Thou hidden Love of God, whose height,
Whose depth unfathomed no one knows,
I see from afar Thy beauteous light,
And only sigh for Thy repose;
My heart is pained, nor can it be
At rest, till it finds rest in Thee.
Thy secret voice invites me still
The sweetness of Thy yoke to prove;
And fain I would; but though my will
Seems fixed, yet wide my passions rove;
Yet hindrances strew all the way;
I aim at Thee, yet from Thee stray.
O hide this self from me, that I
No more, but Christ in me, may live!
My vile affections crucify,
Nor let one darling lust survive
In all things nothing may I see,
Nothing desire or seek, but Thee!
O Love, Thy sovereign aid impart
To save me from low thought care;
Chase this self will from all my heart,
From all its hidden mazes there;
Make me Thy duteous child that I
Ceaseless may “Abba, Father” cry.
Each moment draw from earth away
My heart that lowly waits Thy call;
Speak to my inmost soul and say,
“I am thy love, thy God, thy all!”
To feel Thy power, to hear Thy voice,
To taste Thy love, be all my choice.
About the writer: Gerhard Tersteegen, a pious mystic of the eighteenth century, was born in Mörs, Germany in 1697. He was apprenticed as a young man to his older brother, a shopkeeper. He purchased a humble cottage near Mühlheim, where he led a life of seclusion and self-denial for many years. At about thirty years of age he began to preach in private and public gatherings. His influence became very great, such was his reputation for piety and his success in talking, preaching, and writing concerning spiritual matters. He wrote 111 hymns, most of which appeared in his Spiritual Flower Garden, 1731. He died in 1769.
Key Verse: For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. –Psalm 108:4