Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (ELW 631, Verses 3 & 4)
3 Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4 Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee!
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise!
Devotion
This familiar hymn is written as a prayer focused around a progression of thoughts:
(1) praying for the Lord to come to us,
(2) expressing worship and praise to God in prayer, and
(3) hoping for the finalization of God’s new creation in each of us.
In stanza four of this hymn our prayer is for cleansing so that we might become what God created us to be. The line, “Pure and spotless let us be,” perhaps a reference to the Wesleyan belief in earthly perfection, was troubling to some Christians of his day. Yet his phrase, “changed from glory into glory” is almost a direct quotation from 2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV). Wesley describes that day in heaven when “we take our place” and “cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.” We are invited to look forward in hope to what is yet to come as a result of God’s love for us.
Prayer
Gracious Lord, may your hope and love always guide us in all we say and do here on earth, as we continue to sing your praise. Amen.