Church-lock and key
The Locked Ear and the Blaming Heart
The speaker confesses that sin deafens God to his prayers, yet he still blames God for the coldness of his own desire.
I know it is my sin that locks your ears and binds your hands, outshouting my requests, drowning my tears; or else the chill of my faint demands.✦ But just as cold hands get angry with the fire and keep mending it all the same, so I put the shortfall of my desire not on my sins or coldness, but on your will.
The Blood That Pleads Louder
Despite sin's accusing voice, the speaker appeals solely to Christ's blood, which cries out more powerfully than any obstruction.
Yet hear, O God—only for the sake of his blood, which pleads for me: for though sins plead too, still, like stones, they make his blood's sweet current much louder.1
Read the original English
I Know it is my sinne, which locks thine eares, And bindes thy hands, Out-crying my requests, drowning my tears; Or else the chilnesse of my faint demands.
But as cold hands are angrie with the fire, And mend it still; So I do lay the want of my desire, Not on my sinnes, or coldnesse, but thy will.
Yet heare, O God, onely for his blouds sake Which pleads for me: For though sinnes plead too, yet like stones they make His blouds sweet current much more loud to be.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.59.1-Isa.59.2 — Look, the LORD's hand is not too short to save, and his ear is not too heavy to hear. Isa.59.2 — But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear.
Notes
- 1 ↩Herbert's image treats sins as stones in a stream: they do not silence Christ's blood, but force its 'sweet current' to speak more loudly on the speaker's behalf.
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