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 His Name is Higher from the 1970s.
When I post songs from the late 20th Century, I often point out that I only discovered many of them in the 21st Century when I started going through Mission Praise and learning songs that I didn’t know. But I did know and sing this one back in 1980. It was one of the new short choruses at the time. Older folk often criticized these, but I found them very memorable. People would often start singing them spontaneously in prayer meetings, and everyone would know the lyrics, so they’d sing along. We didn’t need hymn books, overhead projectors, or screens for the newer songs. People just picked them up as they sang them.
Jesus is both God and Human. As God, saying that He’s higher than any other is stating the obvious. But as Man, Scripture focuses on His achievements as a human, having faced the same trials and temptations that we face. In addition to dying to save us, He demonstrated how life should be lived. He described the Father as “My God and your God”. How can He speak of God as a third party if He Himself was God? But He was also human, and as a human, He lived for God and worshipped God. And in the very same chapter where He spoke of His Father being His God (John 20), doubting Thomas, when He met the risen Jesus, described Jesus as “my Lord and my God”. And Jesus accepted that worship. In other parts of the New Testanment, where people give worship-type honour to humans or angels, they are swiftly rebuked. Not so, when your worship Jesus because He is God the Son. So He is worshipped in varius passages throughout the New Testament. Here are 10 examples
- Matthew 2:11 — The Magi (three wise men) fall down and worship Him, offering gifts.
- Matthew 14:33 — After Jesus calms the storm, the disciples worship Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
- John 9:38 — The man healed of blindness says, “Lord, I believe,” and worships Him.
- Matthew 28:9 — The women take hold of His feet and worship Him after the resurrection.
- John 20:28 — Thomas addresses Jesus with divine worship: “My Lord and my God.”
- Matthew 28:17 — The disciples worship Him on the mountain before the Great Commission.
- Luke 24:52 — After the ascension, the disciples worship Him and return to Jerusalem with joy.
- Hebrews 1:6 — God commands: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”
- Revelation 5:8 — The elders fall before the Lamb with harps and bowls of incense.
- Revelation 5:12–14 — All creation offers worship to “the Lamb who was slain” alongside the One on the throne.
An as a human, He’s our model, our example. This hymn is based on the following passages:
Isaiah 9:6 (Old Testament prophecy about Jesus)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Psalm 148:13
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
Acts 4:12 (Peter speaking about Jesus after a man was healed)
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
In the centuries following the New Testament era, theologians spent much time trying to understand the trinity and the human and divine nature of Jesus. I sometimes compare it to understanding science. I remember hearing about the atom, which was quite fascinating, but relatively simple. But the more I delved into it, the more complicated it got 😀. I wonder does anyone understand it. And if we struggle with that, how could we think that we could totally understand God?
My impression of the New Testament is that people just accepted it. One God, three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I once remember someone asking me how God can have a Son. But it isn’t like having a son in the human sense.Time is part of creation, so God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, exists outside of time. Having a son in the human sense is somewhat related, but very different. Maybe you could think of the Son’s relationship to the Father as somewhat similar to the status of a King’s son, such as Prince William and King Charles, but every analogy falls short. And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he didn’t come into existence then, or when he was conceived. He existed eternally as the Son of God, but He became human then. And the fascinating thing is that the Bible teaches that He will remain a glorfied human for eternity, in addition to being God, and all those who believe will spend eternity with Him.
And though Jesus is God, the New Testament focus is on His humanity and the fact that He is our way to God. But people would not have worshipped Him if He were just a man or an angel. And there are plenty of implicit and explicit verses that provide evidence for His deity and the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit.
It’s nice to think that this short chorus is still remembered, though I hardly ever hear it in church nowadays:
Hibernia Gospel 