Fairest Lord Jesus / My Only Crown (Medley)

Paul Baloche joins an old hymn and a modern worship refrain into one continuous act of adoration. “Fairest Lord Jesus” supplies the opening: Christ as “Ruler of all nature,” addressed in the older second person with “Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,” the soul’s “glory joy and crown” resting in him alone.

The second verse measures creation against its maker. Meadows are fair and woodlands fairer, “Robed in the blooming garb of spring,” yet “Jesus You’re fairer, Jesus You’re purer,” and it is he who can “make the woeful heart to sing.” Nature serves as a yardstick that Christ exceeds.

The medley then turns to “My Only Crown,” moving from describing Christ to a personal confession: “My only crown is knowing You” and “to be found in You.” The closing image has the singer bowing on “that day” and bringing the crown back to him, an echo of the elders casting their crowns before the throne in Revelation 4:10 and of Paul counting everything loss for knowing Christ in Philippians 3:8. Psalm 45:2 carries the same sense of his unmatched beauty.