O Worship the King
An impressive man wrote a humble hymn of praise based on Psalm 104. This has been a favourite in Britain for centuries!
Introduction
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. Today we're looking at a British favourite: O Worship the King. If you know this hymn, share your thoughts in the comments below. I'd love to know what the song has meant to you. As for me, it's another one that I didn't know at all and had to learn this week. But I've thoroughly enjoyed learning this powerful song. If you have some stories or thoughts, please share them below.
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The Story Behind "O Worship the King"
This hymn was written by a fascinating man, Sir Robert Grant. Born in 1779, he was a man who wore many hats: a distinguished lawyer, a Member of Parliament, a Privy Counsellor, eventually a colonial governor, and of course, a gifted hymn writer.
He had an extraordinary political career, sitting in the House of Commons as a Tory for a good 25 years and representing constituencies including Elgin, Inverness, Norwich and Finsbury. During his time in Parliament, he championed some very important reforms of the time, including a bill which emancipated Jews in Britain - quite a breakthrough at the time. In 1834, he was a big part of making sure that bill was passed.
Shortly after this, he was appointed as the Governor of Bombay in the years when Britain had the colonies, and he served in this role until his death in 1838.
Grant was a talented hymn writer and was part of a group including other talented hymn writers of the time - Edwardian and Victorian MPs who wrote great hymns, including apparently William Gladstone, who would later become Prime Minister.
This hymn is Grant's most popular, and it was based on Psalm 104. We'll see this as we go through the lyrics. He loved Psalm 104 - it was one of his favourites - and so he took a paraphrase of Psalm 104 and worked on it, changing it into this hymn that we know as O Worship the King.
It's a remarkable thing that such an influential and busy man, who had such a high-powered job, would take the time to write such a beautiful hymn. Come, let's take a look at the words that he wrote.
What Do the Lyrics of "O Worship the King" Mean?
Verse One
Really, this is just a worship song, and this is seen in the first line:
Oh, worship the King, all glorious above.
Give the King His worth - that's what it means to worship: to declare how worthy He is. He is all glorious above, great and elevated in His greatness.
Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love.
Consider His power and yet His love. These two things in balance is what the Christian view of God is: a powerful God who loves us. We gratefully sing of these attributes of this God.
Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days.
There's some imagery from the Psalms there - we see those words used quite often. He is a protector and defender. The Ancient of Days - that's a phrase directly from Daniel 7, emphasising God's great, eternal, unchanging nature.
Pavilioned in splendour and girded with praise.
These are phrases we won't use in today's English, but 'pavilioned' means He dwells in a great tent of splendour, or a great palace of splendour. 'Girded with praise' - so He dresses Himself, or clothes Himself, in the praises of His people. He is clothed in our praises. Isn't that an interesting thought? We worship Him for all these reasons.
Verse Two
Oh, tell of His might, oh, sing of His grace.
We're proclaiming it. We're not just keeping this knowledge to ourselves, but we're saying to each other, 'Let's tell the story and let's sing of His grace and His love.' Again, there's power and love, might and grace at the same time.
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
These are direct images from Psalm 104. God, who covers Himself with light, stretches out the heavens like a curtain, the psalm says. He's rephrasing that for his song: God's robes are light, He is covered in light. Space is like a canopy, a curtain that He stretches out. Beautiful pictures of how great and above all God is.
His chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds form.
Again, this is from Psalm 104, verse three: God making the clouds His chariot. He sees the deep thunderclouds as signs of God's anger, perhaps. I think it's important to sing of this aspect of God. Do you think we purposefully don't sing about this anymore because we don't want to scare people away? Do you think maybe we should now and again sing about the wrath of God, the righteous judgement of God in our songs? Maybe we should. Maybe we need the reminder that this is what He saved us from, and this is what He offers to those who aren't yet saved: salvation from the righteous anger that He has.
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
Yes, when He comes in judgement, it's darkness. The day of the Lord that is often spoken about in Scripture is always a dark day of judgement. But for the remnant, those who believe, He offers protection and salvation.
Verse Three
The earth with its store of wonders untold.
We're marvelling now at this beautiful earth - the big theme of Psalm 104. We can marvel at all the wonders which are untold and uncountable. There are so many that we can just look at the earth and see this great store of amazing wonders He has created.
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old.
God is the Almighty - that is a name that He identified Himself with in the Old Testament: El Shaddai, the Almighty God. 'Founded of old' - so He's ancient. He's far beyond the earth's creation even. He's the one who laid the foundations of the earth in the old times, but He is beyond that. He's older even than that, the Ancient of Days.
Established it first by a changeless decree, and round it hath cast like a mantle the sea.
He's talking about the earth - how God established it by His decree, which changeless, and has cast the sea around the earth like a mantle. It's a beautiful picture of God carefully constructing the planets and the earth specifically as the place that His humans would live.
Verse Four
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
Bountiful means plentiful, and so He cares for us with great, overwhelming care, plentiful care. And how can we ever recite how great His works are? We try in songs like this, but we always fall short, don't we?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light.
God's care is evident in the air we breathe, in the light that helps us to see. Reminds me of Acts 17:28, which says, 'For in Him we live and breathe and have our being.' It's in Him, it's in His care that every breath and every second of sight is gifted to us.
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distils in the dew and the rain.
Oh, beautiful! The hills, the plains, the dews and the rains are all moments - or signs, shall I say - of God's bountiful care. Maybe you need to take a moment today. Look around at these things. If you can see hills or plains or dews or rains, just be grateful for how these are signs of God's grace.
Verse Five
Frail children of dust and feeble as frail, in Thee do we trust nor find Thee to fail.
We're frail and feeble - children created from dust. God creates man out of dust in Genesis chapter two. But we trust in Him who is not feeble or frail, and in fact never fails. This is a wonderful thought: that in spite of our own frailties, we can trust in Him. And perhaps that is what the song is going to bring home to you today - that this great God is worthy of our trust.
Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.
Oh, what beautiful words about how though He is full of might and power and creative genius, He cares tenderly for us to the end. He's our Maker, our Defender - we've already said that in an earlier verse. Our Redeemer, of course, through Christ on the cross, and our Friend through Christ. Oh, He is wonderful! This little progression in this last line is beautiful: Maker, Defender, Redeemer, Friend. You're seeing Him as great but also personal - personal as our Friend.
Verse Six
O measureless might, ineffable love.
Ineffable means that it can't be expressed in words. So it can't be measured, it can't be expressed - again, His might and love. There's that theme that He's powerful and loving, and we can't measure any of it. It's all too great for us to even comprehend how wonderful He is.
While angels delight to worship Thee above.
Of course the angels are worshipping - just think of all those Scriptures that speak about it, especially in Isaiah chapter six and in Revelation, how there are all these creatures around the throne and elders and all the people that are there with God, worshipping.
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays, with true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.
Not just the angels above, but the humbler creation down here are singing with true adoration. We'll sing our praise. That word 'feeble their lays' - that's kind of colloquial of the day for songs. So though our songs are feeble offerings to Him, we will sing them nonetheless with true adoration.
Conclusion
This is a beautiful song! I wonder what you thought of it. Did you find any of the lines to be particularly meaningful as we went through them? I really enjoyed the power and love balanced in quite a few of the lines. We worship Him as powerful Creator, Redeemer, sustainer, but then we know Him personally as a loving Friend and Father to us. Wonderful!
So let's sing it. We're going to use the most famous tune for this song, which is called Lyons, and it was written by Franz Haydn's younger brother, who was also a composer. It was he who seems to have put this melody to these words, so I'm looking forward to it.
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References
- Osbeck, K.W. 1985. 101 Hymn Stories. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
- Bradley, I. 1989. The Penguin Book of Hymns. Penguin Group: London
