The phrase, “what joy shall fill my heart” was running through my mind this morning and then I recognized where it comes from. It is found in the final verse in a beloved old hymn, How Great Thou Art.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and proclaim, my God, how great thou art!
Have we lost some of our admiration of the greatness of our God? Do we fail to see our God displayed in the universe, in the stars or rolling thunder as the song says? Do we not hear Him any longer in the song of the birds or the rushing brooks or feel Him on the breezes? Have we become so jaded that we are no longer rendered breathless when we think about the cross?
There is another verse to that song that should leave us speechless with awe, overpowered by God’s abundant mercy and grace.
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.
We must return to the greatness of God. We must come back to the cross where God’s Son was not spared. We must be struck again by God’s majesty. We must see ourselves in the light of God’s holiness. We can no longer see our God the way the world sees Him, we must see Him as He is.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: How great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: How great thou art! How great thou art!
