I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger and felt not my load:
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
JEHOVAH TSIDKENU was nothing to me.
My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free:
JEHOVAH TSIDKENU is all things to me.
After the passing of well nigh a century, "Jehovah Tsidkenu" (The Lord my Righteousness)
has lost none of its old-time charm. To-day, as then, its sweet yet rugged simplicity
marks it down as a hymn beloved. Claiming no high literary merit, but aiming only to voice the
deep, unfathomable joys of a soul redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, this old-fashioned
testimony hymn has sung its way into the hearts of ransomed ones, from the first days of the
Victorian era until the present time.
Robert Murray McCheyne was but a youth of twenty-one when, one bleak November day in 1834, just as he was recovering from an attack of fever, which had laid him aside on a sick-bed, he wrote the hymn, inseparably associated with a name revered not only in the land of his birth, but wherever these spiritual heart-breathings of a first love have found an honoured place.
He was born in Edinburgh on May 21st, 1813, and was the youngest child of the family. At school he made rapid progress, and at an early period became somewhat eminent among his fellows. At that time there were held in the Tron Church, in the interval between sermons, what our good Scottish forefathers reverently regarded as catechetical exercise. Accompanied by his parents, Robert was regular in his attendance on such occasions, and it was then that interest was aroused in the boy's sweet recitation of the Psalms and passages of Scripture.
After a period of six years, spent at the High School, where he gained some distinction in literature, he entered the Edinburgh University. Referring to McCheyne at this particular time, Dr. Andrew Bonar, his devoted friend and companion writes: "He had a very considerable knowledge of music, and himself sang correctly and beautifully. This was a gift which was used to the glory of the Lord in after days—wonderfully enlivening his secret devotions, and enabling him to lead the song of praise in the congregation wherever occasion required."
The death of his eldest brother, David, a faithful and promising young Christian, to whom he was greatly attached, was an event which awoke him to realise his condition as a lost sinner. Thus in His wonderful providence, the Lord called one soul to enjoy the boundless riches of His grace, while He took the other into the possession of eternal glory.
It was a few months before leaving college, that Mr. McCheyne wrote "Jehovah Tsidkenu," which reveals the sure and steadfast confidence of his soul. Some days later, on his recovery from the illness which had laid him aside, he wrote in his diary a short poem, commencing:
He tenderly binds up the broken in heart,
The soul bowed down He will raise:
For mourning, the ointment of joy will impart:
For heaviness garments of praise.
Ah, come, then, and sing to the praise of our God,
Who giveth and taketh away;
Who first by His kindness and then by His rod,
Would teach us, poor sinners, to pray.
Though still undergoing a student's usual examination before the Presbytery, we find him, at twenty-two, preaching in Annan Church, Dumfriesshire; thus began Robert Murray McCheyne's labours in the Lord's vineyard.
From the early days of his ministry Mr. McCheyne depreciated the custom of reading sermons, believing that to do so greatly weakened the power and freedom of the preacher in delivering his message. Though he possessed the gift of extemporaneous composition, this distinctive endowment did not in the least degree restrain him from making diligent preparation at all times. "The heads of his sermon," said one who was accustomed to hear him preach, "were not the milestones that tell you how near you are to your journey's end, but they were nails which fixed and fastened all he said."
In the year 1836, when he was twenty-three, Mr. McCheyne became minister of Dundee, where during the remaining years of a brief but beautiful life, he laboured with untiring zeal and fervour, the fragrant memory of which is undiminished, even to this day. One of his first efforts was to begin a weekly prayer meeting, and never had he any cause to regret having set apart one night in the week for this purpose, for some of the most precious seasons were at these meetings. Nor did the young minister confine his energies to the older members of his flock, but sought to encourage the various Sunday Schools in his parish. It was in connection with his work among the young, that, in 1841, he wrote the hymn "Oil for the Lamp," in order to impress the parable on a Sunday School class. It is an almost forgotten hymn of sixteen verses, telling in simple language the story of the Ten Virgins, and opens with the stanza:
Ten virgins clothed in white,
The Bridegroom went to meet;
Their lamps were burning bright
To guide His welcome feet.
Towards the end of his second year's ministry at Dundee, Mr. McCheyne's health broke down—the result of unremitting labour—and his medical adviser insisted on a complete change. This led him to accept an invitation to accompany a party about to set out on a mission to Israel. Murray McCheyne's visit to Palestine, his unbounded joy at being used in carrying salvation to the Jew as he had hitherto done to the Gentile, forms one long interesting record of that memorable mission, and is contained in a diary of these events, which he has left behind.
After an absence of some months, Mr. McCheyne returned to his beloved flock at Dundee, where he was received with the greatest joy. The years following were times of blessing and revival, which spread to many parts of Scotland.
Though Mr. McCheyne wrote a few hymns, one or two of which still survive, his name is best remembered as a faithful and beloved minister of the Gospel, rather than as a hymn writer.
After a comparatively brief ministry of seven years, Robert Murray McCheyne passed into the presence of the Lord, on March 25th, 1843, at the early age of twenty-nine.
Possibly his best loved hymn is the one originally entitled "I am a Debtor." It was written in 1837, and contains nine verses. Few hymn books give more than four verses, these having been selected as the most suitable for public worship. The opening stanza strikes the key note to the theme so tenderly expressed and sustained throughout the hymn:
When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When I stand with Christ on high,
Looking o'er life's history:
Then, Lord, shall I fully know—
Not till then—how much I owe.
From Stories and Sketches of Our Hymns and Their Writers by David J. Beattie. Kilmarnock, Scotland: John Ritchie, [1934].
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