City on A Hill {In Jars of Clay #1}

 

 

(A Lament for the United States of America) 

The heavy hand of darkness cups the world,

I pause amid the lighted houses’ gleams

For though we see with light, the light we see

In this great darkness is not what it seems.

 

Our Source beholds us, though we see him not;

The sun still shines though darkness hides its light.

We revel in the lights that we have made,

And glory in the greatness of our might.

 

But when we find our strength is naught but breath,

This breath we have, a gift and not our own.

This fleeting life of days and days of breath

Will require a reckoning for their loan.

 

Time has a Maker as we all do too,

And now the minutes manage all we are.

A day shall come when time shall pass away,

And with the hours the sun, moon and stars.

 

Must our hearts dwell in darkness as our eyes?

Has not the God of all made it quite plain?

From the start though we shone upon a hill,

A city lit with light yet now in vain.

 

We claimed this home, though it was not our own.

We set our city high upon a hill

To show the world a true and better way;

But all we’ve shown is we are sinners still.

 

The God whose hand did form us in the womb

Who led us through the storms and raging seas

Who safely kept us in our wandering ways

Who bore the marks of mercy at the tree.

 

He calls us to come down from our high place

Where we think we shine for all the world to see.

This City on a Hill must bow in dust,

And climb up the hill that leads unto the tree.

 

Mercy shall not pour from light we’ve made

But from the wounds of Jesus we shall find,

A crimson flow to wash our stains away;

A loving God who is gracious and kind.

 

O City on a Hill, I beg you come.

Rend your scarlet garments stained with blood

Of countless crying voices to the Lamb

That your sullied feet have trampled in the mud.

 

The Light we sought to shine we traded in

We thought our hearts the brightness that we craved

We left the Light we had to weave new robes,

Shrouds of reason to prepare us for the grave.

 

O City on a Hill, now rend your heart.

This greatness that is yours shall pass away,

And when you’re left with ashes in the grave

Will not the Light you had torment your days?

 

O City on a Hill, TODAY yet stands!

Flee from your houses shaded by your ease,

Run up a different hill where true Light shines,

Forsake your light of darkness and disease.

 

O City on a Hill, once filled with hope

When you treasured God’s Word precious within

Till your reason rose to rule o’er your heart —

You ate the fruit of knowledge once again.

 

But hear the watchman crying in the night:

“Flee, O City, to Calvary’s perfect Light!”

For on that hill of darkness Jesus died,

He won the battle we could never fight.

 

O City on a Hill, forsake your way

And cleave unto the God you once did know.

Join Christ Jesus at the tree upon the hill

Where the true and better way Jesus shows.

 

 O City on a Hill, your noble thoughts

Led you to seek an Eden in this place;

Yet here our greatest need shines more than light.

We ate the tree forbidden, a dream to chase.

 

Our Eden turned to fetters for this world,

Though we glory in the shame we embraced,

Precious blood we’ve spilled out like the rain

To pave our path with flowers to the grave.

 

The End shall come, O City, but your own

End shall be decided by what you do

Rend now your heart, your garments, and your eyes

Forsake your hill of splendor to pursue —

 

The tree upon a hill where the sun forsook

The dying Son of God who in our place

Did swallow up God’s wrath that we deserved

To light the flame of mercy by his grace.

 

Come broken, weeping sinners, one and all

Our heritage affords us not a day

To wait in seeking mercy from our God

Grace may pass if we choose now to delay.

 

O God of mercy, rend our hearts and eyes

Return your wayward children to your throne.

We too have sought the lies of Balaam’s way

While seeking you, we sought you not alone.

 

We thought your blessing all our dreams would reap

Our dreams were filled with glitt’ring coffers full

Of houses, land and tow’ring names in time —

Can we seek you as these worldly treasures pull?

 

And here we reach like Babel to the sky;

Frustrate our plans and lead us once again

Outside the gate and up a darkened hill

Where perfect blood spills now as it did then.

 

For though your Word and wisdom we have scorned

Your arms yet stretch in mercy for the lost

Destruction comes, yet while it is today

Let us flee this city arrayed in earthly dross.

 

Behold, the hands of God once offered grace

To all who’d turn from sin in Sodom’s square

But they had turned from God and his design

Like them, O City, our guilt we choose to bear.

 

So weep and wail like Nineveh of old

They had no hope that God would yet relent,

But in their misery his mercy sought

And found his lavish love upon them sent.

 

O City on a Hill, humble your hearts,

And seek the God of mercy you deny.

Judgement comes for justice must be upheld

For God is not a man that he should lie.

 

Your city now secure upon this hill

Shall dissolve like sand in the coming storm.

All you see as greatness shall not remain —

On that Day all shall see your haunting form.

 

For here we have no city that shall last

Let us seek the city that shall never pass.