The last week has been rather horrible, with a rediculous mixup with a class i've been taking. Needless to say i haven't got much sleep and been struggling to keep the anxiety welling up inside me calmed.
We went to a Good Friday service at Mars Hill last week and one of the songs really struck me. I've been listening to it on repeat for a big part of the day and thought i'd share the words. Sometimes just reading and listening to what Christ did for us helps calm the soul and keep perspective. My chest is still stirring with anxiety, but my heart can be calmed by Him.
One Righteous Man - By "Red Letter", Based on Isaiah 53
All we like sheep have gone our own way
And distanced ourselves from our only help
One righteous man, God’s perfect plan
To pay for our guilt, tear down what we’ve built
Seeing His face, nothing would catch you at all
The world that He loved, despised him, this man of sorrows
First He’s betrayed, then taken away
His friends turn their backs and hang by their necks
Silent He goes, as one one who knows
Despite any plea, the verdict will be:
‘Guilty as charged! Now, beat him till no one can tell...
Who He once was, then hang up His body with nails!’
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations...
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely up there, our sorrow He bears
See how He shakes, life slowly escapes
The King is crushed, collapsing His lungs
Showering the...nations in blood
Yet this is the way His Father has chosen to pay
One righteous Man has many more righteous men made
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
