Hymns: All My Hope on God is Founded

I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.

Today’s song is All My Hope on God is Founded.

I never remember singing this one in Ireland. I discovered it in Wales around 1990, and I’ve loved it ever since. Here are some facts about the hymn:

• The original text, “Meine Hoffnung stehet feste,” was written by Joachim Neander around 1680.
• Poet Robert Bridges translated the hymn into English while living in Yattendon, Berkshire.
• It’s most popular tune, “Michael” wasn’t actually composed until 1936, by Herbert Howells. The tune was named after Howell’s son, who died young.
• Themes include the failure of human pride and the enduring goodness and wisdom of God.
• It was sung at Queen Elizabeth II’s Committal Service in 2022.

The one puzzling phrase is in verse one where it says “God unknown”. Why does it say that? Surely the Christian faith is all about Knowing God, the title of the famous book by J.I. Packer. I like to ask Microsoft Copilot’s opinion. I generally find its answers satisfactory.

It isn’t suggesting that God is unknowable or distant; instead, it reflects a classic Christian idea: God is greater than human understanding, beyond full comprehension, yet still trustworthy and worthy of worship.

That’s a great answer. As humans, we don’t even know each other fully. Why should we think that we totally understand God? But we can get to know him more through the Bible, and most of all through Jesus.

John 14:9-11
⁹ Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip? I have been among you such a long time! Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father? Don’t you believe that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. The Father lives in me. He is the one who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say I am in the Father. Also believe that the Father is in me. Or at least believe what the works I have been doing say about me.

But our understanding will always be limited, especially in the current world:

Romans 11:23
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

1 Corinthians 2:10-11
¹⁰ God has shown these things to us through his Spirit. The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. ¹¹ Who can know the thoughts of another person? Only a person’s own spirit can know them. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows God’s thoughts.

1 Corinthians 13:12
¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

I always enjoy finding different versions of hymns on YouTube. Here are a few renderings of today’s hymn: