Cleft For Me
I think one of the greatest songs ever written is Rock of Ages. You can sing it like this:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee—which is the traditional way.
Or there's the version that my friend Richard arranged, which sounds like this:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
That was the first song we ever recorded as Crossroad. So it's the first song of our first CD, and you can get the MP3 or the CD at crossroadband.co.za.
Power in the Lyrics
But let's talk about this amazing hymn. It doesn't matter which way you sing it—whether the old traditional way or the rocked-up version we do—it's the words that are important!
To be honest, it took me a while to understand what the song was all about. The words are kind of old English, and even though we've sung it a lot over the last 10 to 12 years, most of the time I didn't really know what I was even singing!
But now I love this hymn because, for me, these are some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. As you heard, the opening line says: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.
So God is the Rock of Ages. In Genesis 49:25, God is called the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. And throughout Scripture, that image of God as a rock is repeated. You find it a lot in Deuteronomy. And you also find it in the New Testament—Paul and Peter both refer to Jesus as the rock in their writings.
God Our Refuge
Maybe you need to hear this today—that God is a solid rock. When you are weak, He is strong. When you are feeling fragile, He is unflinching.
Knowing God as your rock can change your life, because you come to realize you don't have to be a rock. Your ups and downs are normal. He is the unchanging, solid One—firm throughout all the ages. Praise God for being the Rock of Ages today!
But the next little phrase is all-important. The song says: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee. Nobody uses the word "cleft" anymore. It means split apart. The story is that Augustus Toplady, who wrote the song in the 1700s, got caught in a violent thunderstorm. He took refuge in a nearby mountainside, where there was a big split down one of the rocks that he hid in. And he wrote:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
So get this, friends—the God who is solid, unflinching, unmovable—the Rock of Ages—He came to earth in human form as Jesus. And He was cleft. He was split apart. He was broken for us on the cross.
And so the way to God is now wide open through Jesus. His death has opened the way to God so that you and I can now hide and take refuge in Him.
So today, sing the words:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee—
and marvel at the God who is as strong as the strongest rock, even when you're weak, and who was split apart—cleft—so that we can hide in Him and be loved by Him.
