BLAME THE TABLECLOTH?

It had to be the snowflake-decorated tablecloth that I put on our table after Christmas. Off went the one with little Christmas trees, on came the blue plaid snowflake one. And finally we got the winter snow that leaves life-sustaining water in our foothills and mountains. Uncountable flakes left an eight-inch blanket in our valley (more in the hills). Of course, the tablecloth had nothing to do with it, but the fresh snow always reminds me of the hymn, “Whiter Than Snow.”

How many years had I sung this in church without knowing its background?  The man who wrote its lyrics, James Nicholson, wasn’t prolific like Fanny Crosby or Charles Wesley. Just a handful of hymn lyrics came from his pen, this being the most enduring. Born in Ireland in the 1820s, he immigrated to America in the 1850s. He lived in Philadelphia where he worked as a post office clerk and was active in the work of a Methodist-Episcopal Church. He later transferred to a postal job in Washington D.C. where he was living when this hymn poem was published in 1872.

Its tune came from the pen of a bookbinder, William Fischer, who became a music teacher and song leader. Fischer also associated with the D.L.Moody/Ira Sankey campaigns, leading the 1,000-voice choir in the huge tabernacle in Philadelphia. The hymn grew in popularity with its inclusion in Gospel hymn books that grew out of the crusade ministry.

So much for history, more for inspiration. The song anchors on David’s prayer of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).

Its opening lines should reflect the heart of anyone who is listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit regarding sin in his or her life:  “Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole; I want thee forever to live in my soul. Break down every idol, cast out every foe. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”

How often have you heard someone say, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” or, “I’m not that bad a sinner”?  Yet God knows every deceitful excuse in our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). In a little book I often re-read, The Pursuit of Holiness (NavPress, 1978), Jerry Bridges (then of The Navigators ministry) wrote (p. 74):

The heart...excuses, rationalizes, and justifies our actions. It blinds us to entire areas of sin in our lives.  It causes us to deal with sin using only halfway measures, or to think that mental assent to the Word of God is the same as obedience (James 1:22).

Not so. David’s model prayer (Psalm 139) asked God to see if there was “any hurtful way in me”—not hard for God!—and “lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).

One thing about tablecloths: sometimes they have to go in the wash. More so, the human heart.  And thus the value of “cleansing” in the Word. In my daily “devotional” visits, I always find something that applies to my life or that directs my prayers for myself and others.  “To those who have sought Thee,” the hymn concludes, “Thou never saidst, ‘No,’ Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”