A NEW HYMN—“THE MEANING OF HUMAN LIFE”

Another new hymn for this gospel campaign is “The Meaning of Human Life”:

1. God made man a vessel he
   With a spirit, soul, body.
   God to man his content be
   That through man His glory see.
   
   
2. Man does have God’s image true,
   Noble in his status, too.
   But God’s life man also needs
   Divine nature to receive.
   
   
3. Christ in death as God expressed
   Man redeemed, His blood was shedd’st.
   In His resurrection He
   Enters us our life to be.
   
   
4. Man without Christ will perceive
   That all things are vanity.
   Human life is meaningless
   Without hope or purpose.
   
   
5. But when man takes Christ as life,
   He’s in spirit born anew.
   When he daily lives by Christ,
   Vanity is turned to song.
   
   
6. Therefore, man can God express
   That the whole world he would bless.
   Living water flowing out
   People’s thirst to satisfy.
   
   
7. When in glory Christ returns
   Glorified our body be
   To His glorious body conformed
   With Him for eternity.

In order to know a hymn, we first need to learn to pay attention to its special features. Sometimes only a few lines or stanzas of a hymn are good, or perhaps only a certain part is outstanding. For example, the hymn “The Meaning of Human Life” has seven stanzas, but stanzas 4 and 5 are the best. Stanza 4 speaks about man’s sense of vanity and emptiness, and stanza 5 speaks about man’s experience of joy and satisfaction. When we preach about the meaning of human life, we need to speak about man’s sense of vanity and emptiness on the negative side and man’s experience of joy and satisfaction on the positive side.

Stanza 4 is the peak of this hymn on the negative side. It does not merely say that all things are vanity. Rather, it says that man perceives that all things are vanity. Vanity is not a doctrine or a theory that convinces people in their mind. Vanity is a feeling of human life and the conclusion of human experience. Furthermore, this stanza repeatedly uses the word without to intensify the feeling of vanity. On the other hand, stanza 5 is the climax of this hymn on the positive side, describing the human life of vanity being turned into song. When the human life is full of joyful singing, it is full of song. These two stanzas comprise a complete gospel message.