We have been singing a new song over the last couple of months at Jonah’s Call entitled “Resurrection”. Here are the words:If one grief among my many
Had its full career
Surely it would carry my heart to death and fear
But You have spoiled my sufferings
With joy to entice relief
So come on sorrow
Come on pain
Come on crossesAnd come on graves(Chorus)
You turn every death into a resurrectionYou turn every death into a resurrectionYou turn every death into a resurrectionSo let all that's been left for deadBe resurrectedIf one fault among my manyHad its time of trialSurely it would leave me guiltyBeyond all doubt(Bridge)
Come aliveLet all that's dead
(Repeat)
The song has its origins in an Anglican Divine named George Herbert and its inspiration from a Presbyterian Pastor, Dr. Timothy Keller.
George Herbert, a 17th century Anglican poet, wrote a poem called “Joseph’s Coat.” The poem goes like this:
WOUNDED I sing, tormented I indite (write down),
Thrown down I fall into a bed, and rest:
Sorrow hath chang'd its note: such is His will
Who changeth all things, as Him pleaseth best.
For well He knows, if but one grief and smart (pain)
Among my many had his full career,
Sure it would carry with it ev'n my heart,
And both would run until they found a biere (a stand that holds a coffin)
To fetch the body; both being due to grief.
But He hath spoil'd the race; and giv'n to anguish
One of Joyes coats, ticing it with relief
To linger in me, and together languish.
I live to shew His power, who once did bring
My joyes to weep, and now my griefs to sing.
Tim Keller, author and pastor, actually turned me on to Herbert during one of his sermons about the story of Joseph in which Keller referenced “Joseph’s Coat”. In examining the hidden workings of God through suffering in the life of Joseph, Keller explains:
"Suffering, come on! There're two things you can do to me: one is you just hurt me, and because I know what God is doing, because I am going to trust in Him, all you are going to do is to make me richer, deeper, better, wiser, and ultimately a happier person. Or the worst thing you can do is to kill me, take off my head, and you will make me happier than before. Because I have a God who turns all deaths into resurrections - literally as well as figuratively! I have a God, who doesn't create evil, but He overrules it, so it destroys itself. I have a God, who turns all deaths into resurrections! Come on, graves! Come on, crosses!”
Keller continues…
"And when suffering comes, you will lose any sense of God's love unless you see: here is Jesus, the One who lost the Father's coat, so you can be assured that you have it. Here is the One who lost the Father's love, paying our penalty so we could know - in spite of our imperfect life - God loves us. Christianity is the only religion that even claims that God has suffered, that God has gone into that pit. That God is there. God suffered for you! So you're not alone. You can know, even in the midst of your suffering, that He loves you."
As we continue singing this song, my hope is that we will be fully aware that our God turns every death into a resurrection and that He is present and working even in the midst of the sufferings of our lives and world.w
