Rock of Ages

Hear my cry, O God. Listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth, I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. King David. This is The Bright Forever.

The Bright Forever

Hello, and welcome to The Bright Forever, where we explore the power and the richness found within some of the greatest hymns of the faith. My name is Andy Peavyhouse, and I am your host and guide on this journey through hymnody. Happy as always to be back with you again this week. We are beginning to wind down our first season and we only have a few episodes left. I cannot tell you how much this season has meant to me as we began this journey together. Thank you to everyone who has been listening from the beginning and those of you who have just begun to follow us here. It truly means more to me than I can even express in words that you would listen and enjoy this podcast and the hymns and the stories we have been able to tell and discuss. Speaking of discussions, last week was amazing as I got to sit down and discuss Thy Mercy, My God with my dad, Steve Peavyhouse. He always brings such remarkable insight to bear through scripture and every conversation we have together. He's not here to correct me this time. So I will say again, he is awesome and a great man of God, a sinner saved by grace, but a wonderful man and a fantastic father. And I can't wait to have him on again. This week, we are diving into a hymn that, as a small child, I did not like at all. I don't even know why I didn't like it. I can only assume that younger me didn't understand what it was saying, and therefore didn't like it when we sang something that made no sense to me. However, today me is amazed by it. The today me and you are looking into Rock of Ages, Clef for Me, by A.M. Toplety. A.M. Toplety, or Augustus Montague Toplety, was born at Farnham, Surrey, England, November 4, 1740. He was the son of Major Richard Toplety, a Royal Marine who died in the Battle of Cartagena in 1741. Catherine, Augustus's mother, who was said to be, quote, a woman of remarkable piety, was left to raise her son alone. After the death of her husband, she and Augustus moved to Westminster. When old enough, she enrolled Augustus in the prestigious Westminster School in London. where he remained from 1750 to 1755. In 1755, mother and son moved to Ireland, and Augustus entered Trinity College in Dublin, from which he would graduate with a Master of Arts degree in 1760. Toplady was converted to Christ as a young boy of 16 while in Ireland. Of his conversion, Toplady wrote,"...strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought right with God in an obscure part of Ireland, midst a handful of people met together in a barn, and by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name. Surely it was the Lord's doing, and is marvelous." That man who could hardly spell his own name was James Morris, who was the pastor of this church and a good friend of John Wesley. Having been converted under Methodism, Toplady originally intended to become a Methodist minister. However, this changed when he began to observe more closely the differences between Arminianism and Calvinism. The Methodist movement was emphatically Arminian, and Toplady, as an offspring of that movement, first adopted that understanding. But Lewis Benson, in his 1923 Studies of Familiar Hymns, explains that Toplady studied the 39 articles of the Church of England, the Anglican Church. He became convinced of the Calvinistic perspective, and thus became a minister of in the Church of England, being ordained as a deacon in 1762 and then as a priest in 1764. Here's where this hymn story takes an interesting turn. Most hymns have been written out of some deep personal need or experience, whether it be through profound sorrow or tragic loss or because of great joy found in redemption through Jesus Christ. We have discussed on so many occasions how a vast number of these great hymns of the church have been born out of these times. You may have heard that this hymn was written when one day Toplady was traveling to a nearby village to preach. He was caught in a storm and took shelter in the nearby gorge. While he was waiting in the narrow gap in the rocks for the storm to pass, he was inspired to write this hymn when he was hiding in the cleft of the rock. But it turns out that story seems to be just a legend and not the real story at all. This hymn, not born of sadness or sorrow or tragedy, or stormy sanctuary, was evidently born out of a spirit of heated controversy. Though at first close friends, Toplety, like we said, was a Calvinist, had a falling out with John Wesley, an Arminian. Toplety, who in the words of one historian, was, quote, frankly, a bit of a jerk. Now, this particular historian's perspective came as the result of his view of Toplady's combative nature, evidenced in repeated vicious attacks against John Wesley. But Wesley was just as ferocious. Toplady once said of John Wesley,"...I believe him to be the most rancorous hater of the gospel system that ever appeared in this island." Wesley is guilty of satanic shamelessness, of uniting the sophistry of a Jesuit with the authority of a Pope. And Wesley gave as good as he got. Wesley wrote, quote, I dare not speak of the deep things of God in the spirit of a prize fighter or a stage player. Mr. Augustus Toplety, I know well, but I do not fight with chimney sweeps. He is too dirty a writer for me to meddle with. I should only foul my fingers. I read his title page and troubled myself no farther. Yet from that aggressive, some would say merciless debate lasting many, many years, came one of the most beautiful hymns of grace ever written for the people of God. In 1763, Toplady wrote a poem he titled, A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World. The poem was written as a satirical swipe at some of the Arminian beliefs. of John Wesley. Today, we know it as Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. save from wrath, and make me pure. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's commands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown... See thee on thy judgment throne. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Many, many years later, Dr. A.B. Grossart, a clergyman with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, said of this fight, We willingly... And with a sense of relief, leave unstirred the small, thick dust of oblivion that has gathered on Toplady's controversial writings. Especially his scurrilous language to John Wesley because of his Arminianism. As we do John Wesley's deplorable misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Calvinism. Throughout, Toplady lacked the breadth of the divine master's watchword, forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us, out of Luke. He was impulsive, rash spoken, reckless in misjudgment, but a flame of genuine devoutness burned in the fragile lamp of his overtasked Grossart even admitted that Toplady was a great man and that his greatness is the greatness of goodness. He went on to tell that he was a fervent preacher and that he genuinely cared about those within his fold and pastored them with love. It was only against the, quote, heretics that his criticism poured forth. I myself know some amazing pastors, wonderful men of God, who are loving and caring and pastor their churches with a deep reverence for the calling that God has placed on their life. And yet, at the same time, If you mess with their theology and their doctrine, they will tear you up. Whatever their disagreements, the one thing I'll tell you about this fight between Toplety and Wesley, it did produce one of the best known English hymns to ever be written. The most famous line in the hymn is rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. And it can be seen in so many different places in scripture. In first Corinthians 10, it is a reference to Christ where Paul refers to Christ as the rock of In 2 Samuel 22, it's used a lot. In verses two and three, it says, he said, the Lord is my rock and my refuge and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence. And then again, in 2 Samuel 22, 32, for who is God? And who is a rock except our God? And then again, in 2 Samuel 22, verse 47, David says, Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Christ is our rock and redeemer. But what is this cleft thing? Rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. What is this cleft? The rock being quote unquote cleft is split open or broken. We see it in Exodus 33 verses 20 to 23, where God hides Moses in the cleft. of the rock so that he as a sinner would not see God and die. He hides him in this little broken part of the rock where he can see God after he's passed by. He can see the back of him because if he sees the front, he is going to die. He's a sinner. He cannot handle the glory of God. Seeing the glory of God, it will kill him. And so God hides him. He saves him from that by hiding him in the cleft of the rock. Exodus 33, 20 through 23 says, Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Salvation was found in being in the cleft of the rock. The rock that was broken. hidden in the rock that was broken for us, hidden in Christ Jesus, the rock of our salvation, who was cleft for us, broken for us, so that we who are hidden within the cleft of this rock may find salvation. That was Rock of Ages, performed by Nathan Drake of Reawaken Hymns. If you have not had a chance to check out reawakenhymns.com, I encourage you to do so. It has some of the best resources to implement modern hymns into your worship services. Whether you are a worship pastor or a church looking to just add music contemporary, modern versions of hymns to your church service. Reawaken Hymns is a great way to do it. And I thank Nathan Drake again for allowing me to use his music on this podcast and let you, one, let you hear him and let you hear what he does at Reawaken Hymns, but also to point you in the direction of his website and the amazing resources that he has. And thank you, as always, for listening to this podcast. Please take a minute to subscribe or to follow this podcast on whatever podcast platform you can find us on, whether it's Apple or Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart, Stitcher. There's so many. And you can always find us at www.thebrightforever.com. And we want to hear from you. Let us know what you think about the show. Give us hymn suggestions, comments, stories, prayer requests, whatever you want to talk about or to tell us, send it to us. You can send your comments to podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, that is podcastatthebrightforever.com. Or you can go to our website, go to the Contact Us section, and you can fill out a message that way and submit it through our website. Again, thank you for listening. I hope you have a great week. I cannot wait. as we prepare and as we're getting ready for next week's episode. I can't wait to be back with you. I hope you have a wonderful week. Let me close us out in prayer. Father, thank you so much for being our rock of ages. You were broken for me. That we can hide and the safety and the salvation that is brought to us by your son, Jesus. And it's not our work. It's not what we can do, but it's you, God. It's what you've done for us. Your mercy and your grace that is poured out every day for us. When I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown and see thee on thy judgment throne, rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you all. Have a great week, and we'll see you back here next week. We're out.

We're out.