Even though it has happened in the past (Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan), it was still shocking when news media began reporting that former president Donald Trump had been shot at an open air rally in northwestern Pennsylvania. This hymn study is being written the day after that happened, with a hymn deliberately chosen to reflect the biblical perspective that Christians should embrace in the wake of that. It includes our relief that the former President’s life was providentially spared (though sadly there was the tragic death of a husband / father in the stands, and two others seriously injured). This study also seeks to be a reminder of important truths that the Bible illuminates from such events.
Here are a few thoughts about that attempted assassination. If I had been preaching the next morning, I would have changed my sermon at the last minute. Everyone in church was thinking about that terrible event, so how could I, as their pastor, ignore this divinely-ordained opportunity to provide guidance in how believers should process all this? At least one major news network has been repeatedly broadcasting interviews with people who pointed out what should be obvious to everyone … that it was God’s providence that not only spared the former President’s life, but also spared the country from unimaginable grief and trauma and confusion in the wake of such an assassination.
That bullet that pierced the former President’s outer ear missed penetrating his brain (which would have been an immediately fatal injury) by mere centimeters! And it did so only because he turned his head at a slightly different angle at the same moment that the bullet was fired, causing it to pass by him rather than penetrate his skull. Other news networks continue to attribute that to luck or chance. As R. C. Sproul wrote years ago, “What’s the chance of anything happening by chance? Not a chance!” As someone posted on social media, “it’s not that his aim was off; it was God’s hand that got in the way.” That was an act of merciful, gracious, undeserving providence. It’s the opposite of what we read in 1 Kings 22:34 when a Syrian arrow, shot “at random,” penetrated the one small opening in King Ahab’s armor, inflicting the wound that resulted in his death. That, too, wasn’t a lucky shot; it was divine providence.
So if I would have changed my sermon that next morning, what might I have chosen as my text? It wouldn’t have been a political sermon (I don’t do those!); it would have been a theological sermon. I would have preached an expository message from 1 Timothy 2:1-2, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayer, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Here would have been the points I think I could have come up with “on the spot” (as every good preacher should be able to do!)
- Evil is real and is present in every human heart; all are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).
- God has ordained leaders (shepherds/kings) to protect us from evil (Romans 13:4).
- These leaders all need our prayers (Psalm 20:7-8).
- When God does permit evil, He will use it for good (Genesis 50:20).
- One dimension of that good will be final, utter victory over it (Revelation 19 and 20).
Here’s a hymn that captures several of those themes superbly: “Amid the Fears That Oppress Our Day.” The words came from the pen of Canadian school teacher and hymn writer Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008). She wrote this hymn in 1966. Margaret grew up and was educated in Toronto, Canada. For 38 years she taught elementary school in Ontario. A gifted natural writer, she published hundreds of poems, articles, songs, and sketches, and 17 books in 7 languages. One of the most helpful was her book “Grace Grows Best in Winter,” which was especially powerful when people become aware of her life-long struggle with terribly painful arthritis. A number of her hymns (like “O Father, You Are Sovereign”) grew out of her deep commitment to the Reformed faith from childhood and its confidence in the glorious sovereignty of God’s grace. More information about her can be found in other hymn studies in this series.Here’s a hymn that captures several of those themes superbly: “Amid the Fears That Oppress Our Day.” The words came from the pen of Canadian school teacher and hymn writer Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008). She wrote this hymn in 1966. Margaret grew up and was educated in Toronto, Canada. For 38 years she taught elementary school in Ontario. A gifted natural writer, she published hundreds of poems, articles, songs, and sketches, and 17 books in 7 languages. One of the most helpful was her book “Grace Grows Best in Winter,” which was especially powerful when people become aware of her life-long struggle with terribly painful arthritis. A number of her hymns (like “O Father, You Are Sovereign”) grew out of her deep commitment to the Reformed faith from childhood and its confidence in the glorious sovereignty of God’s grace. More information about her can be found in other hymn studies in this series.
Hymn writing was her first love, and sprang from a lifetime of Bible study, personal Christian experience, and a disciplined lyrical expression. Her hymns were published in “A Singing Heart” (Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing Company, 1987). At its 1992 national convention, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada named Clarkson a Fellow of the Society in recognition of her extraordinary contribution to hymnody. Her hymns were favorites among those exposed to the singing at Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship gatherings. From the IVCF triennial Urbana Student Missions Conference in 1954, her hymn “So Send I You” came to be used in countless local church missions conferences. But her Reformed theology “kicked in” and led her to rewrite the entire hymn in 1963. Instead of singing “So send I you – to labor unrewarded,” she gave us the much-improved text, “So send I you – by grace made strong to triumph.”
Her hymn “Amid the Fears That Oppress Our Day” came to mind immediately when thinking about a hymn to capture biblical perspectives in the wake of the attempted presidential assassination. While nothing is available to identify the circumstances of its composition, it was written in 1966 when Clarkson was 51 years old, and probably still teaching elementary students in school. It is not nearly as well-known as it ought to be. One of the few hymnals in which it is included is the 1990 “Trinity Hymnal,” the official denominational hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), for which the present writer was privileged to serve as editor. This was a revision of the original 1961 “Trinity Hymnal” of the OPC.
When the hymnal revision committee was presented with this text, they wanted to include it, but felt the need for a better music than what had been previously used in other sources. One of the members of that committee was Dr. Ronald A. Matthews (b. 1952). It was he who wrote the music currently used for the text in the “Trinity Hymnal.” As the committee thought about using the text, it was suggested that Ron might write something for it. And so it was that during a committee noon lunch break, he went to a piano in an adjoining classroom in the church where the meeting was being held. During that lunch break, he wrote this marvelous new tune LANGHORNE, named after the suburb where Eastern College is now located. Langhorne is where the former Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University) was located. This is one of several new tunes that he wrote for the “Trinity Hymnal” in the same way during the times the committee was meeting, providing new music for great historical words that needed a “reset.” One of the noteworthy features of the music LANGHORNE is the way it shifts from the key of f minor in the stanzas, with the heaviness of their themes of suffering and evil, to the key of F Major in the refrain, with its solid confidence in the sovereign plan of God. That same effective musical shift from minor to Major is found in other hymns, like “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (VOX DILECTI) and “Christian, Dost Thou See Them” (ST. ANDREW OF CRETE).
At that time, Ron was organist/music director at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Willow Grove, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, and near Westminster Theological Seminary. He joined Eastern University in 1992 and was appointed its 10th President effective March 1, 2018. Prior to this call, Dr. Matthews served as Professor of Music, Chair of the Music Department, and since 2010, Executive Director of the Fine and Performing Arts Division there. Eastern is a Christian university founded in 1925 in the headquarters of the American Baptist Publication Society in Philadelphia, PA as a seminary to train pastors. Beginning in 1932 and then in 1952 a college was formed as a separate entity. In 2003, the university was reunited with the seminary.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Dr. Matthews graduated from Central High School. Having received a Philadelphia Board of Education music scholarship, he did his undergraduate work in Church Music and Organ at Westminster Choir College where he graduated magna cum laude and received both the Senior Class Conducting Award and the Christian Leadership Award. Dr. Matthews received the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Temple University, during which time he was invited to conduct the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra for a recording project in Tel Aviv. At the age of 23, Dr. Matthews was invited to join the faculty of Nyack College as the Director of Choral Activities. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Combs College of Music in Composition with an emphasis in Orchestral Conducting.
From 1982-1992, Dr. Matthews was the Chair of the Department of Music at what is now Cairn University. For several years, he was a Thomas F. Staley Foundation lecturer/artist and served on professional and denominational boards and task forces. From 2005 until 2018, he was the Pastor of Worship Arts at Church of the Saviour in Wayne, PA. Dr. Matthews has conducted, recorded, and performed in France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Switzerland and the Vatican. He is a commissioned and published composer. He has performed and recorded regularly with his younger brother, Rev. Dr. Gary Matthews, in concerts and workshops throughout the United States and internationally. His older brother, Dr. John T. Matthews, is Professor of English at Boston University. Dr. Matthews’ most recent release is a jazz piano Christmas recording, “Holly and Ivory.”
Dr. Matthews is married to Pamela R. Matthews, who was raised in Oreland, PA and graduated from Springfield High School. She graduated from Chestnut Hill Hospital’s School of Radiologic Technology. Mrs. Matthews is a registered Ultrasonographer and received her training in Ultrasonography from Jefferson University and Chestnut Hill Hospital. For over thirty years she worked in Obstetrics and Gynecology with Abington Hospital – Jefferson Health until 2017. She served as the President of the Home and School Association for the Upper Moreland Round Meadow Elementary School during which she raised funds for new playground equipment. For the Middle School, she organized a campaign resulting in the purchase of a new grand piano for the music program. Mrs. Matthews is an avid tennis player and is also interested in charitable and mission work. She has organized fundraising projects for Haiti and the Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, NC, and she has traveled to Cartagena, Colombia on a sports mission trip. Dr. and Mrs. Matthews have two adult sons.
Margaret Clarkson’s hymn text helps us as Christians balance the reality and pain of the wickedness in this fallen world on the one hand, with the greater reality and joy in the security of the sovereignty of God. Even in the worst things that happen to us and around us, He is working His purpose to glorify His name, exalt his Son, build His kingdom, and bless His people. Much of the time, we will need to walk by faith and not by sight, believing what He has taught us in His Word and proved to us in our experience, even if we can’t understand it at the moment or perceive how such good might eventually come from these times.
The best example of that is certainly the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter declared in his Pentecost sermon that Jesus had been put to death by the hands of wicked men, but that all this had taken place “by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). So if the most evil thing that has ever occurred in human history was under God’s sovereign control for God’s good purpose, then shouldn’t we be able to be assured of that in the comparatively small tragedies we see and experience?
Not only has Ron Matthews captured the contrast between these two opposites in his music, so also did Margaret Clarkson in her text. Each of the first three stanzas has two lines that speak of the dark side (fears, clouds, wars, ills, etc.) followed by the counter-balance of two lines that speak of the bright side (golden, shining, lives, triumph, etc.).
Stanza 1 matches what we feel in the wake of the shooting. We fear what might come next, not just for public figures like our former President, but also for our entire country. We are oppressed by fears for our children and grandchildren at school, for our economy amid the uncertainties of rising inflation, for our national security with nuclear foes like China and Russia and Iran threatening our future. But the one truth of God’s sovereign is surely that “golden truth” whose rays break through those clouds that threaten to “obscure our way.”
Amid the fears that oppress our day,
across the clouds that obscure our way,
one golden truth sheds its shining ray —
our God is sovereign still.
Stanza 2 raises the “threat level” to include not only the things that trouble us now, but also the possible ills that may threaten us in the future. Jesus told us to expect wars and rumors of wars until His return. There have been countless wars in every age in too many places around the world. The hopes of past generations for a war that would end all wars was a vain hope. The catastrophic suffering and brutality taking place even today in too many countries shows no sign of abating. But “our God still lives, and He hears our call.” In His perfect time, this sovereign God will speak!
Though wars may rise, and though kingdoms fall,
though ills may threaten, and fears enthrall,
our God still lives, and He hears our call —
our God is sovereign still.
Stanza 3 begins to shift the focus beyond the immediacy of our current dangers to the certainty of victory over those evil forces. Clarkson’s words face the reality of a fierce fight “against the hosts of wrong.” The biblical word “hosts” suggests a large and intimidating military force. We think of the angelic hosts of heaven. In this instance, these are “the hosts of wrong.” But the Lord’s Word is the strong sword of the Spirit that will bring triumph, as it is wielded by a God who “is sovereign still.”
Though fierce the fight ’gainst the hosts of wrong,
his Word is sure, and his arm is strong;
the day is His: raise His triumph song —
our God is sovereign still.
Stanza 4 brings the height of the positive message to the forefront. “Christ shall come to receive His own.” He promised it, and this is a promise-keeping God. Hours before His death on a cross for His bride, His church, He promised to come gain and take us to be with Himself in His kingdom. And we can’t help but notice Clarkson’s allusion to words from the doxology we use at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” This throne on which our eternal King sits brings wonderful news to us for “our God is sovereign still.”
When Christ shall come to receive his own,
when His the kingdom, the pow’r, the throne,
eternal King He shall reign alone —
our God is sovereign still.
The refrain repeatedly assures us that the God we both know and love is absolutely in total, sovereign control. Even “the stars still turn at their Lord’s command.” The one who has ordained the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) will bring to completion what He has begun (Philippians 1:6). “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back” (Isaiah 14:27). The day draws near, despite Satan’s opposition, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).
His holy purpose unchanging stands,
the stars still turn at their Lord’s commands;
he holds the world in his mighty hands —
our God is sovereign still! Our God is sovereign still!
Words © 1966 Hope Publishing Company
Here is a link to the words with Matthews’ music from the “Trinity Hymnal.”