2020 Daily Devotion - Day 58
George Matheson (1842-1906) was a pastor in Glasgow, Scotland. As a 19 year old student at the University of Glasgow, his doctors told him he was going blind. He was engaged to a young women who left him when she learned of the news. She said she could not go through life with a blind man. He was devastated by this loss.
Matheson’s sister learned Hebrew and Greek to help him through his theological studies and would later help him in his ministry. He became known as “the blind preacher”. But on the eve of his sister’s wedding, the shock of his earlier rejection by his fiancé opened the old wound. Now, at the age of 40 and alone in the parsonage, he felt devastated. It was on that night when he wrote the great hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”. It is a hymn of great assurance and comfort of God’s great love for you and me.
He said of the hymn these words, “It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes and equally sure that it never received, at my hands, any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.”
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by George Matheson
O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light, that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross, that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
This is why the Psalmist writes: Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:26
Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, we are grateful Your love never ceases. We can take comfort in knowing this great truth. We can find peace in the fact that Your love for us will not let us go. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Matheson’s sister learned Hebrew and Greek to help him through his theological studies and would later help him in his ministry. He became known as “the blind preacher”. But on the eve of his sister’s wedding, the shock of his earlier rejection by his fiancé opened the old wound. Now, at the age of 40 and alone in the parsonage, he felt devastated. It was on that night when he wrote the great hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”. It is a hymn of great assurance and comfort of God’s great love for you and me.
He said of the hymn these words, “It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes and equally sure that it never received, at my hands, any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.”
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by George Matheson
O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light, that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross, that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
This is why the Psalmist writes: Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:26
Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, we are grateful Your love never ceases. We can take comfort in knowing this great truth. We can find peace in the fact that Your love for us will not let us go. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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