{"id":785,"date":"2017-10-03T06:22:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T10:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/?p=785"},"modified":"2017-10-02T21:57:04","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T01:57:04","slug":"behold-my-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/behold-my-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold, My Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sunlight<\/a><\/p>\n

Behold, my soul, what God has wrought
\nWhen by His grace my heart He sought,
\nWhen in His love and sovereign plan
\nHe chose to save a wretched man.
\nWhen God made heav’n and earth below
\nHe simply spoke and it was so,
\nBut when He sought my soul to save
\nE’en Christ, His only Son, He gave.<\/p>\n

Before God spoke and it was light,
\nBefore men fell in sin’s dark night,
\nThe Lord set forth redemption’s plan
\nThat grace might find this wretched man.
\nThat God would choose for Christ a wife,
\nAnd Christ would die to save her life;
\nThe Spirit then would call the bride
\nAnd draw her to her Master’s side.<\/p>\n

Christ left the glories of heav’n above
\nAnd took the form of those He loved.
\nHe shared our suff’ring and our strife
\nAnd lived a holy, perfect life.
\nHe found us dead and vile within,
\nRebels to God, condemned for sin,
\nDestined for wrath and hell’s torment,
\nYet blinded and in sin content.<\/p>\n

Yet in our sin, Christ loved us still
\nAnd bore the cross on Cal’vry’s hill.
\nHe took the judgment we had earned
\nAnd died as God’s fierce wrath did burn.
\nOur debt was great, none would suffice
\nExcept a perfect sacrifice,
\nAnd as the cross drew forth His blood,
\nAn off’ring rose before our God.<\/p>\n

His death has full atonement made!
\nThe debt we owed in full is paid!
\nHe purchased us with His own blood;
\nSuch love! Behold the Lamb of God!
\nWhen death and sin defeated fell,
\nHe trampled down the gates of hell
\nAnd rose victorious o’er the grave
\nTo live for those He came to save.<\/p>\n

He then ascended to the throne,
\nNow interceding for His own,
\nAnd for our comfort, help, and cheer;
\nHe sent His Holy Spirit near,
\nTo open hearts, convict of sin,
\nTo lead to Christ and dwell within,
\nTo daily bring supplies of grace
\nAnd hold us fast to Christ’s embrace.<\/p>\n

When by His grace my heart He sought,
\nBehold, my soul, what God has wrought!
\nThe measures to fulfill His plan!
\nThe cost to save a wretched man!
\nHe now prepares for me a place
\nAnd soon I’ll see Him face to face,
\nAnd wonder through eternity,
\nHow great His mercy shown to me!<\/p>\n

Words \u00a91992 Ken Puls<\/p>\n

I wrote this hymn after traveling on May 15, 1991 to attend a Wednesday evening service at Grace Church in Denton, Texas. John Marshall, who was the guest preacher that evening, spoke from John 1 on the theme: Behold, the Lamb of God<\/em>. He contrasted the simplicity of becoming a Christian (our responding in faith and repentance) with the difficulty (God\u2019s vast work accomplished through Jesus Christ to bring us salvation). I wrote in my notes:<\/p>\n

When God created the world, He spoke,
\nBut when He redeemed men:
\nHe came down\u2014He was born of a virgin\u2014He lived a perfect life\u2014He died upon a cross\u2014He rose from the dead\u2014He ascended to glory\u2014He sent His Spirit\u2014He promised to come again!
\n\u201cIt is a simple though difficult thing for one to become a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

I began writing the hymn the following day with these lines (that became the end of verse 1):<\/p>\n

When God made heav’n and earth below
\nHe simply spoke and it was so,
\nBut when He sought my soul to save
\nE’en Christ, His only Son, He gave.<\/p>\n

The hymn is a celebration of the gospel, patterned after the psalms where the psalmist would address his soul and sing to encourage and remind himself of truth (Psalm 16:2, 42:5, \u2026). The verses are my reflections on the message and effort to preach it to my own soul.<\/p>\n

Download the lyrics and free sheet music<\/a> for this hymn, including an arrangement of the tune DUANE STREET for classical guitar.<\/p>\n

More Hymns and Songs<\/a> from Ken Puls Music<\/p>\n

More Hymn tunes<\/a> arranged for classical guitar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behold, my soul, what God has wrought When by His grace my heart He sought, When in His love and sovereign plan He chose to save a wretched man. When God made heav’n and earth below He simply spoke and it was so, But when He sought my soul to save E’en Christ, His only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,22,102],"tags":[172,34,15,98,153,116,69],"class_list":["post-785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hymn","category-music-for-worship","category-songwriting","tag-atonement","tag-cross","tag-gospel","tag-hymn","tag-resurrection","tag-salvation","tag-song-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lLgO-cF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}