This past Sunday we opened our service by singing the hymn “Immortal Invisible God Only Wise”.  This is one of those hymns that deserves a closer reading of the text with the statements about God’s character that are contained and the praise that ensues.  Here is the text that we sung this last Sunday.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

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.

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.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render: O help us to see
’Tis only the splendour of light hideth thee.

This hymn was written by Walter Chalmers Smith.  The last stanza of this hymn is actually a combination of the original last 2 stanzas.  Here is the original text of the last 2 stanzas.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.

All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.

I appreciate the original authors understanding and inclusion of the fact that apart from His sovereign grace we are unable to praise Him in all of His magnificence but we need His grace that only comes through Jesus to unveil our faces and remove the vile from our hearts.

Here is also a modern rendition of this hymn that I personally enjoyed.  You can listen to it for free on spotify.

Link to song.

Link to spotify if you do not have it.

A few months ago I wrote about a new songs that Misael and I wrote, that we also sang in church. Here is a demo mp3 and also the chord sheets. Note that this is just a demo mp3 recorded with my logitech webcam microphone.

Guitar Chord Sheet

Bass Chord Sheet

We recently song a new song in church that Misael Acosta and I wrote.  We adapted the text from a puritan prayer “The Great God,” from the book “Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions” by Arthur G. Bennett. This is a great book to pick up, the prayers are all one page long and also very thought provoking.  Great if you want to be able to read something that you can think, pray, and meditate on throughout the day.

This particular prayer is very humbling.  Recognizing that we are sinful and helpless apart from God and it is He and He along that can regenerate us and give us new life.  This idea recognizes Him as being great. Just the fact that He can save a sinner as myself speaks of His greatness and that He is the only one that can rescue me points to His greatness and glorifies Him even more. Read through the text and meditate on this, it is very humbling and encouraging.  We serve a Great God.  At the bottom you will find the guitar and bass chord sheets.  I will be posting an mp3 later.

The Great God

O Fountain of All Good,
Destroy in me every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,
Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,
Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepare dwelling for my God;
Then can the Father take up his abode in me,
Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch,
Then can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace;
O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God,
Inhabit me, a temple consecrated to thy glory.
When thou art present, evil cannot abide;
In thy fellowship is fullness of joy,
Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience,
By thy side no fears disturb,
No apprehensions banish rest of mind,
With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;
Make me meet, through repentance, for thine indwelling.
Nothing exceeds thy power,
Nothing too good for thee to give.
Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love,
Limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name.
Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored,
backsliders reclaimed, Satan’s captives released,
blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up,
the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies,
the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.

I ask great things of a great God.

Guitar Chord Sheet

Bass Chord Sheet