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 Meekness and Majesty, from the 1986.
Graham Kendrick was the main writer and singer of worship songs in the UK back in the 1980s and 1990s. I remember singing with London City Mission at Trafalgar square back in the early 1980s. I was just part of a choir of Voluntary Evangelists. Graham Kendrick sung at one of the events, and I think that I saw him at a Luis Palau meeting too. I didn’t know much about him at that stage. But in Ireland, we used to sing many of his worship songs in the years that followed. In the very modern churches nowadays, it’s generally Hillsong and similar stuff that you hear. But I can hear all the older stuff on YouTube. It’s funny because it still seems new to to me. But back in the 1980s, if someone mentioned 1940s music as “modern music”, I’d have laughed at them. Now, people probably laugh at me.
The song emphasizes the deity and humanity of Jesus. It’s important to see both and to emphasize both. Sometimes even Christians who believe in the Trinity get confused. They feel uneasy about speaking of Jesus as a man, fearing that it treats him like a mere man. And you get some liberal Christians who go as far as denying the deity of Jesus. The chorus declares “Oh What a Mystery, Meekness and Majesty”. It shouldn’t surprise us that God is mysterious. Even creation is mysterious. I remember being bewildered as a young child when I heard that the earth was a giant spinning ball 😀. And when I did science in school and college, I was constantly astonished, particularly with particle physics. But even the human body is amazing. I remember watching a BBC show on how the body fights infections some years ago, and I found it astonishing. So, why shouldn’t our Creator amaze us? For the theologically minded, I always recommend Wayne Grudem’s talks on The Person of Christ.
Here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
Hibernia Gospel 