It's about the lowly submission required to be a follower of Christ. He wants for God's will to be done alone (as is apparent in the first half of the first stanza, and the chorus), but is a sinful, fleshy human, as we all are. The first half of the second stanza is about when sacrament becomes ritual. God ridiculed the Jews in Isaiah for making sacrifices but not having their heart in it. Christ is the model for every Christian, and as such he compares his trials to those of Jesus. It comes from 1 Peter 2:23
The empty house is his lostness without God, so the voice in an empty house is God working through someone who is empty without Him.
The leaf part comes from Isaiah 64:4: "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf. and our iniquities like the wind, has taken us away"
the last part of the last stanza is halfway a John 3:16 reference, and notes that it is up to us to submit to the will of God (for now anyway)
It's about the lowly submission required to be a follower of Christ. He wants for God's will to be done alone (as is apparent in the first half of the first stanza, and the chorus), but is a sinful, fleshy human, as we all are. The first half of the second stanza is about when sacrament becomes ritual. God ridiculed the Jews in Isaiah for making sacrifices but not having their heart in it. Christ is the model for every Christian, and as such he compares his trials to those of Jesus. It comes from 1 Peter 2:23
The empty house is his lostness without God, so the voice in an empty house is God working through someone who is empty without Him.
The leaf part comes from Isaiah 64:4: "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf. and our iniquities like the wind, has taken us away"
the last part of the last stanza is halfway a John 3:16 reference, and notes that it is up to us to submit to the will of God (for now anyway)