When we experience some difficult and puzzling providence, we inevitably want to ask God, “Why?” It might be the loss of a job, or the onset of a painful disease, or the drunk driver who took the life of a child, or the violent act of terrorists. It might even be the threats from a worldwide pandemic. We know God is sovereign and can be trusted, and that His purpose will eventually be seen to be good. But in the midst of it, when His purpose is hidden from us, we can’t help but ask, “Why?”
The calamities that so suddenly and devastatingly struck Job were beyond imagining. As he faced that bleak and painful future, even as he trusted God (“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15), he asked “Why?” The friends who came to comfort him assured him that they knew why. It was because Job had done something that so offended God, that God was repaying him for that sin. But Job knew he was innocent before God, even as God Himself testified in the book, that Job was upright.
The questioning reached a crescendo at the end of the book. And then God spoke. It wasn’t the kind of answer that Job and his friends expected. In the last chapters, God’s answer was basically, “I’m God and you’re not. I have My purposes, and they are hidden to you for the time being.” And what was Job’s response? He repented of His demanding spirit, humbled himself before God’s display of His divine majesty and power, and fell down and worshipped Him. And that’s how we should respond when confronted by the mystery of God’s will. Not to demand that He explain Himself to us. He is under no obligation to do so, and will hardly ever do so, apart from the principles He’s already revealed in his Word. So, what should we do? Wait patiently, and worship Him reverently as our King.
Job’s experience was not the setting for the composition of Sir Robert Grant’s hymn, O Worship the King. But the call to worship God should be the response of our heart whether in pleasant times or in painful ones. It’s the realization that God is King of kings that calms our hearts as we remind ourselves that He is as much in control now as He was before the hard times came. Not only is He in control, but He is good and wise and loving and trustworthy. Our best response is to remind ourselves of what He has revealed of His glory and power in creation, what He has shown us in His Word, and what we have experienced in His past responses to our needs and the testimonies of others.
Born in Bengal, India in 1779, Sir Robert Grant was the son of the East India Company’s director. It was in Magdalen College at the University of Oxford that he completed his higher education. He was admitted to the bar in 1807, which meant he could practice law. The following year, the 29-year-old won a seat in Parliament, which he retained for many years. He was a strong supporter of world missions among Anglican evangelicals.
Robert accepted a high position in the East India company. His reputation led to His being knighted and appointed as governor of Bombay in 1834. As governor, he had the opportunity to put his social concerns into practice, for the poverty and spiritual condition of the common people were appalling. Among his accomplishments was the opening of several new roads, an inducement to commerce. He was deeply loved by the people and honored by having a medical college (the second oldest in India) named after him. He held the governorship only four years, dying of a sudden illness on July 9, 1838 at the young age of 59. The year after Robert’s death, his brother Charles printed Sir Robert’s twelve hymns in a slender volume called Sacred Poems. The only one which is still sung by many people is O Worship the King.
This hymn is considered to be one of the greatest in the English language. Reading William Kethe’s translation of Psalm 104 in a 1561 Psalm book prompted Robert to write his own version of the Psalm, familiar to millions of church-goers. It is not a metrical version (which would follow the original words as closely as possible), but a paraphrase of key elements from the Psalm, especially verses 1-5 in the King James version.
Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.
The words of the hymn combine the imagery of nature so prominent in this Psalm with the imagery of divine majesty and splendor which belongs to God as King of kings, as the ruling monarch of all the earth. The focus on God moves from that of objective praise of the One who is seated in the heavens in majesty in stanza 1, to attention to His magnificent work in creation in stanzas 2, 3 and 4, and then to the personal praise that we give, with the angels, for the care that He gives to us poor unworthy creatures in stanzas 5 and 6. While Jesus is not named, we know Him as that King of kings, especially as the hymn names Him as our Redeemer and Friend.
It has been long and widely recognized that Grant’s hymn is a masterfully composed poem. But what is usually missed is the skill with which he included a most unusual and seldom attempted poetic device. In each line of the poem, all the way through the six stanzas, Grant rhymed not only the final words of the line, but also those in the middle of each line. Truly remarkable! Here’s just one example from stanza one.
O worship the King all glorious above,
O gratefully sing his pow’r and his love.
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
When we stand confounded by God’s providence, as in the 2020 pandemic, our proper response is to focus on Him, not on our problems, but on His majesty. In contrast to the people around us, who are looking to the resources of their own strength (or to government and science), we look to an awesome God who has proven Himself trustworthy time after time. Unlike Peter, in the midst of a storm, we need to keep our eyes on the Lord, not on the waves. Worshiping the King will strengthen our trust in Him.
In stanza 1, it’s God’s royalty and is heavenly majesty.
O worship the King all-glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and his love:
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
In stanza 2, it’s God’s powerful grace as well as His dark justice.
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
and dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
In stanza 3, it’s God’s wonders in nature’s wonders and laws.
The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty Thy pow’r has founded of old;
Has ‘stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it has cast, like a mantle, the sea.
In stanza 4, it’s God’s providence that so mercifully cares for His world.
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
it streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
In stanza 5, it’s God’s mercies that treat feeble sinners so tenderly.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail.
Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
In stanza 6, it’s God’s might and love, sung by angels above and creatures below.
O measureless Might! ineffable Love!
while angels delight to hymn Thee above,
the humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
with true adoration shall lisp to Thy praise!
The tune with which this hymn is most often set is HANOVER, which is generally attributed to William Croft (1678-1727). He received his musical education in the Chapel Royal. Upon the death of Jeremiah Clarke in 1707, he was appointed joint organist with his mentor, Dr. Blow. Two years later he was elected organist of Westminster Abbey. He was an amiable man and an excellent musician. He also wrote the tune ST ANNE, to which we sing “Our God, Our Help in ages Past.” HANOVER is joined with Grant’s text in almost every hymnal of the last century. Organ virtuoso Edwin Lemare composed a magnificent setting of the hymn in its various stanzas.