This week as I pondered what to write for my reflection, these lines kept coming to me;
Remember me
And
Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
However, I could not get beyond these lines. Yesterday, I was visiting a dear friend in the hospital. During my visit with her, I pulled out my phone and we sang Rock of Ages; and that has stuck with me.
Rock of Ages has been a popular hymn for many generations. It has proven to be the steadying hand and stable rock on which to lean on as life’s problems surge to overtake us.
The hymn was “written by the Reformed Anglican minister, the Reverend Augustus Toplady, in 1763 and first published in The Gospel Magazine in 1775. Traditionally, it is held that Toplady drew his inspiration from an incident in the gorge of Burrington Combe in the Mendip Hills in England. Toplady, a preacher in the nearby village of Blagdon, was travelling along the gorge when he was caught in a storm. Finding shelter in a gap in the gorge, he was struck by the title and scribbled down the initial lyrics. The fissure that is believed to have sheltered Toplady, is now marked as the "Rock of Ages", both on the rock itself and on some maps.
"When my eyes shall close in death" was originally written as "When my eye-strings break in death". There has been speculation that, though Toplady was a Calvinist, the words, "Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath, and make me pure," suggest that he agreed with the teachings of the Methodist preacher under whom he received his religious conversion, and of his contemporary, John Wesley, who taught the "double cure", in which a sinner is saved by the atonement of Jesus, and cleansed from inbred sin by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Toplady's own published hymnal of 1776, however, contains a variant which reads: "Be of sin the double cure, Save me from its guilt and power". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Ages_(Christian_hymn)
It is thought that Toplady got his inspiration from the bible verses of Exodus 33:22. God speaks to Moses, “22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;”
And Psalm 18:2
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
And 1 Cor 10:4
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
It is the Rock of Jesus Christ that provides stability, continuity and assurance each and every day of my life. He has been the Rock of Ages for many generations and will continue to be so long past our lifetimes. I pray He is your Rock as well. Lean on Him! Perhaps those two lines I started with, will fit into this reflection as we ask Jesus to "remember me" and to "speak Lord, your servants are listening."
Enjoy - Fountainview Academy - Rock of Ages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmboVILc4rw
Be warmed by the overpowering love of Jesus Christ.