JTTH: How Sweet and Aweful is the Place (Part Four)

This is the fourth post in the Journey Through the Hymns series, and we’re still on the first hymn. But I’m really, really going to try to buckle down and wrap this one up this time, I promise. Just bear with me.

Okay. Here we go. Let’s look at the final two verses of this hymn.

Pity the nations, O our God

Constrain the earth to come 

Send Thy victorious Word abroad

And bring the strangers home

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We long to see Thy churches full

That all the chosen race

May, with one voice, and heart and soul

Sing Thy redeeming grace

Last time, we covered the doctrine of election, which states that God in eternity past chose to save certain sinners to the praise of the glory of His marvelous grace (Ephesians 1:3, 4, 5, 6…you know what, just read the whole chapter). It’s a wonderful doctrine that is spoken of all throughout Scripture, a biblical truth that we can and should praise God for every day.[1]

However, there are many people—even some Christians—who don’t believe in God’s sovereign election of those whom He saves, and don’t like you if you do believe what Scripture says about this doctrine (mainly that it’s true, but I digress). Most of that dislike is the result of the opinion that someone who believes that God chooses to save certain sinners, and that they are one of those chosen, just has to be arrogant about it. And there are undoubtedly some people who act like that, who have the unchristian attitude of “God chose me, so I’m better than you.”

But that certainly does not represent the majority of people who believe the doctrine of election. Actually, if someone does act like that, it reveals that they really don’t understand the doctrine of election. When we ask why we were chosen for salvation instead of others, Scripture answers,

“The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” 

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (emphasis added)

God loved Israel and chose them to be His people, but not because of anything Israel had done or who they were. So why did He love them? Because He loved them. The whole doctrine of sovereign election is founded upon the simple fact that though we do not deserve God’s love, He bestows love upon us anyway for the praise of His name.

A true Christian doesn’t think they were saved because they’re better than everyone else: they know they were saved because they were just like everyone else. All men (the pre-regenerate elect included) are spiritually dead, drowned in their own depravity, before the Holy Spirit quickens them and brings them to new life in Christ.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,                                                                                

“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

“THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

“WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:9-19

And that’s why it’s appropriate that the final verses of this hymn say what they do. Look at the words again:

Pity the nations, O our God

Constrain the earth to come

Send Thy victorious Word abroad

And bring the strangers home

In other words, the Church is saying, “Save more of Your people, Lord, through the proclamation of Your gospel!” They may be strangers now, but the elect will eventually, by the saving grace and sovereign work of God, come home to their heavenly Father and their Elder Brother, Christ (Romans 8:29-30).

This is basically repeated in the final verse.

We long to see Thy churches full

That all the chosen race

May, with one voice, and heart and soul,

Sing Thy redeeming grace

This isn’t the arrogant proclamation of some big-headed person who’s ignorant of the actual meaning of election. This is a cry from the heart of a true believer, a plea to God that more souls will be saved. That more people will be brought into the kingdom of light. That more saints will be redeemed in order that they might also join in the chorus of heaven and praise the glorious grace and love of the Lord.

When you hear people tell of the time when they were saved, and they knew they were saved, do you notice a common theme? The common thread is that when people get saved, they want everyone else to get saved, too! They can’t shut up about the gospel of the One who saved them! No, we shouldn’t be like a bull in a china shop, obnoxiously breaking up everything in our path to get our point across, but we should be marked by a passion for the lost. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (a great preacher of the mid-nineteenth century) once said, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you’re not saved yourself, be sure of that!”

This is why we hear Paul the apostle, in Romans 10:1, saying of his fellow Jews, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” He said he would even be willing (if it was possible) to be cut off from Christ himself if he could see his Jewish kinsmen saved from hell and their own sin! A desire to see souls saved and an enthusiasm for evangelism should be an obvious characteristic of the Christian’s life.

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Charles Spurgeon

Well, it looks like we did it. This hymn took a long time, but I think we can all agree that there is so much theology in this song that we could probably spend another four posts on it.

But alas, we won’t. Next week we’ll begin a new hymn, one that probably won’t take us quite as long (watch me say that, and then it take us twice as long). I hope that you’ve enjoyed going through this song, and that you’ll be singing it more often now, thinking about the meaning of the words more than about hitting the right pitch.[2]

Thanks for reading, and for joining me on this Journey Through the Hymns.

SDG<><

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[1] It’s also a doctrine that is necessary is you believe in the biblical, sovereign God (i.e., God who is in control of everyone and everything at all times in every place.)

[2] Though singing in key is often much more enjoyable—for you and the others in the pew behind you. Just a thought.

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This is the fifth installment in the Journey Through the Hymns series. A new installment will be posted each Wednesday until the series’ completion.