Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
April 5, 2020
Editor’s Note: Sundays during Lent are known as “little Easters” when believers in the risen Christ join for prayer and worship. Today, we pause in preparation for our worship to God through a Lenten hymn or prayer. May these songs and prayers prepare our hearts to receive God’s holy presence and abiding.
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
(This hymn about God’s mercy was written by English minister Frederick William Faber {1814-1863}. It was first published in 1854 under the title, “Come to Jesus.” A later collection featured it with 13 stanzas, beginning with “Souls of men, why will ye scatter?”)
Souls of men, why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts, why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?
Was there ever kinder shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Saviour who would have us
Come and gather round His feet?
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea.
There’s a kindness in God’s justice,
Which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in heaven.
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgement given.
There’s a welcome for the sinner
And more graces for the good.
There is mercy with the Savior
There is healing in his blood.
There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed.
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of the mind.
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
We would gladly trust God’s Word,
And our lives reflect thanksgiving
For the goodness of our Lord.
‘Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
It is something more than all;
Greater good because of evil,
Larger mercy through the fall.
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would all be sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.