What a Contrast!

Set our feet on lofty places,


Gird our lives that they may be

Armored with all Christ-like graces,


In the fight to set men free.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,


That we fail not man nor Thee,


That we fail not man nor Thee.

Save us from weak resignation,


To the evils we deplore.


Let the search for Thy salvation

Be our glory evermore.


Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,


Serving Thee Whom we adore,


Serving Thee Whom we adore.

I find these final 2 stanzas to both be very evocative, but evocative of such very different emotions.  Verse 4 just seems so stirring and energizing and, well, lofty.  You can practically hear the organs and trumpets sounding as we get prepared to get out there and set men free. We think of Mount Sinai, of Elijah battling on Mount Carmel, of the transfiguration, of the ascension.  We feel ennobled thinking of being imbued with Christ-like graces.  We feel like we've been to church!

And then comes verse 5. If verse 3 ("rich in things and poor in soul") described the Laodicean condition that our affluent suburban churches find ourselves in danger of, verse 5 describes, well, me.  Oh, how many times I have weakly resigned.  I am lacking in the spirit of Winston Churchill. As has been well-established, I am not good enough.  But I can know His salvation, and I can share in His glory.  And from the depths of that weak resignation, I am raised to serve Him Whom we adore.  Amen!