Monday Meditation: I Was Once A Stranger

 

"Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up
to David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as King and do wisely
and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely;
and this is His name by which He shall be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness"
(Isaiah 23: 5-6)

"She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus
(the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior,
for He will save His people from their sins, that is, prevent
them from failing and missing the true end and scope of
life, which is God.

All this took place that it might be fulfilled which the Lord
has spoken through the prophet Isaiah: (7:14)

Behold the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son,
and they shall call His name Emmanuel-which, when translated,
means, "God is with us."
(Matthew 1:21-23)

"Namely, the righteousness of God comes by believing with
personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ the Messiah.
And it is meant for all who believe.  For there is no distinction."
(Romans 3:22)

"Jehovah Tsidkenu"
Image courtesy/ArtBreak.com

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree
*Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage,
Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;
But e'en when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over His soul;
Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu-'twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see-
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Savior must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet Name;
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life giving and free-
Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu!  my Treasure and Boast,
Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne'er can be lost;
In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field,
My Cable, my Anchor, my Breast-Plate, and Shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,
This Watchword shall rally my faltering breath;
For while from life's fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu, my death song shall be.

"I Was Once A Stranger"
(1837)
Robert Murray McCheyne
(1813-1843)
Minister of Saint Peter's Established Church
(Church of Scotland)
Dundee, Scotland
Missionary to Palestine (Israel) and hymn writer

* Jehovah Tsidkenu is Hebrew for "The Lord Our Righteousness"