Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise;
Thou mine Inheritance now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart;
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Today we focus on the second and fourth stanzas (see above) because one leads to another. Although we proclaim Christ's salvation for male and female, the language of "sonship" here conveys an important theological truth for both sexes: in Christ we share His inheritance, the inheritance of the first-born Son, which is freely given to all. The exclusive language of Psalm 2:7-8 ("The LORD said to me, 'You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession."), exclusive because it speaks of Christ, becomes the inclusive language of Galatians 3:26, 28-29: "...for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. ... There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's , then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." Because the Son inherits, all of us inherit.
In "Be Thou My Vision," instead of our inheriting the nations, we inherit God Himself. "The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; thou holdest my lot. The [property] lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage" (Psalm 16:5-6).
Lord God of Abraham, we cannot quite grasp what it means for us to inherit this promise--the promise of fully dwelling with You. May Your Spirit begin to probe in us what it may mean to live in the light of this inheritance; while we serve as stewards of earthly treasures, help us consider what it means for You to be our greatest treasure.
1 comment:
Thanks for the return! I just got caught up with the last few posts and thank you. I truly appreciate your blog as a resource as I work on ministry via music.
How did you first start the hymn of the month idea?
It seems as though you spread the hymn out over the course of the month, is this formulaic or do you look at the context of the hymn stanzas? (You alluded to this in this posting with stanzas 2 and 4 going together).
Do you sing ALL the verses in the hymn or just the verses in your hymnal (again you alluded to that in a previous posting, but I ask for clarification).
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