Approach My Soul the Mercy Seat -- New Song (kind of) for Sunday Morning June 21st, 2020
It has been our practice at FRPC to introduce new hymns in our evening service. We typically sing a song for three to four weeks in a row in the evening service before using it in our morning service. This allows about half of our congregation to become familiar with the song prior to singing it together with everyone.
At the time of the shut down, we were learning Approach My Soul the Mercy Seat, and on March 15th we had planned to sing it in the morning service. But for the obvious reasons, we were unable to do this. Instead, we will be singing it this coming Sunday. It has been a few months since we have sung it together, so in order for us to be ready for Sunday we made a quick recording so you can practice! You will find it below, along with the lead sheet.
The genesis for the retuning of this hymn came while reading Sinclair Ferguson’s book The Whole Christ. The elders and deacons have been reading and discussing this together and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
From the inside cover of the book:
By revisiting the Marrow Controversy—a famous but largely forgotten eighteenth century debate related to the proper relationship between God’s grace and our works—Ferguson sheds light on this central issue and why it still matters today. In doing so, he explains how our understanding of the relationship between law and gospel determines our approach to evangelism, our pursuit of sanctification, and even our understanding of God himself.
Ferguson shows that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same: the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom we are simultaneously justified by faith, freed for good works, and assured of salvation.
Here is the pertinent section in chapter six (on legalism and its symptoms) where he quotes from Approach My Soul the Mercy Seat:
The children of God hear the whispers of the Evil One: “Look, you have sinned. You have broken God’s law. You are under condemnation. You are not qualified to be a believer.” Nor, surely, is there a gospel minister to whom he has not added the words, “…far less to be a pastor.” He knows he cannot destroy the salvation of God’s people; but he is bent, indeed hell-bent—as he was in Eden—on destroying our peace, liberty, and joy in God.
Where can we find refuge? The master spiritual counselor John Newton provides the answer:
Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
By Satan sorely pressed,
By war without, and fears within,
I come to thee for rest.
Be thou my shield and hiding-place,
That, sheltered near thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him thou hast died.
There and there alone is liberty from bondage.
He goes on to remind the reader of something that is peppered throughout the book: that we cannot separate Christ from his benefits.
What, then, is the remedy for legalism? At the stage we have reached in reflecting on the Marrow, it scarcely needs to be said. It is grace. But it is not “grace” as commodity, grace as substance. It is grace in Christ. For God’s grace to us is Christ.
Yes, it is the atonement; but not atonement as theory, or as an abstract reality, something that has an identity of its own outside of and apart from the Lord Jesus. For Christ himself, clothed as he is in gospel work, is the atonement—“he is the propitiation for our sins.”
Much of the teaching and preaching at FRPC over the last few years, especially in our studies on union with Christ and the Lord’s Supper, has sought to emphasize this very truth. And the chorus I added was meant to highlight this:
Be thou my hope, be thou my peace
Be thou my every grace, meet all my needs
Let me find your joy and sweet relief
As I come to you, the mercy seat
For I run to you, my mercy seat
Jesus doesn’t just give us hope, peace and grace, he is our very hope, peace and grace. It is his joy that we need. And we don’t go to an abstract place called the “mercy seat,” hoping that Jesus will meet us there. Jesus himself is the mercy seat we approach. It is in him and with him that we find relief, freedom, forgiveness and all the other gracious benefits of his life, death, resurrection and ascension.
We will be singing this hymn between our confession of faith and confession of sin on Sunday. It bridges the gap between those two very well, and it is a wonderful song to lead us into the confession of sin and assurance of forgiveness.
I pray the Lord blesses us as we join our voices together, crying out to him through this song!