Thou, Whose Almighty Word

January 30, 2012 in Hymns | Tags: Hymns, Organ, Worship

The final hymn today was Thou, Whose Almighty Word. The text of this great hymn is here.

Here’s the last stanza:

Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
boundless as ocean’s tide,
rolling in fullest pride,
through the world far and wide,
let there be light!

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January 30, 2012 at 00:21

Ingrid Schlueter

Thou, whose almighty word
chaos and darkness heard,
and took their flight;
hear us, we humbly pray,
and, where the Gospel day
sheds not its glorious ray,
let there be light!

Thou who didst come to bring
on thy redeeming wing
healing and sight,
heal to the sick in mind,
sight to the in-ly blind,
now to all humankind,
let there be light!

Spirit of truth and love,
life-giving holy Dove,
speed forth thy flight!
Move on the waters’ face
bearing the gifts of grace,
and, in earth’s darkest place,
let there be light!

Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
boundless as ocean’s tide,
rolling in fullest pride,
through the world far and wide,
let there be light!

January 30, 2012 at 00:32

Carol Blair

I love strongly Trinitarian hymns such as this one, where the Three Persons of the Trinity are addressed in successive verses, with the last verse summarizing the concepts. I know of only two other hymns similar to this that are still sung today: “Come, Thou Almighty King” (same tune as this one!), and “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” (the Navy Hymn). Sadly, many other Trinitarian hymns, from disuse, have been lost to the Church.

And this hymn, in the verse addressing the Holy Spirit, refers to the Spiritual Gifts – a rare concept in hymnody. Here’s a hymn trivia question I like to ask in my Hymnology seminars: “What well-known hymn mentions the Spiritual Gifts?”

January 30, 2012 at 00:42

Ingrid Schlueter

Right on, Carol. This weekend there was an explosive controversy that is all over Facebook and the Internet among Christians about the “Elephant Room” conference (strange name, but it’s a church conference sponsored by supposedly conservative evangelicals.) At issue was their inclusion of TD Jakes, a well-known celebrity preacher who has been proudly non-Trinitarian in the past, which is heresy. He claimed to be a Modalist. He came up with some garbled statement claiming orthodoxy this weekend causing huge confusion, with some evangelical pastors at the conference saluting him now as orthodox, while their key guest speaker took off and flew home over it. (Here is the story today.http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/voddie-baucham-ministries/blog/elephant-room-2012-01/) There is no doctrinal teaching anymore and these doctrinal teaching hymns that biblically speak of God, as you know, have been jettisoned in favor of pop and karaoke. It’s catastrophic as sound doctrine is being discarded as no longer important. The absence of these hymns is partially why it happened.

January 30, 2012 at 03:24

Francesca