O Worship the King

“O worship the King, all glorious above,
and gratefully sing God’s power and God’s love;
our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of God’s might, O sing of God’s grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
and dark is God’s path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy power hath founded of old;
hath established it fast by a changeless decree,
and round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

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.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.”

There are several well-known hymns that begin with the letter “O” in their titles.  This one letter word can have a variety of meanings, and over the next several weeks, seeing that we are in the month of October and I’m from “O-klahoma,” I thought I would give you several hymns beginning with letter “O.”

In this particular situation, I think the author is using “O” to plead with the listeners to join him in worship of the King, similar to how the Psalmist would plead with his soul “Bless the Lord, O my soul” and then gives us lots of reason why we ought to worship the king.  This hymn has some beautiful poetic language about the greatness of God as seen through the power of creation.

This hymn closes with four descriptive names referring to God that I think are important reminders of some of His attributes:

• Our Maker – Psalm 95:6 says “O lets us worship and bow down.  Let us kneel before the Lord our God our maker.”  The past week in Cleveland, my wife Sheri, our Pastor, and others in the community participated in the Walk for Life with the New Hope Pregnancy Center.  Their theme verse was Psalm 139:14 “I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Worship Him because He is your Maker.
• Our Defender – Psalm 82:3 is a prayer to the Lord to “Defend the poor and the fatherless.  Do justice to the afflicted and the needy.”  Have you ever been afflicted, needy, poor or fatherless?  Be thankful that there is One that was there to defend and protect you.  Worship Him because He is your Defender.
• Our Redeemer – Psalm 23:11 says our Redeemer is mighty.  He has purchased our salvation by the shedding of His blood, and he is “mighty to save.”  Worship Him because He is your Redeeemer.
• Our Friend –  Jesus referred to his disciples as friends.  Abraham was called a “Friend of God.”  There’s an old hymn that says “What a friend we have in Jesus.”  I am glad to have a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  Aren’t you?  Worship Him because He is your friend.

Finally, there are lots of “Kings” in our culture who unfortunately receive praise that is not due them.  Elvis – King of Rock and Roll.  Lebron James – “King James”.  All of these folks have great talent and ability, but are really “imitation” kings and do not deserve the worship that is rightly due to God – “The King.”  Take time to worship Him.  Because of who He is.  Because of what He has done.  Because of what He means to you.  “O Worship the King!!!”