Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That ever mortals knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too poor to speak His worth,
Too poor to set my Savior forth.
The website gives all the original verses which are 12 in total, our hymnal only had 5 or 6. And as I love all the verses, I was especially blessed by this first verse, but oddly despite misreading them. Here is what I sang....
"are you too poor to speak His Worth, too poor to set my Savior forth"
And this convicted me greatly. Now yes, we are too poor to declare God's worth to the fullest; but the meaning I was using was, "Has God not blessed you and strengthened you enough that you will not speak His worth?" In Acts 3, the lame man had his legs restored, the strength restored, and he was leaping! If Peter had given him an apple, he might have been sincerely thankful, but still not strong enough to leap; If Peter had given him 3000 talents of silver then the man would have at least tried to leap, and yet not been strong enough to do so. In salvation Jesus has bore the justice and wrath of God on our behalf, Jesus has redeemed us and cleansed us; we have been adopted, loved, set free, and been made clean, partakers in heavenly places. In light of all that Christ has done for us and granted to us and secured for us, how would we respond to the hymn I misread..."are you too poor to speak His worth, too poor to set my Savior forth." The Queen of Sheba could not keep her amazement to her self, but behold, One greater than Solomon is here.
In a very weak illustration, what if a billionaire gave you a billion dollars and then afterwards said, "Meet me in the parking lot by your local gas station (mine is one-third of a mile away)" and I reply, "I can't get there it is too far, too hard, and I do not have the resources to get there." ??? God has given us His Word, His Son, His Spirit, His grace, and we beheld His glory; why aren't we serving Him and proclaiming Him and praising Him? Are you too poor? Has He not equipped you to do so? Is His equipping insufficient? Oh, how joyfully we should be leaping as well, we had lame legs that could not leap, and if you have been saved by the grace of God, dare not remained seated like a poor beggar; Leap, Serve, Obey, Praise God, Proclaim His Excellencies; Is your tongue lame still, that it cannot extol Him? Is your heart lame still, that it cannot love Him? Is your mind lame still, that it cannot declare Him.