I Am Not Skilled To Understand
I Am Not Skilled to Understand
I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know at His right hand
Stands One who is my Savior.
I take Him at His word and deed:
“Christ died to save me,” this I read;
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior.
That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? so once did I
Before I knew my Savior.
And O that He fulfilled may see
The travail of His soul in me,
And with His work contented be,
As I with my dear Savior!
Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace, from this spring,
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!
NO DOUBT there were many things that Dora Greenwell could not understand. Though she was born into a well-to-do English family, her father died when she was young, and the family estate had to be sold. She struggled with fragile health as she lived alone in London. Why hadn’t God given her an easier life? She worked with handicapped and mentally retarded children. Why did they have to suffer so?
When she was thirty-nine, Greenwell wrote her first book, The Patience of Hope. She was beginning to see how important patience is for dealing with life’s hard questions. But she didn’t want to dwell on the unanswered questions; she preferred to think about God’s glorious exclamations. So when she compiled her book Songs of Salvation, she included this poem, “I Am Not Skilled to Understand.”
It was necessary for [Jesus] to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
Hebrews 2:17-18
From the book
