“Purer In Heart, O God”

by Chris Simmons

Written by Fannie C. Davison (1851 – 1887) in 1877, her words remind us that we have a sobering responsibility to develop purity in our hearts and minds.

Throughout scripture, the heart simply refers to the mind of man – the center of his being. It refers to the “inner man” that requires God’s strength and renewal (II Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 3:16). It’s the part of man that every aspect of our life originates from. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-20 that everything that is produced in our life comes from our heart, whether good or evil. The word for “purity” comes from the Greek word katharos which simply means clean and pure (it is where we get our English words catharsis or cathartic from) and describes something uncontaminated with anything else. God requires those that seek to please God begin with a pure heart. David recorded in Psalms 24:3-4, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully.” Paul told Timothy in I Timothy 1:5, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” With so much at stake, let us consider some of the important lyrics to this song.

The first verse reads,

“Purer in heart, O God, help me to be; May I devote my life wholly to Thee. Watch Thou my wayward feet, Guide me with counsel sweet; Purer in heart, help me to be.”

We need purity in heart as we are called upon to maintain whole-hearted devotion to the Lord. It’s ironic that it was Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, who urged God’s people, “Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day” (I Kings 8:61) when it was he who allowed his many unlawful wives to turn his heart away so that it was said that “his heart was not wholly devoted the Lord his God” (I Kings 11:2-4). To remain wholly devoted and pure in heart, we are urged to beware of the paths of life that would lead us away from God. God certainly is aware whenever our life is wayward, but the question is are we? We read in Proverbs 4:25-27, “Let your eyes look directly ahead, and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.” To keep our feet on the right path, we must be guided by God’s sweet counsel – i.e., His holy word. In the famous 23rd Psalm, we are reminded that God, through our devotion and diligence, with His word will “guide me in the paths of righteousness.”

The second verse reads,

“Purer in heart, O God, help me to be; Teach me to do Thy will most lovingly. Be Thou my Friend and Guide, Let me with Thee abide; Purer in heart, help me to be.”

The pure in heart has a heart of humility that seeks to know what God would have for him to do. Such is expressed by David in Psalms 25:4-5, “Make me know Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation; for Thee I wait all the day.” Purity in heart never allows one’s own will to take precedence over God’s will. Purity in heart extends to our motives in our service to God as well. Our obedience is ultimately to be governed by love. John wrote in I John 5:2-3, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” Purity governs our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. If we are to be His friend, we will also obey Him as our guide. Jesus stated in John 15:13-15, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” The context of Isaiah 58:1-11 makes it clear that our humility, repentance, obedience, and service are what are necessary for the Lord to be our guide. Isaiah 58:11, “And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

The last verse reads,

“Purer in heart, O God, help me to be; Until Thy holy face one day I see. Keep me from secret sin, Reign Thou my soul within; Purer in heart, help me to be.”

Purity of heart in the present moment is needful – purity of heart all the days of our life is critical. Seeking to maintain purity until we stand before God approved on that last day is to be our lifelong pursuit. While man is in sin, no man can see God (Exodus 33:17-23; Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:10-17). Through redemption which is found in Christ, we can indeed see the King of Kings one day. Jude 24-25, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” That day is described in Revelation 22:3-5, “And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever.” To receive such a blessing, we must vigilantly guard against sins of ignorance or negligence by always studying and meditating on His word and committing our hearts to honest, faithful, thorough, and continual self-examination (II Corinthians 13:5). If we see the King of Kings one day, it’s because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ does indeed reign within even as Paul described in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

“Purer in heart O God, help me to be!”