In times of difficult circumstances, we inevitably wonder where God is. We question who is in control. And we wonder why He sometimes remains silent when we are crying out in pain and fear and anxiety. It may be the loss of a job, or a frightening diagnosis from the doctor, or the anguish of a child turning away from the Lord. As I write this study, the war in Ukraine continues. Believers there are crying out to the Lord constantly as bombs and missiles and artillery destroy their homes, with residents asking for safety and for deliverance, and wondering why there seems to be no answer from heaven.
A number of Psalms ask those kinds of questions, often crying out to the Lord in the midst of trouble, pleading with Him not to be silent. For example, in Psalm 35:23, “Awake and rouse Yourself for my vindication;” and in Psalm 83:1, “O God, do not keep silence;” and in Psalm 109:1, “Do not be silent, O God of my praise.” In the book of Job, we read that his friends tried to answer the “why” question wrongly by attempting to convince Job that He had offended God and was suffering the consequences. There is no pain like that of believing that God is silent, He is not present, He does not care … and most terrifying, that He is not in control.
But the Bible repeatedly refutes that wrong thinking. It comes from walking by sight (and by hearing and feeling) rather than by faith. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, we should fear no evil, because the Lord is with us (Psalm 23). Even when we don’t hear His voice, we are assured that He is there. And more than that, He is in control. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11 that God works all things according to the design of His will. Joseph’s testimony should never slip from our attention, as he told his brothers that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good. (Genesis 50:20)
I have been profoundly affected by reading the testimonies of friends in Ukraine as they post short videos of their confidence that the Lord is with them, even as the video records the sound of a bomb exploding nearby. It has caused me to read those Psalms in an entirely new way (including the imprecatory Psalms that call for God to judge His enemies), as they repeatedly assure us that He is Immanuel, God with us, even when we don’t hear Him. If the saints in Ukraine can live with that God-focused security, knowing that He is in control, then surely I can do the same.
Our hymnals have many compositions that express that kind of trust in the Lord. One that especially stands out in this present time of war is “God Is Working His Purpose Out.” The text assures us that not only is God present and in control, but also that He has a purpose in what appears to us to be mysterious, if not pointless. The hymn, in faithfulness to Scripture, calls us to be patient and to trust Him in those times when we can’t understand His design.
How wonderful to have the assurance that God actually does have an all-encompassing plan. We know its general contour, that through suffering and misery He is working toward the goal of delivering His people and exalting His Son. His plan is to reveal His kingdom as every knee bows before Jesus, and the eternal joys of the new heaven and new earth are established. We have planted our hope on the solid promise in Isaiah 14. When Israel struggled to deal with the threat of Assyrian aggression, the Lord assured His people that He not only had a plan, and that it was good and just and righteous, but also that nothing in all creation could possibly intervene to keep Him from doing what He had planned.
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, 25 that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.” 26 This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. 27 For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
A review of biblical and church history repeatedly demonstrates that the Lord has a plan and that He will always achieve what He has set out to do. We need to be patient in endurance and wait for the time when His purpose becomes evident. And we must do that even if that purpose is not made clear in our lifetime, but in that of those that follow us. How puzzled and distraught must the disciples have been when Jesus was crucified. It made no sense to them then. But a few days later, after the resurrection and then especially after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they could see how it all fit together!
That is the theme of which we sing in the hymn, “God Is Working His Purpose Out.” It was written in 1894 by Arthur Campbell Ainger (1841-1919), at a time when he was a Master at Eton College, where he had the reputation of being a fair teacher and had the respect of his pupils for his reasonable approach to discipline at the school. He was educated at Eton and then matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a scholar in 1863, graduating B.A. in 1864 and M.A. in 1867. This is the best known of the more than ten hymns that he composed. It was dedicated to Archbishop Edward White Benson of Canterbury, whose son was a colleague of Ainger, and it was included in “Hymns Ancient and Modern” (1904).
The tune BENSON was written for it by Millicent Kingham (possibly South African by birth, d. 1927), organist at St Andrew’s Church, Hertford, where Ainger’s brother-in-law was rector. Some modern hymn books do not use BENSON as the tune, instead using PURPOSE, written by Martin F. Shaw in 1915, although “Common Praise” (the successor to “Hymns Ancient and Modern”) continues to do so. Shaw
was educated at the Royal College of Music in London and was organist and choirmaster at St. Mary’s, Primrose Hill (1908-1920), St. Martin’s in the Fields (1920-1924), and the Eccleston Guild House (1924-1935). From 1935 to 1945 he served as music director for the diocese of Chelmsford. Born in 1875, he produced more than 300 works before his death in 1958. He established the Purcell Operatic Society and was a founder of the Plainsong and Medieval Society and what later became the Royal Society of Church Music.
Author of The Principles of English Church Music Composition (1921), Shaw was a notable reformer of English church music. He worked with Percy Dearmer (his rector at St. Mary’s in Primrose Hill); Ralph Vaughan Williams, and his brother Geoffrey Shaw in publishing hymnals such as “Songs of Praise”(1925, 1931) and the “Oxford Book of Carols” (1928). A leader in the revival of English opera and folk music scholarship, Shaw composed some one hundred songs as well as anthems and service music; some of his best hymn tunes were published in his “Additional Tunes in Use at St. Mary’s” (1915).
The text of Ainger’s hymn is based on Habakkuk 2:14 ( “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”) and Isaiah 11:9 (“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”). Those provided Ainger with the phrase repeated as a final refrain at the end of each stanza. As one analyst has written, “It very much reflects its period with its belief that as time unfolds the world gets better and better, although it does suggest that humanity has to get shoulder to shoulder with God to bring this about.”
While we have long since abandoned that post-modern optimism of the pre-WW I era, we still rejoice to sing the promise that God will accomplish His purpose and bring about His plan set in His mind from eternity. Human effort will never bring in the kingdom of God, but it will come by His wise design and supernatural power. And when it does, we will see the fulfillment of the rest of that passage in Isaiah 11 in the new heavens and new earth that King Jesus will establish.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
The biblical context of the Habakkuk text includes this marvellous statement. “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:5). While the hymn speaks of eschatology (the end times), it is also fitting as a hymn for the New Year. It calls us to look expectantly to see what God is in the process of doing “as year succeeds to year.” And in time when troubles mount around us, even war, we can live with confidence that God is indeed working His purpose out.
Ainger’s text included five stanzas, but here are the four that are most widely used today. The text is powerful in the way Ainger repeated those words from Habakkuk and Isaiah as the concluding phrase of each stanza. And Shaw’s music builds to a magnificent climax to emphasize that confidence that we have. Note how the melodic line rises more than an octave, to rise from middle C to a high E-flat, adding a coda after the last stanza that changes from F minor to F major. What a thrilling hope we have in those words, that “the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.” That’s not just beautiful poetry. It’s God’s inspired description of what He has planned for us, and what He is in the process of accomplishing. Every day brings us nearer to that day when we will see its fulfillment, and live eternally in its reality. How that should energize our sanctified, Bible-inspired imagination as we look forward to that day!
In stanza 1, our sight is lifted above the wars and diseases and storms all around us. We remind ourselves that Scripture assures us that what is most important – and most real! – is that God is in control and is moving all things according to His purpose to achieve that glorious end.
God is working His purpose out, as year succeeds to year;
God is working His purpose out, and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be:
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
In stanza 2, we imagine God’s messengers announcing to all the earth, “ye continents, ye isles,” “from east to west,” “where human feet have trod,” that God’s purpose is moving forth to bring us closer to that day when God’s glory fills the earth “as the waters cover the sea.”
From utmost east to utmost west, where human feet have trod,
by the mouth of many messengers goes forth the voice of God:
“Give ear to me, ye continents, ye isles, give ear to me,
that the earth may be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.”
In stanza 3, we hear the call that comes to each of us who belong to the Lord to step forth with the “glorious gospel of truth” to call men and women to turn from sin to Christ. In contrast to the mentality of the early 20th century, we realize that it will be God’s work, not ours, that brings this to pass. And in this stanza, it’s clear that the work we are assigned to do is the work of proclaiming the historic, orthodox gospel, that Christ bore our sins on the cross and gives us new life by faith in Him. That is God’s plan to bring about this marvelous plan, not a social gospel of improved education and government and economic change, but rather the sovereign saving work of Christ.
March we forth in the strength of God, with the banner of Christ unfurled,
that the light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world:
fight we the fight with sorrow and sin to set their captives free,
that the earth may be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
In stanza 4, it is more clearly said that it is only the Lord who can accomplish this, and our efforts, as important as they are, will be in vain for that future harvest unless “God gives life to the seed. But He will bless the work that we do as part of His purpose to fulfill His plan.
All we can do is nothing worth unless God blesses the deed.
Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide till God gives life to the seed.
Yet nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
Here is the additional stanza written by Ainger, but which is omitted from most evangelical hymnals today. The reason is obvious, since it is typical of the social gospel that falsely sees the kingdom as something humanitarian efforts will accomplish.
What can we do to work God’s work, to prosper and increase
the brotherhood of all mankind, the reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time, the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea?
Here you can hear the singing of this great hymn.