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
Again, we start with a petition: “Finish.” God has work to do. God has begun remaking us, creating us anew. We ask that God finish what God has begun. Make us pure and spotless. The assumption is that we are not yet pure and spotless. The restoration is not yet perfectly complete. As we sing, we acknowledge that we are impure, blemished, and in need of restoration. The great salvation we long to see is not a ratification of our merits. We don’t simply look back for a restored Eden. We look forward.
We sing of and yearn for a new creation, a change into a new glory and a new place. Whatever crowns we might bring are swept up (“lost”) into “wonder, love and praise.” When God finishes the new creation, we will join the shepherds and angels who started the chorus of “wonder, love and praise” for the “good news of great joy for all people” (Lk 2:8-20).
Prayer
Finish the work you have begun in us. Amen.