Search Me, O God
James Edwin Orr was known as one of the world's leading experts in Christian revival and evangelism. His classic song "Search Me O God" was inspired by a particular mission trip to New Zealand.
It's time for another Friday Classic Hymn. Thank you for joining me and I really hope you're still enjoying the series. I love these old songs and one popped into my head a few weeks back. It's kind of been floating around my mind, so I looked up the story and thought I would share it as a Friday classic.
It's originally called "Cleanse Me", although most people know it as "Search Me O God" - the first line. What do you know of this song? I only learned this when I was at my previous church, Maccabean Methodist, and it was in the book there. I learned it for a service - I think we only sang it that one time, but it's a beautiful song.
Do you have any memories of this song? Does it have some sort of special place in your journey? As we go through it today, what words jump out at you? Share your thoughts and reflections below, and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. I hit 40,000 subscribers this week - I can't believe it! A year and a bit ago I was trying to push for a thousand subscribers, and here I am on 40,000. I'm so humbled by your support for the work I do. Thank you. Please subscribe if you haven't, and share these videos around.
Let's talk about the history of this great song, "Search Me O God".
The Story Behind "Search Me O God"
This is one of the more recent ones that I've done in the series, having been written in the 1930s by a man named James Edwin Orr. He was born in Northern Ireland, and as a young man became quite a passionate evangelist, started touring the world evangelising. Him and his wife did this for many years. He in fact got ordained as a Baptist minister in 1940 and worked as a chaplain in the US Air Force in the Second World War.
Orr was passionate about revival and he would travel the world to speak about the revival that can come when hearts are cleansed by God and given over to the authority of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Billy Graham wrote this about him: "Dr J. Edwin Orr, in my opinion, is one of the greatest authorities on the history of religious revivals in the Protestant world." He had a remarkable ministry and received many doctorates from different universities as he studied theology in all sorts of different shapes and forms, and did wonderful work preaching and inspiring revivals wherever he went.
It was on one of these revivals, although still as a young man, that this song "Search Me O God" came about. In 1936 he was involved with a revival in New Zealand, and leading up to Easter there had been this great expectancy among the people and a great openness to the work of the Spirit. Many lives were changed, and on Easter Sunday they had a wonderful time there. They had to add an extra service because there were so many people who couldn't get to the service or couldn't get to the front of the altar. They ended up adding a midnight service so that they could get to all the people and pray with them.
When he was leaving New Zealand after this wonderful time of great revival and outpouring of the Spirit, Orr records that four girls came to him and began to sing a traditional Māori song, just as a thank you for the work that he'd done. He listened to this beautiful melody that they sang and decided to write some words to it - some words in English that he could understand. Out came this song about being cleansed by God.
As I said earlier, it's actually called "Cleanse Me", although we know it as "Search Me O God". The song became a classic, and even though he's written many books, the song is probably the most well-known of all the things that he wrote. Dr Orr carried on doing great work lecturing, writing, touring, preaching, and died in 1987 after a precious, cleansed and consecrated life in God's service.
Let's take a look at the words that he wrote.
What Do the Lyrics of "Search Me O God" Mean?
There are four verses in this hymn.
Verse 1
The first one says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart today."
This comes straight out of the Psalms. If you go to Psalm 139:23-24, David wrote, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Orr was obviously using this as his inspiration.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart today."
That's a real brave prayer if you mean it. To ask God to try you and know your inmost parts is a pretty hectic thing to actually ask. Many of us harbour deep secrets, deep shames, deep traumas. So to ask God to search you and know your heart is a brave thing to do. But of course, it's a wonderful thing to do, because only God can take what's in there and heal it and use it for something wonderful.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts, I pray."
Not just my heart, but my thoughts. What am I thinking about? Is your thought life a Christian life? Do you think Christianly, or do you just talk Christianly while you think otherwise? I think it's a great idea to always give your thoughts to God. It reminds me of Paul saying that our minds should be renewed by the Holy Spirit in Romans 12. It's a powerful thought - your mind should be honouring God.
Orr goes on: "See if there be some wicked way in me; cleanse me from every sin, and set me free."
There's the title of his song - "Cleanse Me". He was opening himself up to God here, saying, "Search me and see if there's anything in here that You don't like - something wicked, something in my thoughts or my heart that shouldn't be there - and cleanse me of that. Please cleanse me from every sin and set me free."
This is a wonderful prayer to pray. Maybe you need to pray it today and ask God to cleanse you, to forgive you for things that you're harbouring in there, but also to cleanse you from its power, to set you free. I love that - don't just cleanse me, but set me free. In other words, let this thing no longer have power over me. Have you prayed that? Do you ask God to cleanse you and set you free from sin?
Verse 2
Verse two goes on to say, "I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin."
Now it's happened. He's asked for it and it's happened, and I think that's a powerful thing. When you sing the song, don't miss that. If you ask for it, believe it, and God will cleanse you, and then you can praise Him for it.
"I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
fulfil Thy word and make me pure within."
He's wanting God to not just cleanse him from the stains, but to make him a pure person and to make him a holy person. Great prayer to pray.
"Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame."
I love this. Let the fire of shame burn out; instead, fill me with fire of holiness, with a fire and a passion that burns like fire for You. I love that.
"Grant my desire to magnify Thy name."
I want to magnify You, Lord, but please grant that desire. I think this is also an important point - he's asking God to make it possible. He's relying on God's grace so that he can honour God. He realises by myself I can't honour God, but if You filled me and cleansed me and made me pure and filled me with fire, then I'll be able to magnify Your name.
Your good deeds that you seek to do for God - yes, you have to do them by effort, but are you relying on God's grace to allow you that? Or are you saying, "God, look what I can do," rather than, "God, help me by Your grace to do it"?
Verse 3
Verse three goes on: "Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine;
fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine."
He realises his heart is unable to do it, but if God would pour out His love - His divine love - then this heart of his will be able to honour God.
"Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
I now surrender, Lord - in me abide."
This is a complete consecration he's making. It reminds me very much of that hymn, "Take My Life and Let It Be", which I've also done a Friday classic on, by the way. Great prayer - take all that I have: my will, my passion, myself, my pride. I surrender it all to You. Lord, in me abide - saying, "I want You to lead the way, not my own desires any more."
What a prayer. Can you pray that today and mean it? Not just pray it, but actually live it? Actually surrender daily? Because this is a choice you have to make daily. It may be that you make that decision and you have that moment, but if you don't confirm it every morning, then it's going to mean nothing.
Verse 4
Then verse four - he speaks about revival.
"O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee."
Now he's thinking of it broader than just himself, although he says, "Send a revival, start the work in me."
Start here within, but then let it spread. Let there be a revival that comes out of the work that I do. Of course, this makes sense - this is the very life that he went on to live, isn't it?
"Thy word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
for blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead."
He's saying, "I want to do good work for You; supply this need." Do you hear this humility of him saying, "I can't do this, Lord. Please supply what I need - Your blessing, Your power, Your cleansing - so that I may live the life I want to live in Your honour"? I humbly plead for this.
Conclusion
This is a very deep prayer and it's a beautiful prayer. I wonder if you need to start singing this more often. I'm reading this saying I should sing the song often, because it's a wonderful statement of consecration, isn't it? Cleanse me, search me, and Lord, by Your grace, make my life something meaningful.
What words meant something to you as we went through it? Did a certain phrase or a certain line or a certain verse jump out to you? I hope that it's motivated you today to offer yourself to God truly in all areas of your life, so that you may honour Him in all that you do.
Before we finish, just a big thank you to all those who support the work I do online. Thank you for your donations on PayPal, and thank you to those who subscribe to me on Patreon. Thank you very much. I'm so grateful that I can sit in the studio once a week and do this type of thing because you support me. I'm so grateful. Thank you.
References
https://hymnary.org/text/search_me_o_god_and_know_my_heart_orr
Osbeck, K.W. 1985. 101 More Hymn Stories. Kregel Publications: Grand Rapids
