Hymn of the Month, August 2018
Researched and written by Rev. Nicholas Davelaar

According to Hymnary.org, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” appears in more hymnals and songbooks than any other song in its giant database of 210,279 songs. Out of 5,820 hymnals and songbooks—representing more than three hundred years of Christian publishing worldwide—this hymn is printed in 2,928 of them. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” is quite popular!
 
Many people played a role in making this hymn what it is. To begin with, Edward Perronet penned the original words, publishing them in 1779. Born in 1726, Perronet belonged to a family of French Huguenots who had fled to England to escape religious persecution. His father was an Anglican priest and was sympathetic to the ministry of the John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others in the Methodist movement. In that light, it is no surprise that Edward himself later worked alongside John and Charles Wesley for a time. In fact, according to one famous story, John Wesley once called the reluctant Perronet to get up and speak before a large crowd. Perronet got up and announced, “I will now deliver the greatest sermon ever preached to the earth.” He then read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and sat down. In time he got over his reluctance to speak and became a minister. He also wrote a number of poems in his lifetime, but for the most part only “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” continues to be sung today. 
 
Perronet may have penned the original words, but hardly was the ink dry before they were altered significantly by John Rippon, an English Baptist minister some twenty years younger than Perronet. Rippon not only altered Perronet’s hymn, but even rewrote the sixth verse entirely. He published his revision in 1787, and it quickly overtook Perronet’s original in popularity.
 
There are three tunes commonly associated with “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” today. Some hymnals, such as ours, even include more than one of them! The tune used in Trinity Hymnal #296 was composed by Oliver Holden (1765-1844), an American carpenter who became a teacher and music-seller.
 
As the title suggests, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” is a song of praise to Jesus, in which we repeat some of the Bible’s many calls to praise him. In this hymn we call ourselves and fellow believers especially to praise Jesus for who he is and what he has done and is doing according to God’s Word. Jesus is truly worthy of all praise, and we want to be among the multitude of those who heed God’s call to crown him Lord of all!
 
All hail the pow'r of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.
 
Our hymn opens with an unmistakable call to all people everywhere to praise Jesus: All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Why would we sing such a call? We would sing such a call because it is no less than the call of God’s Word, veiled but present already in Genesis and increasing all the way to a clear and mighty roar in Revelation! For instance, in Philippians 2:9-11 we hear that “God has highly exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Here in this opening verse we take that call on our own lips, calling all people to hail the power of Jesus’ name and welcoming the adoration of the angels as well (Rev 7:11). 

We then bring this verse to an end with a repeated cry to bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. What does that mean? Simply put, it is to acknowledge his kingship (“diadem” more or less means “crown”). That noted, there may be more the hymnwriter meant when he penned these words. According to Isaiah 62:3, God’s redeemed people are his crown, “a royal diadem in the hand of [their] God.” In that light, we are not merely calling for all creation to acknowledge Jesus’ kingship, but also for us and our neighbors to become and live as part of his crown! Are you? 
  
Crown him, ye martyrs of your God,
who from his altar call;
extol the Stem of Jesse's rod, 
and crown him Lord of all;
extol the Stem of Jesse's rod, 
and crown him Lord of all.

This second verse of our hymn of the month takes its cue from Revelation 6:9-11, where we hear of “those who had been slain for the word of God” crying out from under the altar. In a loud voice they cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” We then hear that “they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete….” Here we expand on that instruction to wait, calling them to wait with hope in their Lord and ours. The Stem of Jesse’s rod has come, and that changes everything, even if not as quickly as we might sometimes desire (Is 11:1-10).
 
Ye seed of Israel's chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace, 
and crown him Lord of all;
hail him who saves you by his grace, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
Now we turn from martyrs to us and our fellow believers more broadly. We are children/seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel (Gal 3:7). We are those who have been ransomed from the fall (1 Pet 1:17). In that light, we can and must hail/praise him who saves us by his grace, and crown him Lord of all!
  
Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go, spread your trophies at his feet, 
and crown him Lord of all;
go, spread your trophies at his feet, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
What are the wormwood and the gall mentioned here at the start of verse 4? What do these words mean? Wormwood is a woody, bitter-tasting shrub that was sometimes used in medicine. Similarly, gall is a bitter and poisonous herb. Here and in the Bible both words are often used as synonyms for suffering. In Lamentations 3:19 we find both of them in a single verse: “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!” 

That noted, whose suffering are we singing about in this verse? Whose suffering can we sinners ne’er forget? Our suffering or someone else’s? As unforgettable as our suffering might sometimes seem, we’re singing of the suffering of someone else, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. Our love can ne’er forget his suffering, a life of suffering culminating in a painful, God-forsaken death on a Roman cross. He suffered and eventually was crucified to deliver us from our sin and the misery that accompanies it. Thus we call ourselves and one another, spread your trophies at his feet and crown him Lord of all! Do you? Will you?
 
Let ev'ry kindred, ev'ry tribe,
on this terrestrial ball,
to him all majesty ascribe, 
and crown him Lord of all;
to him all majesty ascribe, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
In Revelation 7:9-10 we hear John recount, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” As we begin to bring this month’s hymn to a close, we add our amen to that vision. Amen! Let it be so!
 
O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall!
we'll join the everlasting song, 
and crown him Lord of all;
we'll join the everlasting song, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
We close by looking ahead, prayerfully and expectantly to the day when we personally join the great multitude of Revelation 7:9-10 and crown Jesus Lord of all. Is this your heart-felt hope? Is seeing and savoring Christ Jesus forever your desire and prayer? 

Hymn of the Month, July 2018
Researched and written by Rev. Nicholas Davelaar

“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” is one of many hymns written by the 19th century minister Walter Chambers Smith. Born in 1824 in Aberdeen, Scotland, Smith pursued a course of preparation for ministry and in 1850 was ordained into the Free Church of Scotland. For him writing poetry was way to retreat from the burdens of ministry and refresh his soul. He published a number of volumes of poetry during his lifetime, but “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” is his only poem that has found an enduring place in the hymnody of the Christian church.
 
As with many of our hymns, the endurance of “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” is due in part to the fitting tune that is closely associated with it. This tune was composed by a popular Welsh balladeer of the early 19th century, David Morris, a cobbler by trade. In 1839 a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist minister included the tune in a hymnal he published. In 1906 the editors of the English Hymnal paired the tune with a revision of Smith’s words, and the hymn as we know it today was born.
 
The Trinity Hymnal contains three verses of the hymn, but most hymnals today contain four—the same four verses published in 1906. The words of the omitted verse are worth quoting in full. They lead us to praise God because he, unlike us, is immortal and immutable (unchanging): 
 
To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small,
in all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish, but naught changeth Thee.
 
Will you praise this immortal and immutable God today and this month? Will you join your voice in singing of his incomparable character, with the delight and hope of one who calls him Father through Jesus Christ his Son?
  
Based on 1 Timothy 1:17 (“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”), this month’s hymn leads us in acknowledging that our heavenly Father is beyond our comprehension and worthy of all our all praise. In a sense, what we do in this hymn is express the inexpressible being and deeds of our God. And how do we manage to do that? By relying on Scripture, of course—the words and word pictures God used to reveal himself to us. For all his poetic prowess, Walter Chambers Smith, the writer of the words of this hymn, created an enduring hymn not by his originality, but by his reliance on God’s self-revelation, as shall soon become evident.
 
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
 
Upon close examination, this opening verses consists of a single sentence. This sentence’s main subject and verb come at the very end: we praise. That noted, the focus of this opening verse is clearly on God and his being and nature according to the testimony of Scripture. He is:

• “immortal, invisible,” (1 Tim 1:17),
• “the only wise God” (Rom 16:27), 
• the God “who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16),
• the one whose name is “exalted above all blessing” (Neh 9:5),
• the one whose “glory [is] above the heavens” (Ps 113:4),
• “the Ancient of Days” (Dan 7:13),
• “Almighty” (Gen 17:1),
• victorious (Ex 15:6),
• and the one whose “great and awesome name” people praise (Ps 99:3).

Do you praise him? Will you?
 
Unresting, unhasting and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

We continue our praise here in this secondverse, where the writer of the hymn continues to stitch together God’s self-revelation and so lead us in praising him. Our God is:

• unresting, the God who “will not slumber” (Ps 121:3),
• unhasting, the God who is not hasty, but “patient toward you,not wishing that any should perish” (2 Pet 3:9),
• silent as light, acting without fanfare, yet with unmistakable power (Matt 2:1-12; John 1:5),
• not wanting (lacking), for “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine” (Ps 50:10-11),
• not wasting (decaying): with him “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17),
• and the one whose justice is like mountains high soaring above and his clouds are like fountains of goodness and love. This declaration is little more than a paraphrase of Psalm 97:2 (“Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.”) combined with the goodness and love that Scripture often ascribes to God.

This God absolutely deserves our highest praise and obedience!
 
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!
 
Here in this final verse we continue to express delight in God, but this time with praise that gives way to a plea for God’s help. After acknowledging that God is “the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17), the God of light, in whom “is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), the one whom angels adore with faces covered (Is 6:2-3), we go on to ask him to help us give him all the praise we would render (give). 
 
In particular, we ask him to help us to see / ‘tis only the splendor of light that hides him. What does that mean? For better or worse its meaning isn’t readily evident from the hymn as printed in our Trinity Hymnal. A person has to go back to the hymn as originally written by Walter Chambers Smith:
 
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.

All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.
 
From those verses we can gather that the final line of our hymn is part of a larger prayer based on 2 Corinthians 3, where the apostle Paul talks about God’s glory being veiled to minds and hearts apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Cor 3:16). Soon thereafter Paul states, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). The final line of our hymn is a plea to God to take us from blindness to sight through the gospel of Jesus Christ applied to our heart and life, so that we one day may no longer see and praise him dimly, but instead see and praise him fully  (1 Cor 13:12).

Do you look forward to that? Will you make this prayer your own?