JUST A VERY OLD HYMN

 

Sunday, May 19, 2024

 

JUST A VERY OLD HYMN

 

Ps 121:5-7

5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

 

This morning I’d like to offer just a very old hymn for you to devotionally consider. “Immortal, Invisible” was written by Walter C. Smith in 1876. The American flag had only 37 stars. Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican from New York was our President. The Civil war was over, and reconstruction was underway. The Presidential election of November 7 ended in dispute with 184 electoral college votes for Samuel Tilden and 165 for Rutherford B. Hayes. 20 votes were in dispute and the outcome of the election was not determined until 1877. This sounds somewhat familiar.

 

Perhaps that is too much history for so early in the morning, but it points out that our present time – so characterized by controversy, violence and change – is not the first period of instability our nation has endured. While all this was going on, Walter C. Smith wrote about a wonderful, unchanging, and very stable God!

 

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 perish7, but naught changeth Thee.

 

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.

 

Dear God! Thank you for being a great big God. AMEN