Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
The great Doxology which so many of us have sung was composed by Thomas Kent as the closing verse to three different hymns, written for schoolboys to develop a rich devotional life. How this song has spread and touched lives!!
Today's Friday Classic Hymn won't take long—that's because whenever we sing this one, we only sing four lines, even though it's part of something much bigger. We can't sing the whole song, yet these four lines have become really popular and embedded into church culture. Probably most Christians have sung at some point in their church life "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow," or as it's also known, the Doxology.
I think many churches are in the habit of singing this song every week at a specific part of the service. Is that the case for you? Do you sing the song every week in your church, or did you perhaps for a season at a church that you attended? I'd love for you to share below where you heard the song or where you sing it now. Of course, if the song means something to you, would you share that below? We'd love to share in your joy as you share it in the comments.
As always on Friday Classic, I'll tell you the story behind the song, have a look at the lyrics, then sing it. But first, I'd love for you to subscribe to the channel—it's free. Hit that little notification bell and that'll notify you whenever one of these hymn videos I do comes out. By the way, head to my website if you'd like to check out some daily devotions and a whole lot more music that I do.
Now let's get into the history of this classic song.
The Story Behind "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow"
This one was written by Thomas Ken, an Englishman who was actually known as England's first hymnist—even before Wesley and Watts, the two great hymn writers in English history. You had Thomas Ken, who would write hymns. He was born in 1637 just outside of London and attended Winchester College, which was a very famous boys' school. He ended up going back to that school as an adult, as an ordained chaplain in the Church of England.
For the spiritual formation of these boys at the school, they had a long day. They would get up early and do all sorts of churchy things. As their chaplain, as their spiritual leader, Thomas Ken wanted to encourage them to have a strong devotional life—to spend private time with God before their day began.
At that point in English history, only Psalms were allowed to be sung in church, in public worship. You couldn't sing something that somebody else had written. Thomas Ken decided to write these little hymns to be used in private. They were written for the boys at the school to open their day and close their day with song, with worship, with praise. He wrote three: one for morning, one for evening, and one for midnight, in case somebody couldn't get to sleep—they could get up and sing this song.
They're very long hymns—13 stanzas. They go on forever, but they're very beautiful. The first verse of his morning hymn, for example, goes like this:
Awake, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily stage of duty run; Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise, To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Lovely words to just kick off the day for these young boys.
The evening hymn had these words:
All praise to Thee, my God, this night, For all the blessings of the light; Keep me, oh, keep me, King of kings, Beneath Thine own almighty wings.
Lovely hymns, aren't they?
The final verse—the final stanza—in each of these hymns that he wrote was the Doxology, which we sing today:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Thomas Ken ended up publishing these three verses, and of course, with that final Doxology, it just became very well known. Pretty soon everybody was singing this. In fact, if you look back through the old hymnals, this occurs almost in every one in the early years because it was that popular.
Thomas Ken ended up moving up through the ranks of the church hierarchy and at some point was involved with the royals. He was appointed as chaplain to King Charles II and gave King Charles quite a hard time as, I suppose, the voice of his conscience. One story is that the king wanted to bring one of his mistresses to be housed somewhere in the palace, and Thomas apparently rebuked him and said, "Not for the king's kingdom!"
He was such a courageous preacher that often when the king was on his way to go to the chapel, he would say something like, "Oh, I'm off to hear Ken tell me about all my faults," because he would encourage this man to be holy as the king of England.
Thomas Ken was eventually made Bishop of Bath and Wells, but when the next king came into power—James II—he sent Thomas Ken off to prison because of his Protestant convictions. Thomas Ken died in 1711, and the Doxology was sung at his funeral.
There are some interesting stories associated with this hymn. One comes from the Civil War in America, where prisoners of the Union Army were held captive in a particular prison. One evening, at about 10:00, through the darkness the prisoners heard a bunch of soldiers marching up to the prison. They all stopped outside the gates where obviously some business was to be done. A young Baptist pastor-preacher was out there, and he looked at this prison and thought of what horrors the people inside must have been enduring. He began to sing the Doxology.
They heard "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," and a few voices joined in the second line. A whole bunch more joined in the third line, and by the time they got to the last line, it was thundering—this loud collection of voices singing God's praise in that dark place. All the prisoners in that moment were given hope that God was still caring for them.
Another story of this hymn comes from the Methodists. Charles Wesley was preaching one day in an old house, and with all the people that had come to see him preach, the beams of the floor started to give way. Soon it collapsed, and the whole house collapsed. Everybody was thrown down. Some people were injured, but nobody was killed, thankfully.
Wesley wrote this in his diary of the event: "I slid down softly and alighted upon my feet. My hand was bruised and some skin rubbed off my head, and I lost my senses. But I lifted up my head soon and saw the people under me, heaps upon heaps. I called out, 'The Lord is with us,' and then I struck up singing, 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'"
Can you imagine that moment? Hearing that in the midst of what could have been a terrible tragedy, but what no doubt shook those people. I wonder what stories you have of this song. It's such a powerful four lines, and it is, as I said, so embedded in many Christians' lives that I'm sure it's been part of special moments for you.
Let's have a quick look at the lyrics—it's not going to take long because it's just one verse—and see why it is that this hymn is so popular.
What Do the Lyrics of "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" Mean?
Verse 1
Praise God from whom all blessings flow—praise God. Of course, that's why we're on earth, isn't it? To praise God.
To praise something means to make much of it or to exalt in it, to declare how great and wonderful it is. To praise God is to do those things for Him. I guess the question for us is always: what are we praising? Everybody praises something, and a lot of people praise other things far more than they praise God. Are our lives defined by our praise for God? Are we constantly, continually lifting Him up and making much of God? Because He's worthy.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow—that's just a lovely thought. All blessings come from God. This makes me think of James 1:17, which says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." All blessings, all good things, all gifts in this life flow from the hand of our loving God. I guess this is why we need to sing it every week at church—reminding ourselves that every blessing comes from Him.
Praise Him, all creatures here below—all creatures is not just us human beings, but anything that has been created. Praise God.
The Psalms often ring with calls for all creatures to praise God, all living things, because He's the one who gives them breath and feeds them and sustains them. Yes, we humans need to praise God, but in a sense we're joining in with creation when we're praising, aren't we? Psalm 150 is, of course, one of my favourites, which says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." If you're living, praise God, because you have life today.
Then the praise expands up into heaven when the third line says, Praise Him above, ye heavenly host—again, a biblical picture of all the heavenly hosts praising God.
We see it in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah has this vision of God and these otherworldly creatures are calling out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." We see it in Revelation 2, where John has very similar visions of heavenly hosts crying out before God. Let's remember that when we sing and when we praise Him, it's not just us and the creatures on earth that are praising, but we're joining in the songs of the angels who are praising Him. Can you imagine the thunderous praise we're going to experience on the other side when we are in the company of the heavenly host singing? Oh, wow!
Then it ends with a lovely call to the Trinity: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—God, three in one.
I know that some people on the channel have tried to convince me that God is God, and Jesus and the Holy Ghost aren't on the same level as God. But I believe in the Trinity—that God is three in one. He's still one God but in three persons. We can say, "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost"—one God, the Trinity.
It's so short, but there's so much in there. If you sing it every week, I can imagine it sinking into you. But I guess on the other hand, if you sing it every week, after a while you can just sing it without realising what you're singing, without even thinking. That would be a shame because these are powerful words for us to be singing.
Conclusion
Let's sing it together. But before we do, thank you for supporting my channel. Thank you for every donation that comes in to support this work that I do online—I really appreciate it. You can support this ministry through Patreon or PayPal.
By the way, this tune is called "Old Hundredth," famously linked to the song but often sung to other hymns as well. It's one of those I've heard sung differently with some variation. Some people hold some of the notes a bit longer, but others just sing them one after the next at the same length. I'm going to hold out some of the notes the way that I heard it done on some of the recordings.
References
Price, Carl F. 1914. A Year of Hymn Stories. New York: Methodist Book Concern
Price, Carl F. 1929. More Hymn Stories. New York: The Abingdon Press
