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Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
-Isaiah 40:28-31
This Sunday's closing hymn, "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" was written by Rev. Dr. George Matheson, a Scottish minister and hymn writer. In his twentieth year he became totally blind, but he was determined to enter the ministry, and devoted himself to theological and historical study. This hymn was written on the evening of his sister's marriage. Years before, when his fiancée learned that he was going blind and there was nothing the doctors could do, she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. His sister had been the one to care for him through the years, but now she was getting married and would no longer be there for him. Matheson was now 40, and his sister's marriage brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak. In the midst of this circumstance and intense sadness, he wrote this hymn. Matheson remarked:
Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression rather of having it dictated to me by some inward voice than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high. I have never been able to gain once more the same fervor in verse.
And this is the first verse many of us know:
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
When we take another look at the scripture passage for this Sunday, we are reminded that God is our source, our sustenance. We are told that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. When we are burned out and feeling weak (like many are right now due to pandemic fatigue and other circumstances) the Love that will not let us go will give us rest and renew our strength! This is very good news! We hope you will join us in worshiping the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth this Sunday!
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
that morn shall tearless be.
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