How Tedious and Tasteless

How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see!
Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flow’rs,
Have all lost their sweetness to me.
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in Him
December’s as pleasant as May.

His name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music His voice;
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice.
I should, were He always thus nigh,
Have nothing to wish or to fear;
No mortal so happy as I;
My summer would last all the year.

Content with beholding His face,
My all to His pleasure resigned;
No changes of season or place,
Would make any change in my mind.
While blessed with a sense of His love,
A palace a toy would appear;
And prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus would dwell with me there.

My Lord, if indeed I am Thine,
If Thou art my sun and my song,
Say, why do I languish and pine?
And why are my winters so long?
Oh, drive these dark clouds from the sky,
Thy soul-cheering presence restore;
Or take me to Thee up on high,
Where winter and clouds are no more.

This week’s hymn, although written by one of the most famous hymnwriters, John Newton – author of Amazing Grace, is not very well-known.  I actually had never heard of this song, but was looking at the music selections at a church in Texas and found this particular song was on their regular hymn rotation.  The title was so interesting to me.  “Tedious” and “tasteless” aren’t words you regularly see in hymn titles, much less in the lyrics so I had to look up the lyrics and see the rest of the words.  After reading these words, I thought this hymn was appropriate for this time of year.  A time of the year where the landscape is changing from green to brown to gray.  A time where there are few things blooming outside and a time where it is very easy to let our moods and our attitudes “darken and gray” like the season.  But this song reminds us that we can have a Heavenly perspective about the seasons and about our circumstances.  We can, with the Lord’s help and closeness, endure those times that seem both “tedious” (long and tiresome) and “tasteless” (dull and without proper season).

Couple of comments on the lyrics:

• “But when I am happy in Him, December’s as pleasant as May.” – Do you have a favorite season? Are you one that loves the spring when everything is blooming, and the birds are singing?  Or do you love the summer when you can enjoy the lake, the beach, or sit around by the pool?  How ’bout the Fall?  The crispness in the air.  Sweatshirts, football season, and the changing of the leaves?  I rarely find someone who’s favorite season is winter.  Yes, I believe most Christians love the Christmas season, but do we love the cold winter season?  Or, do our spirits come bitter as the winter becomes cold and bitter?  I love the mindset that John Newton wrote about here.  A perspective that says, when I am happy and content in Him, it doesn’t matter what season it is.  It can be 72 and Sunny, or 22 and bitter cold.  The warmth that comes from our relationship and closeness to Him can supercede how our circumstances can sometimes make us feel, and can definitely supercede the weather outside.

• “And prisons would palaces prove, If Jesus would dwell with me there.”  I couldn’t help but think about Paul and Silas in the Phillipian jail when I read these words.  How do men who have been beaten within an inch of their lives sing praises to God? How do men who seem to have no “earthly hope” of making it out of the prison, or maybe even making it through the night, worship God in chains?  How does a prison cell become a palace?  My answer to that question is the King showed up.  Does a palace make a King or does the King make the palace?  I believe that the only way Paul and Silas could turn their prison into a palace was to know that the King of Kings was right there with them.  They had a confidence that the Lord would see them through or take them home.  A faith that truly believed “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  What a testimony from inside the prison cell, I mean, from inside the palace!

• “Why do I languish and pine?”  This question is one that I am sure all of us have asked at some point in our Christian walk.  Especially after the Lord has brought us through a tough situation.  Why do we worry?  Why do we fret?  Why do we lose hope when we know deep in our hearts that the Lord’s promises are true?  The answer is we are human.  Sometimes we must talk to ourselves, encourage ourselves, and ask “silly” questions of ourselves like the Psalmist often did and like John Newton did.  We must remind ourselves that His promises are “Yea and amen.”  That He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.  That He is with us always even until the end of the age.  

One of my least favorite Christmas sayings is “Seasons Greetings.”  I tend to think that this greeting is too politically correct.  As a Christian, I want to wish people Merry Christmas since Jesus is the real reason for the season.  The Bible, however, has a lot to say about “seasons.”

Psalm 1:3 tells us “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;”

Psalm 145:15 – “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.”

Eccesiates 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Galatians 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season and out of season;”

I hope today that during this season of the year or during this season of your life, that you can draw near to the Lord.  That this December can be as pleasant as May because the Lord is nigh.  That you can bear fruit in the winter season as well as during the harvest season.   Seasons Greetings from the Mowery’s!!!