"O WORSHIP THE KING"
"Our Lord Jesus Christ…the King of kings, and Lord of lords…to whom be honor and power…" (1 Tim. 6.14-16).
INTRO.: A hymn by which we can ascribe honor and power to our King of kings and Lord of lords is "O Worship The King" (#35 in Hymns for Worship Revised). The text was written by Robert Grant, who was born in Bengal, India, in 1779 (some sources say 1785) in Bengal, India, the son of Charles Grant who was a director of the East India Company. When Robert was six, the family returned to Great Britain, where he was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1801 and his master’s in 1804, after which he was called to the English Bar in 1807. Also he became a King’s Sergeant in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster and one of the commissioners of bankruptcy. Later, he entered Parliament in 1818 from his family’s home of Aberdeen in the county of Inverness, Scotland, as had his father before him, and was made Judge Advocate General in 1832. Yet in all his secular and political pursuits, he remained a devout and zealous member of the Anglican Church.
"O Worship The King" was first published in Henry Bickersteth’s Christian Psalmody of 1833. However, its antecedents date long before that time. It is taken from Psalm 104, although it is too free to be called a mere paraphrase. Furthermore, it is actually based on an earlier metrical version of the psalm which appeared in the 1561 Anglo-Genevan Psalter made by William Kethe (flourished c. 1555-1593). Later in 1833 Grant introduced a bill in the British House of Commons to remove all civil restrictions imposed against Jews. The following year, 1834, he was appointed Governor of Bombay, India, at which time he was also knighted. Returning to the land of his birth, he died on July 9, 1839, at Dalpoorie, western India, where a medical college which bears his name was erected as a memorial to him. Grant had produced a total of twelve hymns which were published posthumously by his brother Charles, Lord Glenelg, under the title Sacred Poems in 1839.
The tune (Lyons) is usually attributed to Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806). It first appeared, marked simply "Haydn," in the 1815 second volume of the Sacred Melodies compiled by William Gardiner (1770-1853). In the works of J. M. Haydn there are a number of themes which begin like this melody, as well as in the works of his more famous older brother, Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809). However, none of them can be positively identified as the source of Gardiner’s adaptation. Gardiner’s work contained many hymn tunes ascribed to various famous composers, some of which have never been found among their known works. There are some scholars who believe that Gardiner himself may have composed a few of these.
Among hymnbooks published by members of the Lord’s church and used by churches of Christ in the mid and late 1900’s, this song was used in the 1921 Great Songs of the Church (No. 1) and the 1937 Great Songs of the Church No. 2 both edited by E. L. Jorgenson; the 1948 Christian Hymns No. 2 and the 1966 Christian Hymns No. 3 edited by L. O. Sanderson; the 1963 Abiding Hymns edited by Robert C. Welch; and the 1963 Christian Hymnal edited by J. Nelson Slater. Today it is found in the 1971 Songs of
the Church, the 1990 Songs of the Church 21st C. Ed., and the 1994 Songs of Faith and Praise all edited by Alton H. Howard; the 1978/83 (Church) Gospel Songs and Hymns edited by V. E. Howard; the 1986 Great Songs Revised edited by Forrest M. McCann; and the 1992 Praise for the Lord edited by John P. Wiegand; in addition to Hymns for Worship and the 2007 Sacred Songs of the Church edited by William D. Jeffcoat. It was notably absentfrom Sacred Selections.
This grand hymn expresses several good reasons why we should worship God.
I. According to stanza 1, we should worship God because of His glory.
"O worship the King, all-glorious above,
And gratefully sing His wonderful love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise."
A. God alone is worthy of our worship: Matt. 4.10, Jn. 4.24
B. This is because He is the Ancient of Days: Dan. 7.14
C. His glory and splendor are seen in the fact that He is clothed with honor and majesty: Ps. 104.1
II. According to stanza 2, we should worship God because of His might
"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."
A. We should tell of His might because He is the Almighty One: Gen. 17.1
B. We should also sing of His grace, because by His Might, He manifested His grace to save us: Eph. 2.8–9
C. Both His might and His grace are seen in the various forces of the heavens which He created: Ps. 104.2-4
III. According to stanza 3, we should worship God because of His wonders
"The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea."
A. God created not only the heavens but also the earth: Gen. 1.1
B. The earth was founded by the word of the Lord who gathered the waters as a heap: Ps. 33.6-9
C. Therefore, the wonders of the Lord are seen by the forces of nature at work on the earth: Ps. 104.5-9
IV. According to stanza 4, we should worship God because of His care
"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."
A. God cares for us: 1 Pet. 5.7
B. One reason we know that He cares for us is that He gives us the air to breathe and the rain to water the earth to provide for our needs: Acts 14.15-17
C. Thus, God’s care is seen in all the provisions that He has made for our life here on this earth: Ps. 104.10-28
V. According to stanza 5, we should worship God because of His mercies
"Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, not find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies, how tender! how firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!"
A. We human beings are but frail children of dust, and feeble too: Ps. 103.8-14
B. But He extends His mercies to us: Tit. 3.1-7
C. And His mercies are seen by His sending His Spirit, renewing the face of the earth, and especially in being our Redeemer: Ps. 104.29-32
VI. According to stanza 6, we should worship God because of His love
"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."
A. Surely the great love of God is something that we should extol: Jn. 3.16
B. Because of His love, the angels around His throne sing give honor, power, and glory to His name: Rev. 4.8-11
C. Some newer denominational books apparently change the last line of stanza 6 to read, "With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise," apparently to avoid offending anyone with a speech impediment. However, this misses the whole contrast of the stanza. The hymns sung by the angels around His throne are perfect. We, the humbler creation because of our sin, give praise that would sound in comparison to the angels as lisping, yet our feeble lays still express the true adoration of our hearts. God’s love is seen in all the good things for which we sing praise unto Him: Ps. 104.33-35
CONCL.: It is unfortunate that most of our books which contain this hymn include only three stanzas, because by omitting the other three we miss so much of the strong imagery that is used to emphasize to our minds the majesty of God. However, it seems that today we are content quickly to sing through a couple of stanzas of a couple of songs so that we can hurry on to other things. It is also unfortunate that grand hymns of praise like this which have been sung to glorify God through the years are not as popular and well-used as they once were. Rather, we prefer to sing a simple phrase, something like, "I want to praise God, I want to praise His name," twelve times to a pop-sounding tune and convince ourselves that we have actually "praised" God. This is Grant’s only hymn in common usage today. However, it has been considered a model hymn by which we can "Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise" (Ps. 47.6-7). It has few equals in expressive lyrics as it exhorts us, "O Worship The King."
