Hymn to a Gracious Sovereign (EN 625)

1

O God the deep immutable, the changeless, wise and still,

You’re the absolute, eternal One; You wield the sovereign will.

Deep Heav’n itself and even time must bend beneath your sway.

With a whispered thought you banish night in a flash of blinding day.

2

The seas are boundaried by your word; great mountains heed your call.

Majestic swirls of galaxies adorn your royal hall.

The centuries are lumps of clay shaped by your strength and skill.

You mold the long millennia to the dictates of your will.

3

The boundless, black-robed skies proclaim your vast, astonishing might:

Their flaming jewels rejoice for you in silent shouts of light.

With sure and sovereign strokes your hands finger the cosmic strings,

And play celestial symphonies as all creation sings.

4

And silent now, the angels stare; stunned seraphs blush, amazed;

Great Michael sheaths the sword that at the Gate of Eden blazed.

Mighty Gabriel sets his trump aside, and listens to his Lord,

As Love incomprehensible enfleshes the Living Word.

5

Now space and time have cracked before the size of this event:

The Godhead shudders as the glorious Son to Hell is sent.

Though Very God of Very God, He counts it all but loss,

And comes and suffers as a man, from the manger to the Cross.