Ours is a time when a longing for peace grows stronger by the day in each of our hearts. We watch heart-breaking video news reports of the suffering in Gaza and Ukraine. We get details about oppression by tribal lords in Africa and the Middle East, and brutal dictatorships in North Korea and China, and even physical abusive within homes and among family members. And on top of all that, we have not only the street warfare from criminals in our American cities, but also of the political war that rages between rival Democrats and Republicans. The reality of all these hostilities from war and oppression, from tyranny and brutality,from slander and corruption all continue. Jesus even told us to expect “wars and rumors of wars” until the end.
Our secular culture talks about peace as something that is attainable through legislation or education, through stronger armies or increased police presence, through judicial process or political campaigns … or even through ridiculous “new age” ideas like meditating under a tree and thinking happy thoughts! But none of these are realistic hopes because of the “desperately wicked” condition of human hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). Only the Holy Spirit can renew the soul, and that’s what He does through the miracle of regeneration. And that will only take place in a complete way when “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6-7) returns in glory. So what’s the most effective thing we can do? It’s to draw near to that Prince of Peace in prayer.
That’s what we do in singing the hymn, “God the Omnipotent” (or in some hymnals, “God the All-Terrible,” which was the original word). The text is based on many passages of Scripture that speak of the many glorious attributes of God, especially Revelation 19:6, “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Each stanza ends with the prayerful longing, “Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.” The hymn was written in 1942 by Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872). An English Quaker, he was born at Blackley Hurst, Lancashire, and educated at the Royal Institution, Liverpool. In 1834 he was engaged as a member of the staff of the “London Athenaeum,” a British literary magazine. This connection he retained for 35 years. Son of an iron worker and lock maker, Chorley moved with his family to Liverpool after his father’s death in 1816. He was educated by private tutors in Liverpool and at the school of the Royal Institution. His youth was shaped partly by time spent in the household of the wealthy and intellectual Mrs. Benson Rathbone of Green Bank, and he became a close friend of her son Benson, who died in an accident in 1834.
Chorley began writing for the “London Athenaeum” in 1830, and was the paper’s music critic and literary reviewer until 1868. He also became music critic for the “London Times”and wrote, for these and other journals, reviews and musical gossip columns, discussing composers and performers in Britain and on the European continent. He was quite conservative, and was a persistent opponent of innovation, but was a lively chronicler of London life. In the “Athenaeum” and elsewhere, Chorley often criticized the music of Schumann and Wagner for what he called “decadence.” In 1850 and 1851, Chorley edited the “Ladies’ Companion,” which covered fashion and domestic women’s issues.
Chorley was also a journalist, novelist, playwright, poet, and opera librettist. One of his best known pieces was his obituary of Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), mistakenly written while the Russian was still very much alive. Turgenev, a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West, was not offended by the error nearly as much as he was by the critical opinions of his work Chorley gave in the obituary.
Chorley was considered eccentric and abrasive, but was respected for his integrity and kindness. He enthusiastically gave and attended dinner parties, and cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Barrett, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles Dickens, Arthur Sullivan and Charles Santley (an English opera singer). After the death of his brother, John Rutter Chorley (1806-1867), Henry inherited enough money to retire from the “Athenaeum,” though he continued to contribute articles for that paper and for “The Orchestra.”
In spite of Chorley’s efforts to promote the music of Charles Gounod in England, the composer disliked Chorley intensely. When Gounod lived in England in the early 1870’s, he wrote a satirical piano piece intended to be a parody of Chorley’s personality. It greatly amused Gounod’s English patron, Georgina Weldon, who described Chorley as having a “thin, sour, high-pitched sopranish voice” and moving like a “stuffed red-haired monkey.” Gounod intended to publish the piece with a dedication to Chorley, but died before this was possible. Weldon then invented a new program for the piece, which was re-titled “Funeral March of a Marionette.” It became popular as a concert piece, and in the 1950s, its opening phrases became well known as the theme music for the television program “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
Chorley’s hymn “God, the All-Terirble” was in four stanzas. A new text in imitation of Chorley’s was written by an English minister of the Anglican Church, John Ellerton (1826-1893). Also in four stanzas and produced in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, it was first published in Robert Brown-Borthwick’s 1871 “Select Hymns for Church and Home.” Beginning with the 1874 edition of the 1871 Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge’s “Church Hymns,” different editors have chosen from the eight total stanzas to form a composite hymn and also made various textual alterations. Sometimes Ellerton is said to have “arranged” Chorley’s text, but his was actually a separate hymn.
Ellerton was educated at King William’s College on the Isle of Man and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1851. He served six parishes, spending the longest time in Crewe Green (1860-1872), a church of steelworkers and farmers. Ellerton wrote and translated about eighty hymns, many of which are still sung today. He helped to compile “Church Hymns” and wrote its 1882 handbook, “Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns.” (1882). Ellerton’s prose writings include “The Holiest Manhood,” and “Our Infirmities.”
It is, however, as a hymnologist, editor, hymnwriter, and translator, that he is most widely known. As editor he published the 1859 “Hymns for Schools and Bible Classes” in Brighton, 1859. He was also co-editor with Bishop William Walsham How (1823-1897) and others of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge “Church Hymns” in 1871. Ellerton’s original hymns number about fifty, and his translations from the Latin ten or more. Nearly every one of these remained in common use for many years.
There is a noticeable consistency throughout the text of the hymn, in part as each stanza focuses on one of the attributes of God which we need Him to demonstrate toward us, and also in the concluding phrase of each stanza, which calls on the Lord to “give to us peace in our time.” Whenever we sing a hymn, we should first make sure we take note of the person(s) to whom it is addressed. As with so many great hymns, in this one we are speaking to God, making humble requests of the only one who can give to our troubled hearts and to this troubled world.
Stanza 1 addresses God as terrible (in the original text). In this Chorley was speaking of this terrible God not in the sense of His being wicked or evil, but as being awesome, inspiring profound, reverential fear. After all, He is King of the universe (Psalm 10:16) who controls all the powers of the universe to do His bidding, whether great winds as His clarions (trumpets) or lightning as His sword (Psalm 104:1-4). But this terror-inspiring God is also a God of pity, one on whom we can call to give us the peace we so desperately need and long for (Psalm 103:13).
God the all-terrible! King, who ordainest great winds
Thy clarions, lightnings Thy sword,
show forth Thy pity on high where Thou reignest;
give to us peace in our time, O Lord.
Stanza 2 addresses God as omnipotent, the one who is all-powerful. His strength is unlimited, as is evident from the earliest verses of Scripture in Genesis 1 that tell us that God has created the universe and all its vast immensity and complexity simply with His words, “Let there be ….” In the context of this prayer for peace, we are addressing the God who is able also simply with His words to order peace. And He will do so when the Prince of Peace returns to bring the final defeat to Satan and all those who have, even though unwittingly, joined him in his crusade of wickedness, waging war against the kingdom of God. Until then we rest in the one who is able to avenge, watch, judge, and save us.
God the omnipotent! Mighty avenger,
watching invisible, judging unheard,
save us in mercy, O save us from danger;
give to us peace in our time, O Lord.
Stanza 3 addresses God as all-merciful. Power without mercy would be frightening. Mercy without power would be useless. But God’s mercy is part of His character, not just a way He acts occasionally. That is amazing when we remember that we to whom He shows mercy were treasonous rebels, deserving His wrath and curse (Romans 3:23; 6:23). We had slighted and transgressed His law and spurned His love (1 John 3:4). And so our prayer must continue to be that He will be merciful, not only to those of us who are His adopted children, but even to the entire world in which we will live until Christ’s return (Psalm 103:8-11).
God the all-merciful! Earth hath forsaken
Thy ways of blessedness, slighted Thy Word;
bid not Thy wrath in its terrors awaken;
give to us peace in our time, O Lord.
Stanza 4 addresses God as the all-righteous one. Righteousness is that quality of God’s infinite “rightness” in all that He is and does. We consider it often as that which describes the absence of all that is wrong and the presence of all that is right, especially in terms of moral purity and holiness. Adam and Eve were created as a righteous beings in God’s image, but that was corrupted by their act of disobedience, an act of defiance against His clearly revealed will. And so when we sing of God’s righteousness in this hymn, we do so in light of our having defied Him and standing guilty before Him. While we temporarily see evil thriving on earth (Psalms 37 and 73), those who have continued to defy Him and live in rebellion against Him will be judged (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14), since this is a righteous God who will not allow “falsehood and wrong” to tarry indefinitely.
God the all-righteous One! Man hath defied Thee;
yet to eternity standeth Thy Word;
falsehood and wrong shall not tarry beside Thee;
give to us peace in our time, O Lord.
Stanza 5 addresses God as all-wise. We think of the book of Proverbs and its commendation of wisdom as one of the most valuable things a person could aspire to possess. Where is the best wisdom to be found? Certainly not from polls of human opinion, or the decision of human courts, or the consensus of educators. No, all wisdom comes from the only wise God (1 Timothy 1:17). It’s sometimes challenging for us, since often God’s wisdom does not seem wise to us at the moment (Genesis 50:20 and Romans 8:28). That’s especially true in times of tragedy, where we still believe God is in control. It’s also true in times when He disciplines us (Hebrews 12:5-11). But when we experience “the fire of Thy chastening,” we should look to see “through the thick darkness” that “Thy kingdom is hastening.”
God the all-wise! By the fire of Thy chast’ning,
earth shall to freedom and truth be restored;
through the thick darkness Thy kingdom is hast’ning;
thou wilt give peace in Thy time, O Lord.
Stanza 6 addresses God as the one to whom we owe all praise and in whom we place all our trust, and the one who alone can bring the peace for which we and our world so desperately long. Even though things may not always turn out in this life as we might like, we should be thankful for the good gifts that God has given us (1 Thessalonians 5:18, James 1:17). Therefore with thankful hearts, we should praise God for the direction and protection that He does provide (Psalm 44:4-8). Thus, we need to work at proclaiming the gospel, so that this song of praise will be sung “from ocean to ocean” among all nations (Psalm 67:1-2; Matthew 28:18-20).
So shall Thy people, with thankful devotion,
Praise Him who saved them from peril and sword,
Singing in chorus from ocean to ocean,
Peace to all nations and praise to the Lord.
The tune (RUSSIAN HYMN) was composed by Alexis Feodorovitch Lvov (or Lwoff, 1799-1870). It was produced in 1833 at the request of Czar Nicholas for a truly Russian national hymn tune, with a new text by V. Joukovsky, and first publicly performed on November 23 of that year. The previous Russian national anthem had been “God Save the Czar” with Russian words set to the tune of the English national anthem (“God Save the King/Queen,” in the United States known as “America” beginning, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”). Both Chorley’s and Ellerton’s texts were intended for this music, and the melody’s first appearance as a hymn tune was with Chorley’s words in Hullah’s 1842 “Part Music.” Many will recognize the music from the form in which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) used it prominently in his famous “1812 Overture,” which commemorated Russia’s successful defense against the French invasion of the country by Napoleon in 1812.
As we consider the source of the words and music, may we not fail to focus on the central, repeated plea that God would send peace. He has promised to do so, but every day we see more and more reasons to plead with Him to hasten the day. How much longer must we suffer ourselves, and watch as vast numbers of people around the world are crushed by tyranny?
Here is a link to the singing of the more common text with the word “omnipotent” as a recessional hymn at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit.