“The LORD our righteousness” by Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Jehovah Tsidkenu
“The LORD our righteousness”

By Robert Murray M’Cheyne
November 18, 1331

(The watchword of the Reformers)

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.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page;
But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu seem’d nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over his soul
Yet thought not that my sins had nail’d to the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu—’twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see—
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

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.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast,
Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost;
In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field—
My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,
This “watchword” shall rally my faltering breath,
For while from life’s fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.

–Robert Murray M’Cheyne and Andrew A. Bonar, Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Edinburgh; London: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1894), 574.

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3 Comments

Filed under Christian Theology, Imputation, Jesus Christ, Justification, Poetry, Quotable Quotes, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, The Gospel

3 responses to ““The LORD our righteousness” by Robert Murray M’Cheyne

  1. You always leave the best quotes! It is uncanny how often you leave one that is perfectly fitting to my current situation.

  2. Thanks for posting.

    Seems to be a typo – I suspect the year was 1831

  3. 2bjoyous

    Thank you for this quote. It so adequately describes the process to salvation- and the journey we all had to make from the world to Christ!

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