Saturday, January 2, 2016

A Prayer to the Triune God

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
{2 Corinthians 13:14}

This poem was inspired by a class I took last fall called Jonathan Edwards Seminar. In this class, we primarily studied Edwards’ Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World. I was amazed to see how central the doctrine of the Trinity is to Christianity! God the Father is the Divine Essence, God the Son—Jesus—is the perfect Image of God who became fully human yet remained fully God through the Incarnation, and God the Holy Spirit is the Person who is the love of God that exists within the Trinity and between God and believers. There is so much depth to the doctrine of the Trinity, and this poem is my attempt to begin to describe this reality. The first stanza describes God the Father, the second describes Jesus, the third describes the Holy Spirit, and the last is a collection of my thoughts after contemplating our magnificent God. There is no other God like Him! “Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears” (2 Samuel 7:22).

You’re the matchless, invisible, only-wise King,
Divine Being and Existence who knows everything.
From eternity past, You existed alone,
With the Son and the Spirit, You reigned on Your throne.
You’re the Fount of the Godhead from whom goodness flows,
The One who alone all eternity knows.
You’re the Lover who gave up Your Son for our sin;
Before the foundation of the world, You chose us in Him!
The Fall was Your plan, for a Redeemer You are,
And You know our insidious thoughts from afar.
We could not save ourselves; in our sins we were dead
Until You sent Christ to be our Living Head.

Jesus—the image of God who’s on high
Who for our salvation did suffer and die.
From the foundation of the world, You were the Lamb that was slain
That nothing-based creatures may have life in Your name.
You’re the firstborn of Creation by whom all things were made,
The One who, in all things, Your Father obeyed.
Son of Man who was sinless in word and in deed,
Now our faithful High Priest who for us intercedes.
You are His pure, righteous, begotten Son,
The Beloved of God who for our sake did come.
Though He ascended on high, this was truly the start
Of the age when the Spirit would be shed abroad in our hearts.

You are Love; You are Beauty; You are Life; You are Peace;
You’re the One who causes our doubting to cease.
In those whom You’ve chosen, You live and abide
So we ever may look more like Jesus inside.
You’re our Advocate pointing to what Christ has done,
Bearing witness with our spirit that we indeed are God’s sons.
Before God the Father, You for us intercede;
When we don’t exalt God, Jesus’ blood You do plead.
You’re our Comforter, Counselor who will keep us in strife,
And one day to our weak, mortal bodies give life.
You’re the Presence of God and the Beauty we see;
Until Jesus comes back, You are our guarantee.
You remind us of promises faithful and true—
Holy Spirit, keep our ears ever open to You.

Holy God, You are One—and yet You are Three;
Each of You is involved in the salvation of me.
I bow down in awe at the thought of Your grace;
O LORD, may I ever Your sovereign name praise!
You are awesome and glorious, beyond all I know,
And I pray that in my life Your greatness would show.
I’m redeemed, in the wisdom of God, through the Lamb;
Truly it’s by Your grace that I am who I am!
Why You chose to create is still a mystery so deep.
For Your creatures who don’t know You, O LORD do I weep!
May You show them Yourself in all of Your glory
That their true selves in Christ they may be more fully.
O LORD, take me deeper; I want to know more,
To behold Your sweet glory and Your name adore.
Since by You and through You and to You are all things,
Throughout endless ages to You will I sing.
I was lost but am found, so my life now I bring;
Be worshiped forever, dear Yahweh, my King.

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