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 King of Kings, Majesty, from the 1996.
Several hymns include King of Kings in the title. The first time that I heard the expression was in primary school when the teacher made reference to Handel’s Messiah. Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland, at The Great Music Hall on Fishamble Street on 13 April 1742.
But of course, the expression goes all the way back to the Bible. In the Old Testament, it’s used of earthly emperors. In the New Testament, it’s used both of the Father and Jesus:
1 Timothy 6:15
…God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Revelation 17:14
14 They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”
In the early centuries of the Christian church, when people started to analyse the Scriptures more thoroughly, some wondered if Jesus was something less than God. For example, sometimes Jesus calls the Father God. But when the church looked into it, it finally came to the conclusion that there is One God, and three persons are God. Some verses explicitly state that Jesus is God. Others use terms for Jesus that are only used of God and apply the unique attributes of God to Jesus, and He accepted worship as God. Anytime people do anything like that to angels or humans, they are swiftly rebuked. So, even though the recommended pattern for prayer is to pray to the Father in Jesus name, Jesus is worshipped. You don’t see the Holy Spirit being worshipped in the New Testament, but any worship to God or an individual person in the trinity can be thought of as worship of all three because the three are one.
So, who is worshipped in this hymn? It’s probably Jesus, but it could be any member of the trinity. All share the attributes of God. It does speak of “gentle Saviour”, which makes me think of Jesus, but God is described as both gentle and as Saviour in Scripture. Yet in the New Testament, Saviour is generally more associated with Jesus. Anyway, it’s a beautiful hymn in which we celebrate the power and love of God and delight in his presence.
Here are some other versions. Nice to see how to spans different nations and movements, though the writer is a Welsh‑born English Pentecostal:
Hibernia Gospel 