” and tell God how great and awesome and wonderful He is.