“So Send I You” - Margaret Clarkson

1915–2008

If you’ve ever thought, I’ve read the Bible enough to understand it fully, think again. The Bible is alive; it says so in Hebrews. As you read more, pray more, gain more life experience, have growing relationships with other Christians, and most important, have a growing relationship with God, you’ll find your understanding of the Bible grows and changes too.

Margaret Clarkson, a Canadian hymn writer, experienced this. A look at her popular missionary hymn “So Send I You” shows how her thinking and understanding of the Bible changed as she grew closer to God and to other Christians and became more knowledgeable about the Scriptures.

Margaret wrote two versions of the hymn, one when she was twenty-two, depicting the loneliness, sorrows, and difficulties that she imagined a missionary would have—although, because of physical disabilities, she knew she would never be a missionary. This version speaks of the rebuke, scorn, suffering, loneliness, hard work, and hatred missionaries will face on the mission field.

Almost ten years later, she rewrote the hymn, calling it “So Send I You, by Grace Made Strong.” The second version speaks of conquering, breaking bonds of sin, the promised presence of God, and the fruits of missionary service. Its final stanza refers to the Lord’s biblical commendation, “Well done, my faithful servant.”

Why the change in her point of view? Margaret said that after more life experiences and contact with actual missionaries, she rewrote the hymn into a more biblical one.

Over time, our understanding of what the Bible is saying to us may change. When we’re new to reading it, we’ll likely understand just a little of it—and that’s okay. With life experience, Bible study, and deeper relationships with Christians and God, our understanding can deepen. We’ll never know it all. We’ll never have the Bible “down pat.” It will keep speaking its truth into our lives in fresh ways—and we need to be open to that, just like Margaret Clarkson was.

The word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Hebrews 4:12