Make Me a Captive, Lord – is the title of a hymn by George Matheson.
It is a paradoxical hymn in the sense that in taking us captive, God actually frees us from our sin natures. Man naturally struggles against God’s will. Yet when we give ourselves to Him we can experience our greatest joy in all trials. Another paradox is that, because of our fallen sin natures, we cannot fully submit to Christ without the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
I learned of this hymn via a sermon by Alistair Begg. His text was 1 Samuel 19 which speaks of God’s Spirit intervention when Saul sought to kill David. Saul and his messengers were overwhelmed by the Spirit of God. Often we intend something but God is always sovereign. God took Saul captive – unwillingly.
There was also a certain paradoxical nature in the great revivals of the past. In some ways men seemed to take the initiative for revival. Sometimes it just didn’t come. When it did, at the center of it all it was always God’s sovereign action which fanned the flames. See Iain Murray’s book Pentecost Today?
Read the words carefully. There is deep theology in this hymn.
Make Me a Captive, Lord….
Make me a captive, Lord,
and then I shall be free;
force me to render up my sword,
and I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms
when by myself I stand;
imprison me within thine arms,
and strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
until its master find;
it has no spring of action sure,
it varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
till thou hast wrought its chain;
enslave it with thy matchless love,
and deathless it shall reign.
My power is faint and low
till I have learned to serve;
it lacks the needed fire to glow,
it lacks the breeze to nerve;
it cannot drive the world
until itself be driven;
its flag can only be unfurled
when thou shalt breathe from heaven.
My will is not my own
till thou hast made it thine;
if it would reach a monarch’s throne,
it must its crown resign;
it only stands unbent
amid the clashing strife,
when on thy bosom it has leant,
and found in thee its life.
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