There's a wideness in God's mercy

[Twinky]

We sang this in church last Sunday.     Some of the words really hit the spot for me.   These in particular: And we magnify his strictness /With a zeal he will not own.  (Words  shown on the video, and reprinted following the link.) 

How easily we magnify fault - our own, and others - and condemn ourselves, and others, for that slight or imagined fault; and how often we forget God's graciousness and compassion - for ourselves and others - and so we don't show that love and compassion to others.  

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice,
Which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make his love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
With a zeal he will not own.

There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the head.
There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take him at his word;
And our lives would be all goodness
In the joy of Christ our Lord.