Do you ever talk to your soul? The Psalmists did this a lot, reminding themselves of truth in God’s Word, truths about who God is and what He is doing…even when we can’t see it.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God (Ps. 42:11 ESV).
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake (Psalm 23:3 ESV).
On the other side of the cross, we get to talk to our souls with the gospel of His wondrous love. In the hardships of their lives, the singers of God’s truths in this week’s hymn talked to their souls by singing to each other. They sang, stomped, clapped, harmonized.
Digging in, memorizing, clinging, knowing, believing, they sang to their souls with this song. Oh, my soul, let’s sing along.
The Lord’s Wondrous Love for Me
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul
“What Wondrous Love is This” (Anonymous, 1811)
We were cursed on that dreadful day in Genesis 3. Our souls are born separated from God, born as sinners. So, we rumble through a hard life of pain, all wound up and bound up with obstacles and difficulties, sorrow, and toil. Childbirth is painful, work is hard, everything decays. We get sick and die. We live in a sin-infested world and, no matter how hard we try to be good enough and obey God, we can’t fix things…and we can’t fix our in-born sinful souls and our own sinful ways (Rom. 3:10-12).
So, God did.
God came to earth, in wondrous love. Jesus perfectly obeyed God the Father, all the way to a horrific execution on the cross, bearing the dreadful penalty for sin that every human being deserves (Rom. 3:23). Now, repenting of our sin and turning to Christ, our souls are saved and redeemed by His victorious life, death and resurrection, absolved from all condemnation (Rom. 8:1) as His adopted children through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:5).
To [we] who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom. 4:24-25 ESV).
Oh, my soul, what wondrous love is this.
I will sing of Your love, Lamb of God
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
to God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
For believers in Christ, God’s judgment has passed over us, just as it did in Exodus 12. Jesus, Lamb of God without sin, without blemish, the perfect substitute for our sin, became the final sacrifice needed to pay for our sin.
His last words were “It is finished” (John 19:30). Redemption had been completed, voluntarily paid in full by Jesus who took our place. It’s over, forever.
Oh my soul, what wondrous love is this?
I WILL sing of Your love for me in Christ today
Lord, in this difficult time, help us to sing. Please enable us to dig in, memorize, know Your wondrous love daily by clinging to what You did for our souls. By Your Spirit’s work, in a deeply personal way, please help us to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19 ESV).
Father, we need Your help to daily sing the gospel to our souls. The gospel means You are always with us, dwelling in each believer by Your Spirit. In this beloved truth, You promise to quiet us with Your love (Zeph. 3:17). Please give us a quieted awareness of Your love as we sing of our hope in Christ, into our suffering today. Lord, strengthen and sustain us in the gospel so we might share Your wondrous love with others who need to know Your love in Jesus, our precious Savior. In His name we pray, amen.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day (Ps. 96:2 ESV).
This week’s playlist sings of the wondrous love of our Savior, about what He did for us in His perfect life, death, and resurrection. I’m praying it helps each of us to sing to our souls, turning theology into doxology as we sing praise to Him and walk in His love this week.
If my weekly playlist gifts would bless you, sign up here, beloved, and please pass this on to anyone who might be encouraged by it.
