Singing the Faith 390 My God, I know, I feel thee mine (verse 3)
When shall I see the welcome hour
That plants my God in me –
Spirit of health and life and power
And perfect liberty ?
You will already have noticed that this is a great hymn about spiritual experience.
In verse 3 Wesley continues to combine experience with teaching as he does in every verse in the hymn.. The pattern is the same throughout the hymn, ie the first two lines talk about experience – the timing of the experience – ‘welcome hour’, and the experience itself – ‘plants my God in me’.
The second couplet speaks of the result or consequence of the experience – ‘health, life, power and liberty’.
The underlying Christian message here is that we are imperfect human beings; the image of God in us has become distorted, tainted, flawed.
In order to regain the true image of God we need to be restored to the original somehow.
How to do it ?
Wesley gives us the answer. The Spirit of God has to be ‘planted’ in us (he has to be invited) and that brings about wholeness – health, life, power and liberty. The transformation restores in us the true image of God – but not in the twinkling of an eye; it is a process. As you become more like Jesus so you become more like the person God wants you to be.
John Wesley called the process ‘sanctification’.
There is an obvious paradox in the reference to ‘liberty’ in line 4.
Look at the first two lines of hymn 714 (Hymns & Psalms)
‘Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall be free…’
How can you possibly be free if you are a captive ?
The words of the collect for peace in the Book of Common Prayer repeat the paradox :
‘God… in whose service is perfect freedom’.