Hymn of the Week: O Worship the King

Earlier today I was attending yet another wedding and decided to pass the time (before the wedding, not during) by flipping through the hymnal. I ran across this one that I haven't heard in a while but really love. It's written by Robert Grant:

O worship the King,
all glorious above,
And gratefully sing
His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender,
the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor,
and girded with praise.

O tell of His might,
O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light,
Whose canopy space,
Whose chariots of wrath
the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path
on the wings of the storm.

Thy bountiful care,
what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air,
it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills,
it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills
in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust,
and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust,
nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender,
how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend.

One of the better versions of this song is from the Passion: Hymns Ancient and Modern cd. I like it because it is powerful, as the lyrics of this song are (some songs just weren't meant to be done in a soft or folky way, this is one of them). It also adds a chorus (generally a bad idea) which actually works because it takes lines from the original song and reworks them. Anyway, nicely done.

As I said, I think this song is powerful, meaning it presents a powerful picture of God. I particularly love the line "pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise." The whole picture of the terrible wrath of God and His tender mercies strike me as a perfect balance, as we see in Scripture.

This is another hymn that rightly places us in relation to God. He is the One who is clothed in splendor. He is the Defender and Shield. We are feeble and frail, we rely on His unfailing love. This is a picture of grace, of God's willingness to love and protect His people despite themselves. The God who created all and controls the light and the storm has shown Himself to be a faithful, loving God. His mercy is both tender and firm. Let us, as the song says, gratefully sing praises to our Lord.