Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

Jesus, keep me near the Cross; there a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Chorus
In the Cross, in the Cross, be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.

Near the Cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star sheds its beams around me.

Near the Cross! O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day with its shadow o’er me.

Near the Cross I’ll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river.

I have seen this hymn with three different titles in the various hymn devotion books and hymnals I have – “In the Cross,” “Near the Cross,” and “Jesus keep me near the Cross.”  I decided to go with the title I like best since I think it best communicates the author’s intent.  This particular hymn was written by Fanny Crosby, and if you have been a regular reader of my “Hymn of the Week” emails, you will recall that Ms. Crosby was blind from birth due to a mistake made by her doctor.  Her story is an amazing, inspirational one, and in addition to memorizing large portions of the Bible, she wrote several thousand hymns, and I particularly enjoy this one.

The phrases in this hymn that I like are:

• “Be my glory ever” – In Galatians 6:14, the Apostle Paul writes “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”  In this passage of Scripture, Paul is writing about not following certain Jewish customs (specifically circumcision), and criticizes those who boast about following certain parts of the Law.  His glory is not in those “legal” things, but he glories in the Cross.  I like how “The Message” version reads in relation to this passage “Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible! For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ.“

• “Bring its scenes before me” – Do you have a vivid imagination?  I really don’t.  I have never been a big reader and I believe this is partly due to the fact that I don’t always have a mental image of what is going on in a particular scene when I read it in a book.  That is why I force myself to watch “The Passion of the Christ” around Easter.  It is not because I enjoy seeing a glimpse of what Jesus endured, but it forces me to visualize those scenes and the reality of what He endured for me.  The author of this hymn was blind from her birth, and had never seen anything at all – much less pictures or movies of Christ on the Cross.  I find it interesting that she is praying that the Lord will “bring its scenes before me” because she too needed a reminder of what happened that day 2,000 years ago whether she could truly visualize it like we can or not.  She wanted a constant reminder of what took place there, and prayed that way.

• “With its shadow over me” – Do you have older siblings?  Did you grow up in their “shadow?”  My younger brothers have definitely experienced this.  (Just kidding).  We typically view living “in the shadow” of something as a negative like living under the shadow of some person, living under the shadow of financial problems, or living under the shadow of a physical problem.  However, I like how the author talks about living under the shadow of the Cross, and that this is a positive thing to strive for.  If we are walking under the shadow of the Cross, our actions and thoughts will be influenced, for the better, by that “shadow.”   

I grew up in Oklahoma City, and if you are at all familiar with the layout of OKC, you know that it is set up like a grid – square mile areas with most roads running north/south or east/west with lots of city blocks.  I grew up on SW 50th St. which was a block that had roughly 40-50 houses on it, and for much of my childhood, I was required by my parents to stay on our block.  My desire was to go to the Circle K convenience store on the next block over, or to the Creek, or to Youngs Park, or even to “House of Wheels” and look at bikes. The best Halloween I ever had (sorry Sheri) was when my parents let me go trick-or-treating on 49th and 51st streets.  Wow, what freedom!  My parents, however, wanted me to stay close to home so that I could hear them when they called, or so they could hear me if I got into trouble.  However, as I have grown older, I have become more and more inclined to want to stay close to home.  I prefer to stay home rather than running all over town.  I have noticed this same trait in older, more mature people.  They really don’t like leaving home either.  The older you get, it seems the more you desire to be close to home.  I believe the author of this hymn realized that all of us have a “child-like” propensity to want to do our own thing.  To have fun or to do what we selfishly want to do.  However, by staying “Near the Cross,” these child-like desires tend to fade away.  It is hard to be selfish when you envision the self-less act of Jesus dying on the Cross.  It is hard to be unforgiving and petty like a child, when you picture Christ forgiving the thieves next to Him or the religious leaders who put Him on the Cross.  It is hard to be unloving and uncaring when we visualize the greatest example of love ever displayed.  Staying near the Cross should impact how we live our daily lives, and the author realized the need to pray that particular prayer in her own life.