Hymns: Ascribe Greatness to Our God the Rock

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 in-between hymns.

Today’s song is Ascribe Greatness to Our God the Rock, from the 1970s.

I associate this one with my early years as an evangelical Christian. I spent a year working with London City Mission when I was 20, going on 21, back in 1983. I attended Bermondsey Christian Fellowship, which has now evolved into City Hope Church. What I liked most about that fellowship was its warmth and the music. And Ascribe Greatness was one of the most memorable songs. It’s interesting how I developed an interest in older hymns in the late 1980s and stayed away from modern Christian music for about 25 years. But nowadays, I love it all.

Back then, many traditional evangelical churches disliked these new choruses, seeing them as short and superficial. Yet, they were often taken almost directly from Scripture. This one is based on the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 32:3–4.
I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
    Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.

My experience with hymns, new and old, is that I don’t always understand or take in what I’m singing. I just enjoy praising God with others. You come to associate the practice with delighting in God. So, even if you listened to an instrumental worship album, it would still put you in a worship mode. Yet, when I’m alone, I like to read hymns, and relate them to Scripture. This one speaks of God’s perfection, God’s justice, God’s faithfulness, and God’s uprightness. But to me, I just feel that I’m in the presence of God when I sing it. I do enjoy studying theology, but sometimes, I just enjoy feeling a childlike delight in being in God’s presence.

Here are a few interesting versions of today’s hymn: