Thought of the day – Friday 17th April 2020
Hymns & Psalms 740 My God, I know, I feel thee mine
verse 2
I hold thee with a trembling hand
But will not let thee go,
Till steadfastly by faith I stand
And all thy goodness know.
The initial reaction to the words of verse 2 might well be to see them as a description of feeling or emotion but that would be only true in part.
Lines 1 and 2 certainly can be understood in that way but look at lines 3 and 4. They speak of unwavering faith and the righteousness of God imparted to the believer (by the Holy Spirit). Don’t these lines express a spirituality (faith and goodness) which is the aim and object of the hope expressed in the first 2 lines ?
So, the first impression could well be that of emotion but the second half of the verse moves on decidedly to spirituality. Emotion and spirituality may seem the same but they are not; they are easily confused. Our faith may waver, so the poet says, when besieged by adverse circumstances, for example, but our determination to stand firm in our faith is reminiscent of wrestling Jacob who said to God ” I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 36 v 26)
Writing to the Christians in Colossae, St Paul rejoices with them in the ‘firmness of their faith in Christ.’ (Colossians 2 v 5)
In sum, the present tense uncertainty of the first two lines is completed by the future tense confidence of lines 3 and 4. How grateful we should be for the sublime poetry of Charles Wesley who clearly possessed that easy and enviable skill of expressing both his feelings and his faith in his verse (and the music ‘Warwick’, one of the set tunes for this hymn, is not bad either !).