December 28, 2013
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Breathing after heaven: "Return, O God of love, return" ~ Isaac Watts
During the Advent season, we commemorated the first coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In my last couple posts, I reminded us that besides that remembrance and besides our anticipation of His second coming, we ought also to be seeking the Lord's coming in power again to His Church to reform and revive her. Along those lines, in those posts I included two hymns from "The Psalmody: A Collection of Hymns for Public and Social Worship" (Freewill Baptist Printing Establishment, Dover, N.H., 1853): "Within Thy Courts, O God, To-Day" by V.G. Ramsey and “Savior, Visit Thy Plantation” by Isaac Watts. Today I'd like to present another hymn by Isaac Watts from "The Psalmody." This first stanza in particular expresses my heart now in regard to the current state of Christianity here in the west.
Return, O God of Love, Return
Return, O God of love, return;
Earth is a tiresome place:
How long shall we, thy children mourn
Our absence from thy face?Let heaven succeed our painful years,
Let sin and sorrow cease;
And in proportion to our tears,
So make our joys increase.Thy wonders to thy servants show;
Make thine own work complete;
Then shall our souls thy glory know,
And own thy love was great.Then shall we shine before thy throne,
In all thy beauty, Lord;
And the poor service we have done
Meet a divine reward.Hymn # 821 in "The Psalmody..."
Watts' Psalm is based on Psalm 90:13ff...
13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. 17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (KJV)
13 Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)Psalm 90 was written by Moses. Both Moses' words and Watts' words may seem strange and incomprehensible to some of us:
Return, O LORD, how long?
How long shall we, thy children mourn
Our absence from thy face?In my last post, I cited John Elias, and I will cite his words once more today:
O brethren, be not easy without his presence! I believe that some of you know the difference between the shining of his countenance and every other thing. I often fear that many are now in the churches that know no difference between the hiding and the shining of his countenance.
Many Christians may read what I've written and ask, "Why in the world would we need to ask the LORD to return?" And, "What do you mean by our absence from His face?" And, "What is all this talk about the hiding and the shining of His countenance?"
My dear friends, we too casually and too flippantly speak of Jesus' promise to be with us always, though certainly it is true that He is with us always... And yet, we must understand there is another sense of our Lord's blessed presence which we are sorely missing and for which we ought to be importunately seeking. But sadly, as Elias put it, "many are now in the churches that know no difference between the hiding and the shining of his countenance."
In "The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts," the sub-heading to the hymn title is "Breathing after heaven." What exactly is this breathing after heaven that Watts had in mind? What is the shining of the LORD's countenance of which John Elias spoke?
Perhaps these words by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (and Jonathan Edwards) may help us. ML-J defined revival as "days of heaven upon earth."
A revival, then, really means days of heaven upon earth. Let me give you one of the greatest definitions ever written of what is true of a town when there is such a revival or a visitation of the Spirit of God. It was written by the great and saintly Jonathan Edwards about the little town of Northampton in Massachusetts in 1735.
This work soon made a glorious alteration in the town. So that in the Spring and Summer following it seemed, that is to say the town, seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them. Parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary. God's day was a delight and His tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful. The congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship. Every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears while the Word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbours.
Jonathan Edwards: Works, London 1840, Vol I, p. 348.
. . . Do you know about these things? Are you interested? Are you concerned? Are you moved? Do you not begin to see that if only this happened today, it would solve our problems? This is God visiting his people. Days of heaven on earth, the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the Church, life abundant given to God's people without measure. I trust that we have already seen and felt something that creates within us not only the desire to say, 'What is that fervour? Oh that we might know it. Oh, that it might happen to us', but also that we might feel it to such an extent that we begin to plead with God to have pity and to have mercy and to visit us in that way with his great salvation.
From Chapter 8 "Expecting Revival" in Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book "Revival" (Wheaton: Crossway, 1987), 103-104. You can listen to and/or download the audio sermon here titled "What Is Revival?"
My brothers and sisters in Christ, if we are indeed now citizens of heaven, and if we have been quickened with the Spirit's heavenly breath, ought we not be breathing after heaven all the day and all the night, pleading with our God of love to return, that our lives and our churches and our communities and our country and all the nations might be full of the presence of God?!
Isaiah 62:6 On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.
You who put the LORD in remembrance,
take no rest,
7 and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth.Psalm 72:15 Long may he live;
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
17 May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!Spirit of the Living God, breathe into us, that we might breathe after heaven all the day and all the night, and plead with great pleadings for our God to visit us! Holy Father, have pity upon Your Church! Return, O God of love, return! Earth is a tiresome place without Your face shining upon us! Lord Jesus Christ, Dayspring from on high, visit us again as You did long ago! According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, rise upon us, enlighten our darkness, so Your glory might be seen upon us, and all the peoples might praise You and rejoice in Your salvation, that all the earth might be filled with the glory of the LORD. Amen.
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