Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Praise God the Son who is the course;
Praise God the Spirit who’s the flow;
Praise God, our portion here below!
Re-translation of stanza 1:
1. Praise Father, whence all blessings spring;
Praise Son, redemption finishing;
Praise Spirit, working to apply& mdash;
Praise God with voices lifted high.
Formerly, God was outside of man and had nothing to do with man; there was a great distance between God and man. However, the Triune God desires to transmit Himself into us. In order for the Triune God to fulfill this desire, God the Father is the source, God the Son is the course, and God the Spirit is the flow (2 Cor. 13:14). This thought is expressed in the second stanza of a hymn in our hymnal: "Praise God the Father who's the source; / Praise God the Son who is the course; / Praise God the Spirit who's the flow; / Praise God, our portion here below!" (Hymns, #8). The Spirit is revealed as the flow of the Trinity in Revelation 22:1. This verse says that the river of water of life, a symbol of the Spirit, proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of the street (cf. John 7:37-39). This indicates that the Spirit as the river of water of life flows and that this river has not only a source from which it flows but also a course, a way in which the source flows. In Revelation 22:1 the Triune God, the Divine Being, is portrayed as living water in three aspects: the source, the course, and the flow. God the Father is the source of the river of water of life, God the Son is the course of this river, and God the Spirit is the flow of the river. In the New Jerusalem the river of water of life spirals down from the throne in the middle of the golden street to water the whole city. This is a picture of the transmission of the Triune God as living water into the believers. When the Spirit as the flow comes to reach us, the entire Triune God is transmitted into us.
Piano Hymns
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Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
Praising the LORD this morning, remembered this tune & had to look up these wonderful lyrics.
Cleveland, Texas, United States
I have sang that song all my life. I sang the song when I need to be close to him
Portland, Oregon, United States
When I was growing up, I remember that we all stood up and sang this song, at Union Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa, at the end of the sermon. The hymnal stays with me to this day!
New Orleans, LA, United States
I remember this from when I was a child and went to an Episcopal school. I think we sang this song just about every week in chapel. I loved it and I still sing it.
Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria
Amen! Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Praise God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
For He is source of whom all lives depend.
Praise be the Lord God, who is our Portion, our Providence and Sustainer. Hallelujah!
Greenwood, SC, United States
Amen! Let's us all GIVE THANKS AND PRAISE TO OUR FATHER, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR ALL OF OUR BLESSINGS.. WE LIFT UP OUR HEARTS UNTO THE LORD BEAUSE IT IS GOOD AND RIGHT TO DO. LOVE, ELLE "NEVER SHALL I LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU". THE WORD OF THE LORD. AMEM.
Elkhart, Indiana, United States
I've been trying to remember this song on my own, I remember hearing it in "The Secret Garden", it was very beautiful and I finally caved and look it up.
Glad I did, this song has so many meanings!
United States
Thomas Ken 1637-1711
The four lines of the Doxology have been the most frequently sung words of any song for more than 300 years. It has been said that the Doxology has done more to teach the doctrine of the Trinity than all other theological books ever written.
The author of this text was a bold outspoken seventeenth century Anglican Bishop named Thomas Ken. He was born at Little Berkhampstead, England, in 1637 and became an orphan in early childhood. Ken was educated at Winchester School where he was raised under the care of his older sister and her famous husband, Izaak Walton who wrote the book ‘The Compleat Angler. ’ Later Ken attended Oxford University and was ordained in 1662 as a minister of the Church of England. Following ordination, he served as chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester.
In 1679 he was sent to Holland where he was the English chaplain at the royal court at Hague. Ken, however, was so outspoken in denouncing the corrupt lives of those in authority in the capital city that he was compelled to leave the following year.
When he returned to England Charles II appointed him as one of his chaplains. Ken had the same boldness for the king and rebuked him for his immoral misconduct. Charles praised him for his courage calling Ken ‘A good little chaplain’ and when chapel time came he would say, “I must go in and hear Ken tell me my faults. ” Eventually the king rewarded Thomas by appointing him to be the Bishop of the Bath and Wells area.
Twelve days after Bishop Ken’s appointment, Charles died. James II became furious with Ken because he refused to read the Royal Declaration of Indulgence that would give freedom of religion and thereby establish religious tolerance to the new monarch’s Catholic faith which at the time was a minority. Ken and six other Anglican Church leaders were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Although Thomas was later acquitted, he was removed from being a Bishop in 1691 by William III. The rest of Ken’s life was spent quietly in obscurity with his good friend Lord Weymouth at his home in Longleat, Wiltshire. Thomas Ken died in 1711 at the age of 74. The historian Macaulay said of Ken that he came as near to the ideal of Christian perfection “as human weakness permits. ”
Thomas Ken wrote a number of hymns, and it was always his desire that Christians be allowed to express their praise to God without being limited to Psalmody and the Bible canticles. He was one of the first English writers to produce hymns that were not based on the Psalms only.
In 1673 Thomas Ken wrote a book entitled ”A Manual of Prayers for the Use of Winchester College. ” In one of the editions of this manual Ken included three of his hymns that he wanted the students to sing each day as part of their devotions. They were called “Morning Hymn, ” “Evening Hymns, ” and “Midnight Hymn. ” Each of these hymns closed with the familiar four lines we know as the Doxology.
The tune for Bishop Ken’s text, “Old Hundredth, ” is said to be the most famous of all Christian hymn tunes. It was composed by Louis Bourgeois, born in Paris, France, c. 1510. In 1541 Bourgeois moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he became an ardent follower of John Calvin and the Reformed Reformation Movement. Here he was given the responsibility to provide tunes for the new metrical psalms being prepared at that time. He was responsible for the Geneva Psalter which was completed and published in 1562. The tune was originally prepared for Psalm 134 and was included in the Geneva Psalter of 1551. The first English words to which it was linked to was William Kethe’s version of Psalm 100, “All People That on Earth Do Dwell ; ” this the tune became known as “The Hundredth. ”
He died in 1561.
Garden Grove, CA, United States
Praise God, look up all you His Saints for the time draws near. Mathew Chapter 24
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Always seems to speak to me.