A Song Singing Me
Way back in the mid-1970s, my friend and co-pastor at Bethesda Fellowship, Terry Haugh, would often testify, “I woke up this morning with a song singing me.” This was his apt description of a phenomenon I’ve often experienced. Happy are the mornings when, as I awaken, even before I’m fully conscious and alert, I realize that the words of a particular hymn are being raised to God in my spirit. It’s often a way that the Holy Spirit sets the tone of my day. This past Sunday morning, the hymn was Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (with special emphasis on the closing lines which say, “‘Til we cast our crowns before Thee / Lost in wonder, love and praise.”).
This morning, the song was the main hymn-work of Edwin Hatch (1835-1889), a prayer for the fresh infilling of God’s Holy Spirit—Breathe on Me, Breath of God! It’s very special to go straight from a night’s sleep into the Throne Room with quiet, prayerful, and powerful words of worship springing up from deep within. May the words shared below be freighted with some of the blessing from this morning:
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
The full text of this (and many another!) hymn can be found in the Powerful Poetry section over at our parent site, FinestOfTheWheat.org.
