Comment on a Hymn

'Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder'

The hymn is a call to the people of God to respond to what He has done. So there is the call to love, the call to sing and the call to wonder. It's that last one that I want to draw your attention to.

To wonder can mean to think or speculate about, 'I wonder why he's doing that'. It can also mean to doubt, 'I wonder if he'll actually show up'. But the hymn writer wasn't using our word in either of these senses. No, he was calling the saints to marvel, to be amazed, to be awed. He is convinced that responding to Jesus in this way makes sense. And to persuade us, he lists several reasons in the hymn.

We live in a day when wonder is in short supply - that is, unless it's about some athletic display or human catastrophe or the like. But being in wonder about Jesus is not so very common. And yet, it is this wonder at Him and what He has done that motivates saints to live in a way that makes a difference.

In singing this hymn we are agreeing with our author, and we are joining him in calling all the saints to respond similarly.

Let us love and sing and wonder,

Let us praise the Savior’s name!

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,

He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.

He has washed us with His blood,

He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord who bought us,

Pitied us when enemies,

Called us by His grace, and taught us,

Gave us ears and gave us eyes:

He has washed us with His blood,

He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation

Threaten hard to bear us down!

For the Lord, our strong salvation,

Holds in view the conqueror’s crown:

He who washed us with His blood

Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder, grace and justice

Join and point to mercy’s store;

When through grace in Christ our trust is,

Justice smiles and asks no more:

He who washed us with His blood

Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus

Of the saints enthroned on high;

Here they trusted Him before us,

Now their praises fill the sky:

Thou hast washed us with Your blood;

Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!