Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Josh Garrels sets the old George Matheson hymn language in a spare, devotional frame, then adds a chorus of his own. Each verse addresses God with a different title, Love, Light, Joy and the cross, and each one is answered with a small act of giving back: resting a weary soul, yielding a "flickering flame," and laying life's glory "in dust."

The refrains move from confession to request. "My life is not my own / It's Yours" states the surrender plainly, and "So light a fire in my heart / And I'll burn for You" asks for the fuel to live it out. Then comes "So anoint me with joy," which sits against the line about tracing "the rainbow through the rain" until morning is "tearless." The final verse turns to the cross, where a lifted head and a red blossom from the ground point to life that is endless.

The closing stretch repeats "Holy, holy, is the King of Kings" until it feels like worship rather than a lyric. Echoes of Galatians 2:20, Psalm 30:5 and Isaiah 61:3 run through it, and the steady trust of Romans 8:38-39 fits the opening line about a Love that will not let go.