1. "Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry; While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.
  2. "Trusting only in Thy merit, Would I seek Thy face; Heal my wounded, broken spirit, Save me by Thy grace.
  3. "Thou, the Spring of all my comfort, More than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in Heav'n but Thee?
Chorus-- "Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry; While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by."
(Words by Fanny J. Crosby; Music by William H. Doane)
Once again, as we begin with our Prime Directive "checkoff list", we can see that this is a psalm of praise to God giving high praise for His work as well as a hymn demonstrating praise and supplication as well as teaching (or reminding us of) our dependence on God.


This song was written by Fanny J. Crosby and is one of at least 2,000 that she wrote in her lifetime (some biographies credit her with writing as many as 8,000!). Due to an error on the part of the doctor attending to her, she lost her sight at the age of six weeks (!), but she seemed to feel it was all part of Divine Providence, since she is quoted as saying:
  • It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me (from http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm).
When one considers not only the sheer quantity of hymns she produced, but also the fact that she is still one of the most well known women in these United States, it's no wonder that the vast majority of American hymn books contain a portion of her work.

There are a lot of Biblical allusions in this song, thus indicating Miss Crosby was fairly well versed in the Scriptures. But, then again, so were Saul and Apollos, and both started in bad positions for Christ. Fortunately both were corrected (Saul in Acts 9 and Apollos in Acts 18:24ff). Is there a need for correction in this song?
As the first verse and the chorus share many lyrics in common (and may be the sticking point for me), I will proceed in reverse order for this song and begin with the last verse. "Thou, the Spring of all my comfort," it begins; this seems to allude to Isaiah 61 where it starts,"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...."  And as Isaiah lists the many good things that the Anointed One was going to do, in verse two of that chapter he lists, "to comfort all who mourn" (incidentally, this is the same passage the Anointed One reads in the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4 to the fulfillment in the ears of the people who were there!).  One could also make the case for quoting Jesus in some of His final words to His disciples, before He goes to the cross, in John 14:27 when He says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.... Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  The final verse of the song ends by saying, "More than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heav'n but Thee?"  This is very similar to what Asaph the psalmist writes in Pslam 73:25: "Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You."  Similar sentiments were made by King David, the man after God's heart, in 2 Samuel 7:22 and 1 Chronicles 17:20 (his prayer of gratitude that, although the Lord refused to allow him the honor, his progeny would build the temple in his stead), and Peter in John 6:68-69 when Jesus asks the remaining disciples if they want to leave Him as well.
The second verse of the song says, "Trusting only in Thy merit, Would I seek Thy face."  One can find many examples in the New Testament of people who sought to see or meet with Jesus based on His merits (the fact that He healed so many). We see ten lepers in Luke 17:13ff; Zacchaeus in Luke 19; and the blind beggar (Bartimaeus) in Matthew 20:30ff, Mark 10:46ff, and Luke 18:35ff.  The verse continues, "Heal my wounded, broken spirit," similar to what King David writes in Psalm 34:18: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."  And this second verse of the song ends, "Save me by Thy grace." Paul (formerly Saul before his earlier mentioned correction) makes the point many times of how we are saved by the grace of God through faith (Rom 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).  And although we work to demonstrate our faith (James 2:14-26, emphasis on verses 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26), it is not the work that saves us.  Were it not for the grace of God, none of us would be saved!
There is another verse that was originally written for this song as the second verse (thus, de facto, we have just covered the fourth and third verses [?]).  Although it is not included in the Praise for the Lord hymn book we are covering, I still want to make mention of it as it reads, "Let me at Thy throne of mercy Find a sweet relief."  This seems to concur with what the inspired writer says in Hebrews 4:14-16: "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  The song verse continues, "Kneeling there in deep contrition" (as we see in Proverbs 22:4, the Lord rewards those who demonstrate humility and fear), "Help my unbelief" (this echoes the feelings demonstrated by the father of the young man with the unclean spirit in Mark 9:23-24).
This brings us to the final matter, the first verse and chorus, the only difference of which is their respective openings.  "Pass me not, o gentle Savior (the chorus substitutes "Savior, Savior,"), Hear my humble cry."  Of course, we know from King David's statement in Psalm 34:15 that "[t]he eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry."  But the verse and chorus continue, "While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by."  Granted, this closing statement is reminiscent of what Abraham tells three men who were standing before his tent in the oaks of Mamre in Genesis 18:3, "'O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.'"

However, it bears to be noted what the prophet foretells about how people would be called by God in the last days in Joel 2:32-- "it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls."  Peter mentions this passage in the first Gospel sermon given on that Pentecost in Acts 2 and it points out a doctrinal error that many espouse in Calvinism: it is those who call upon the name of the Lord (calling upon His authority) who are saved.  Those "who escape", those "among the survivors" (two variant ways of mentioning people who have been saved) are the ones "whom the LORD calls."  Unlike the error of "Unconditional Election" (the "U" in Calvinism's "TULIP", with God allegedly choosing whom He calls according to His own intention without any consideration of an individual's merit), we see that the Lord calls upon those who call upon Him, further punctuating what the inspired writer tells us in Hebrews 11:6, that "He rewards those who seek Him."  Therefore, the Lord is NOT going to pass somebody by if they are calling upon Him.  This makes the song smack of Calvinism and should either be revised or not sung at all.  It has a catchy tune and all, just like "Jesus is Coming Soon", which draws us in to want to sing it, but this is why we should check the scriptural integrity of the songs we propose to sing either to God in praise or to each other in encouragement and thus avoid spreading false doctrine.
[Calling upon the name of the Lord and being called by God have some overlapping thoughts with another topic I wanted to expand upon, drawing near to God, from Volume 436's commentary on "Nearer, Still Nearer". As before, once I have completed this separate piece, I hope to provide a link to it from here.]
Although I end every commentary with this, as always, I do welcome your thoughts…