Honoring Christ In HymnodySample

Consider today, this songs focus on the Triune Person of the Spirit of God. Often, the Spirit today is portrayed in services and singing as a toy that is abused, or a thing that is altogether left out. Consider the beauty of how this song portrays the life and personhood of our precious Holy Spirit. Consider also how this song highlights the nature of the Holy Spirit. The writer’s soul seeks not an experience, but rather the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify them and redeem and make new their character—for this is the greatest experience of all:

Verse 1

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,

No sudden rending of the veil of clay,

No angel vision, nor the opening skies;

But take the dimness of my soul away.

Verse 2

Have You not bid me love You, God and King? 

With all my own soul, heart and mind, and strength. 

I see Your cross; there teach me to it cling: 

O let me seek Your will, O let me find!

Chorus:

Spirit of God, descend on my heart;

Wean it from earth; through me move

Stoop to my weakness, mighty You are;

And make me love You as I ought to love.

Verse 3

Teach me to feel that You are always near;

Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,

Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Verse 4

Teach me to love You as Thine angels love,

One holy passion filling all my frame;

The presence of Your descended Dove,

My heart an altar, and Your, Your love the flame.

Part of the challenge of this study is to commission and call more modern-day hymn writers to rise up, so that the church can be blessed, enriched, and taught in deeper Trinitarian ways as a global Body.