Here's to the Middle Stanzas

It's the first lines of hymns that we tend to remember. In fact, many hymns are simply titled by their first line. The first lines are usually so majestic—they catch us; they lift us up; they bring us right into that spirit of worship and acknowledgment of who God is. And then, of course, a good hymn writer will save a final punch for the last stanza.

But what about the middle stanzas? We sometimes don't even sing the middle stanzas, and even when we do sing them, we sometimes just gloss over them. Well, let's correct that. Let's celebrate the middle stanzas by taking a look at three familiar hymns.

The first hymn is Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." It has that great first stanza and a powerful ending stanza, but let's not forget stanzas two and three: "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing." Luther knew firsthand that he had striven in his own strength throughout the years leading up to and in the monastery. He may have continued to strive in his own strength if it were not for "the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing: / Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He." So, in our striving is losing, but Christ has accomplished for us what we could not accomplish in our own strength. And He has secured for us the victory.

One of my favorite hymns is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." And that too has such a great first line: "Come thou fount of every blessing, / Tune my heart to sing thy grace," comparing us to instruments that are out of tune, in need of retuning in order to orient us toward God. And, of course, we have the great ending stanza: "Oh to grace how great a debtor / Daily I'm constrained to be!" But I love the middle stanza that says, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer; / Hither by thy help I'm come." This is a reference to the Old Testament. An ebenezer was a monument that marked a moment when God entered into the life of Israel and rescued them.

But there is another hymn that is probably not as well known as these two. It's an Isaac Watts tune called "How Sweet and Awesome Is This Place." I love the second stanza of this hymn: "While all our hearts and all our songs / Join to admire the feast, / Each of cries with thankful tongues, / 'Lord, why was I a guest?'"

This hymn well captures our response to the glorious gospel of grace. In this wonderful work of God, He takes our sinful hearts, which were at enmity with Him, and turns them around, and He brings us to himself. There is only one response available to us, and that is humble gratitude. And so, as Isaac Watts asks, so should we all ask, "Lord, why was I a guest?"