Savior, When in Dust to Thee

Savior, When in Dust to Thee  by Robert Grant, 1779-1838

A recording is available here:  http://youtu.be/3RIypqGC6x4

1. Savior, when in dust to Thee
   Low we bow the adoring knee,
   When, repentant, to the skies
   Scarce we lift our weeping eyes,
   Oh, by all Thy pains and woe
   Suffered once for man below,
   Bending from Thy throne on high,
   Hear our solemn litany!

2. By Thy helpless infant years,
   By Thy life of want and tears,
   By Thy days of sore distress
   In the savage wilderness,
   By the dread, mysterious hour Of the insulting Tempter’s power,
   Turn, O turn, a favoring eye,
   Hear our solemn litany!

3.By Thine hour of dire despair,
By Thine agony of prayer, By the cross, the nail, the thorn,
Piercing spear, and torturing scorn,
By the gloom that veiled the skies
O’er the dreadful sacrifice,
Listen to our humble cry,
Hear our solemn litany!

1. By Thy deep expiring groan,
   By the sad sepulchral stone,
   By the vault whose dark abode
   Held in vain the rising God,
   Oh, from earth to heaven restored,
   Mighty, reascended Lord,
   Listen, listen, to the cry
   Of our solemn litany!

Luke 18:13

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

Two men went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a despised tax collector. One boasted of his righteousness to the righteous one, the other knew his sine and unworthiness before God. We acknowledge our utter dependence God as we bow down into the dust. Acknowledgment of our sins brings with it the knowledge of our guilt before God. How can we even lift our eyes to the cross, knowing ourselves as we do? Yet, God reached down from his throne to hear our prayers.

From Christ’s birth, through his sore temptation in the desert by Satan himself to that faithful day on the cross, through nails, thorns, and spear, God listens to our humble cry.

John 19:30

 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said: “It is finished,”  and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

With a deep groan, heard for millennium to come: “IT IS FINISHED”. We are redeemed from the grave. The grave will wait in vain for he is risen! He has heard our solemn litany!