Hello OCBC family,

“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17).

What a powerful and beautiful passage this is. This is Paul talking to the young pastor, Timothy, about his own work, and making clear that the glory is for God alone, Paul is just a sinner saved by grace and the only example that he can give is that God had patience with him, saving him to preach that, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (v. 12).”

This same passage was used by Walter Chalmers Smith to create his famous hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.” Walter Smith was born on December 5, 1824, in Aberdeen, a port city in Northeast Scotland. He attended grammar school at the University of Aberdeen, and after that he went to New College, Edinburgh. In 1850, he was ordained as a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, a Calvinist denomination.

He pastored several churches, but in 1874, he became pastor of the Free High Church (Presbyterian) of Edinburgh, until his retirement in 1894. During this pastorate, Smith created a hymns collection called “Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life.” For this collection, he wrote the hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.”

1 Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes;
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.

2 Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

3 To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish–, but naught changeth Thee.
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4 Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight.
All praise we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee!

The tune that we are very familiar with is a Welsh hymn with a very simple pattern (AABA), easy to learn and sing. The name of the tune is ST. DENIO, and perhaps is after Saint Deiniol (died 572), traditionally the first Bishop of Bangor in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, Wales.

This hymn is rich in sound doctrine and very useful for any season in the life of the church and/or believers. Please, use it as part of your quiet time and worship our God, who is our King, who is immortal, who is invisible, who is wise.

In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
“The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1).

This is one of my favorite verses in the psalms about creation; the whole universe belongs to our Lord. And this verse is the base for a wonderful hymn that we love to sing, “This Is My Father’s World.”

“This is my Father's world,
And to my list'ning ears,
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world,
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.”

The author of this hymn is Maltbie D. Babcock, and he was born in Syracuse, N.Y., Aug. 3, 1858, went to college is Syracuse and became a presbyterian minister. On October 4, 1882, he married Katherine Eliot Tallman, and they had two kids, but sadly, both children died in infancy.

Babcock was a prolific author and loves to write poems and hymns. Yes, we know his most famous hymn, “This Is My Father’s World” but he has more hymns as well. “Gaily the bells are ringing”, “O blessed Saviour, Lord of love”, “Shining Sun, shining sun”, “Rest in the Lord, my soul”, “Be strong: we are not here to play.”

“This is my Father's world,
The birds their carols raise;
The morning light, the lily white
Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world,
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.”

This hymn was not originally written for children, but it became very popular to teach doctrine to little ones.

Babcock was in Italy in 1901 after visiting the Holy Land, and he wrote this hymn, and sadly a few months after, Babcock passed away. He was 42 years old.

The melody is a traditional English folk melody, and it is called TERRA BEATA, Latin for “beautiful world.”

We are living in a world where people call the earth “our mother” and we have the “Earth Day” forgetting who the real Creator is, the Triune God. Let us not forget to praise God and give thanks to Him for this creation.

“This is my Father's world,
O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world,
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heav'n be one.”

Please, use this hymn as part of your personal time with God, and rejoice in our God the Creator.

In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
“In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.” (Psalm 95:4).

The creation of the whole universe is in Genesis 1, and you are very familiar with this passage. This part of the Scripture is great to teach kids about God as the creator of the animals, plants, mountains, rivers, and man, Adam and his wife, Eve. This passage is great for deep theological studies: God creating everything from nothing, the Trinity involved in the whole process of creation, and many other topics. But also, this passage is a call to worship our God as the Creator and the source of life.

Isaac Watts was born on 17 July 1674, son of a schoolmaster. He was very smart since childhood, learning Latin when he was 4 years old, and able to write poems when he was 7. Let me share a little story about how good he was to create poems from an early age.

“Watts displayed a propensity for rhyme from an early age. He was once asked why he had his eyes open during prayers, to which he responded:
A little mouse for want of stairs
ran up a rope to say its prayers.
He received corporal punishment for this, to which he cried:
O father, father, pity take
And I will no more verses make.”

At home, his family was part of a congregationalism church, and Watts himself became a minister of this Calvinist tradition.

Being Calvinist, Watts learned to worship God using the psaltery, metrical psalms, but his desire was to clothe the psalms with Christian robe, and he created hymns using Psalms with a New Testament language.

After this introduction, I want to share that Isaac Watts used the first chapter of the Bible to write a lovely hymn, “I Sing the Mighty Power of God.” In this hymn, we extol the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as seen in the created order. We recognize that it is God who has made all these beautiful wonders, and that it is He who keeps the world in order through His ever-present care.

“I sing the mighty power of God
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command
And all the stars obey.”

This hymn was written for children, but it is good for adults as well, because it has sound doctrine. It can be used for quiet time, praising the Lord for his creation.

“There's not a plant or flower below
But makes Thy glories known;
And clouds arise and tempests blow
By order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee
Is ever in Thy care,
And ev'rywhere that man can be,
Thou, God, art present there.”

“31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.” (Psalm 104:31-34)

Enjoy creation but worship the Creator.
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In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family.
“My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed.” (Psalm 71:23).

“Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!”

These lovely lyrics are from that very well know hymn, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” This hymn is an explosion of praises to God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, and the author is Henry van Dyke.

Henry van Dyke was born in Pennsylvania in 1852 and as a young man, he became the pastor of the Brick Presbyterian church in New York City. Then he became an English literature teacher at Princeton. During this time, he wrote many essays, poems, books, and hymns. Among his books, a popular one is “The Other Wise Man.”

In 1907, Hendy van Dyke was invited to preach at Williams College in Massachusetts. During the breakfast, he handed to the president of the college a piece of paper with a poem, and he said, “Here is a hymn for you. Your mountains were my inspiration. It must be sung to the music of Beethoven’s ‘Hymn of Joy.’”

“Thou art giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother,
all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the joy divine.”

You are very familiar with the melody of this hymn, and it’s based on a major work by Ludwin van Beethoven. Beethoven, German composer, wrote nine symphonies, and his last one (which he composed when he was completely deaf) is called “Choral” because it is his only symphony that ends with a choir and soloists. The lyrics that Beethoven used for his work are from a secular poem by Friedrich Schiller. But now we can give thanks to God for a man like Henry van Dyke, who gave us a poem for God’s glory, and we can sing it during our worship services using the majestic music of Beethoven.

“Mortals, join the happy chorus,
which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us,
brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us sunward
in the triumph song of life.”
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In His service,
Israel