“Lord, May Thy Blood Now Cleanse Me” by Watchman Nee
Songs and Hymns of Life, #331
Post 2 of 2
Please sing through the hymn before reading through the devotional.
A link to the tune: https://hymnary.org/media/fetch/184960
Last week, we walked through the first two verses and chorus of this wonderful hymn by Watchman Nee. You are welcome to review that post prior to our continuing our enjoyment in this song.
Verse 1
Lord, may Thy blood now cleanse me,
Wash all my sins away,
That with Thy Holy Spirit
Thou may anoint, I pray.
My service, I confess, Lord,
Is failure-full and weak;
The filling of Thy Spirit
To live for Thee I seek.Chorus:
Oh, from myself deliver,
From all its misery,
I’d henceforth be forever
Completely filled with Thee.Verse 2
O Lord, how dry my heart is,
It yearns and pants for Thee;
The filling of Thy Spirit
Is now my fervent plea.
Within the smitten Rock, Lord,
I would entirely hide;
Pour through Thy living water,
Till I am satisfied.Verse 3
How cold my heart has been, Lord,
How slow obeying Thee;
So fill me with Thy Spirit,
I’ll ne’er rebellious be.
I lie upon Thy altar
And dare not move away;
Oh, may Thy flame descending
Consume my all, I pray.
Verse 3 continues the sober and honest thoughts and feelings that were found in the first half of the hymn. The first line of verse 3 is another line that I find it hard to believe that Brother Nee wrote. If that dear brother could say that his heart was cold, how much more should I! Can we be so honest with ourselves and the Lord? I personally must confess that so often my heart is so cold. More often than I like to admit when I hear the Lord speaking, I am so slow to obey and slow to follow Him. Oh, what a miserable self I have! How quickly do I fall back into my lukewarm life with a cold heart that doesn’t want to seek the Lord or follow Him! I can echo again with Paul, “What a wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24). But praise the Lord, He is able to deliver us from our self, and fill us with His Spirit! We have hope in Christ that will not disappoint! Our God is mighty to save! We have a Savior with a great salvation! On the other hand, can you remember an experience when somehow the Lord’s mercy was upon you, and even though the Lord asked you for something that seemed so large at the time, that you were neither rebellious or resistant, and simply said “Yes” to Him? If we have a life in the Spirit, being filled with His Spirit, there is His all-sufficient supply to carry out what He would lead us to do, as He works out in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
The second half of verse 3 beckons our attention to the Burnt Offering found in Leviticus 1. It is notable that this is the only offering in which the priest and/or offerer does not get a portion of the meat, it is simply all for God; the phrase ‘a sweet savor unto the LORD’ is found three times in Lev. 1. The Burnt Offering is all for God’s satisfaction. Now Paul begs us in Romans 12:1 that we would present our bodies as a living sacrifice. How is it then, if I am to be part of that sacrifice, that I so often climb down off the altar? Or try to keep a part for myself? As many times as I have said, “Lord, my whole life is Yours, for You alone!”, that many times and more by my words and actions I do not live this out. In Isaiah 61:8, the Lord uses some strong language and says, “I hate robbery with a burnt offering.” Dear friends, this must not be so! Let us not rob God of the sacrifice that can be satisfying to Him! Let us give ourselves completely to God. Let us lie on the altar, let us not move away, let us not try to spare some part of us in some act of self-preservation, as the Lord assures us that “whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25). May we sing with this hymn, “Lord, let Your descending flame consume all of me, all that I am” for You to have Your sweet-smelling savor, to be pleasing only to You.
Verse 4
Oh, may Thy Cross within me
Deepen its work and burn,
In me enlarge Thy measure,
And me to ashes turn.
Oh, may Thy Spirit fill me
Each day more than before,
And may Thy living water
On me and through me pour.
Verse 4 continues the thought of the Burnt Offering from verse 3, while connecting the altar with the thought of the Cross. Through our experiences of taking up our cross we deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24) and die with Christ so that He may live (Gal. 2:20), we die to world (Gal. 6:14), die to the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), and having our old man crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6) the end is that we would be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). Oh, how we need many experiences of the Cross to strip us of our old life to replace it with Christ! This is precisely the thought contained in these words: we need the Lord’s Cross to work more, to go deeper, so that His measure may grow and increase. The end of the Burnt Offering is a sweet-smelling savor to God—and a pile of ashes. As we decrease and He increases (John 3:30), we can have experiences of His Spirit filling us more and more, and not only will we have such a rich, deep enjoyment of the Spirit as the living water, but the Lord would flow those living waters out from us (John 7:38) and through us to so many others.
The essence of verse 4 is this: being poured out and burned up, not only to be a blessing to others, but to be satisfying to God and allowing Christ to be magnified. This is a theme that ran throughout Brother Nee’s entire life. When he was in his 20s, he was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease and told that he had only several months to live. By the Lord’s mercy, he was healed and lived for another four decades! Yet it was through this difficult experience that he had the deep realization that his life and ministry did not consist of outward, measurable results, but the intangible knowing and gaining of Christ and his pouring out his life (Phil. 2:17) for Christ’s glory and others’ benefit. He rejoiced to be poured out, to be turned into ashes, if God was satisfied and Christ’s life was expressed. What a testimony and example for us! May we also have the same aim to be pleasing to the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9) for His satisfaction, and to be a blessing to others, no matter what the cost. May the Spirit flow in us and through us more, that Christ may be pleased and expressed in us as well.
Praise the Lord for such a profound hymn! May the Lord touch each of our hearts and bring us into a deeper life with Him! May He gain us to be that whole Burnt Offering which would be so satisfying to Him and only Him!
A deep hymn like this may drive us to come before our Lord and consider our lives in His light. How has the Lord shone on you to expose your cold heart? Reflect on an experience in which you were filled with Spirit and somehow managed to not be rebellious to Him. Have you experienced in your life that you are a burnt offering to God for His satisfaction? How has the Lord increased His measure in you and flowed His living waters through you? I invite you to leave comments (that are not too exposing and personal) that may help to edify other readers.
