“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
Psalm 40:2
For 250 years people have sung John Newton’s hymn that “[t]hrough many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come.” He expounded on this:
“My history is briefly expressed in the following: ‘In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye’ Deuteronomy 32:10. ‘I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. … I will not forsake them’ Isaiah 42:16.
“He found me in a howling wilderness indeed! … He watched over me and kept me as the apple of His eye. When I was blind, He led me in ways which I knew not. … I was once an utter stranger to the paths of truth and righteousness. … And though my heart is prone to wander, He has kept me with a mighty hand. … How often has He made darkness light before me, and crooked things straight! … I [know] He will continue to do [so], for His promise is, ‘I will not forsake them.’”
“My history is briefly expressed in the following: ‘In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye’ Deuteronomy 32:10. ‘I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. … I will not forsake them’ Isaiah 42:16.
“He found me in a howling wilderness indeed! … He watched over me and kept me as the apple of His eye. When I was blind, He led me in ways which I knew not. … I was once an utter stranger to the paths of truth and righteousness. … And though my heart is prone to wander, He has kept me with a mighty hand. … How often has He made darkness light before me, and crooked things straight! … I [know] He will continue to do [so], for His promise is, ‘I will not forsake them.’”
Scripture Focus
Psalm 138
Insight
“How lost was my condition,/ Till Jesus made me whole!/ There is but one Physician/ Can cure a sin-sick soul!” (John Newton, 1725-1807)
Bible In A Year
- Isaiah 20-22
- Psalm 81
- Acts 1
