4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Notes
This one is spoken, not sung, and that is right - it is less a song than a verdict read over the age we live in. In this age of self-promotion, where the church exalts man's dignity, and pride is the guiding light. The song's quarrel is not only with the world. It is with a church that has learned to flatter the very thing God opposes.
Against all of that it sets one verse, Isaiah 66:2 - to this man will I look, even to him that trembleth at My word. God's gaze does not go to the impressive. It goes to the contrite. And the song will not soften the hardest part of it: no man can know the grace of God until his heart is broken and torn. Brokenness is not the wreckage grace has to work around. Brokenness is the door grace walks through. Job had to see himself in dust and ashes before he saw God in His majesty, and the one came with the other.
So the prayer at the end is one I mean every time I pray it: evermore break our hearts before You. That is a strange thing to ask for, and the self-promotion age would call it morbid. It is not. It is asking for the one condition in which the grace of God can finally be known. A broken heart is not God breaking you. It is God getting to you.
Lyrics
In this age of self-promotion,
Where men demand their rights,
Where the church exalts man's dignity,
And pride is the guiding light.
A contrite spirit, a subdued will,
Are rare things, hard to find,
But God looks to those who tremble
And have a broken heart and mind.
Preachers of deceit have capitalized
On man's natural pride,
Their theology is flesh-pleasing,
And God's honor is set aside.
But the Lord God looks to those
Who are poor and contrite in heart,
And only brokenness can build His kingdom,
A brokenness that sets us apart.
No man can know the grace of God
Until his heart is broken and torn,
Until he sees the Lord in all His holiness,
And himself in all his sin and scorn.
Like Job, who saw himself in dust and ashes,
And saw God's majesty and might,
The broken heart will always vindicate God,
And walk in His truth and light.
So come to the cross, and be broken,
May the crucified Christ be revealed,
May your heart be shattered by His love,
And His grace to you be sealed.
O Lord, evermore break our hearts before You,
And make us humble and true,
May we honor You and vindicate Your name,
In all we say and do.
Commentary