Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 631)
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heav’n, to earth come down!
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter ev’ry trembling heart.
2 Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit
Into every troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit;
Let us find thy promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
3 Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more 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!
Text: Chares Wesley; Music: Rowland H. Prichard; Public Domain
Devotion
The third verse starts with a petition. The first two verses were also marked by petition: “Fix in us thy humble dwelling” (vs. 1) and “Breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast” (vs. 2).
“Come, Almighty, to deliver”—but deliver from what? The hymn writer leaves room for us to answer that question with our own life experience. When has God seemed remote to us? It is then that we cry out, “Suddenly return.” When does our lived experience raise the question of abandonment? It is then that we urgently pray, “Never… thy temples leave.” Remoteness and abandonment are the opposite of flourishing life and so we petition, “Let us all thy life receive.”
A fifth petition is implied in the phrase “we would be always.” There is a yearning to receive all of God’s life. As recipients of all of God’s life we would be blessing, serving, praying, praising and glorifying—God’s perfect love made perfect in us.
Prayer
God give us all the life you have to give. Perfect your perfect love in us. Amen.