From Every Stormy Wind -- Hugh Stowell

Sometime around the third decade of the 19^th Century (in the 1820s), the author of some song lyrics, about something we don’t often hear mentioned, wrote with an utter confidence and joy, because “From Every Stormy Wind” he felt his rescue and eternal home were secure. Hugh Stowell was an English cleric in the Anglican Church, so it was not a surprise that he was steeped in theology and could thus write and speak boldly about safety in Christ. And what had he seen or heard that would enable him to do that? It was a “Peace at the Mercy Seat” (his hymn’s original title) that was Hugh’s foundation. He’d connected what God had said to Moses in the desert during the exodus from Egypt, and what a writer said centuries later about that same special place called the mercy seat (see a picture of it here, as it is depicted in the 1890 Holman Bible). We might not hear this term – atonement -- very often either, but Hugh certainly had. Saved, forgiven, rescued, graced…those might be more familiar to us, but put yourself in Moses’ sandals for a few moments. What was it like for him to meet the Holy God, and to know he couldn’t be clean enough for Him, except for His provision of mercy. Only God could take the steps necessary to ‘repair or make amends for a wrong action in restoring a relationship’. That last phrase is how your PC might define atonement for you.

 

Hugh must have been familiar with these two scriptures, and many more. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. (Hebrews 9:5) and also, the following: “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. (Exodus 25:17-22) God planned to speak to the people from the mercy seat. Only He can occupy that space. Hugh didn’t have to ponder other earthly circumstances with dread from that point forward, as he expressed in his six lyrical verses. Nothing overwhelms His mercy when I accept what He’s done. Moses got it too, and so the people constructed the ark and the mercy seat as instructed. He could not see God’s face – he could not have survived such a vision – but he could do what God told him in order to meet His mercy. And, so can I.

 

‘Stormy wind’, and ‘woes’ (v.1) – those are about as much as Hugh had to say about mortal challenges, for there were so many other words to use in praise of the mercy seat in his poetry. Oh, we might feel ‘tempt­ed’, ‘de­so­late’, ‘dis­mayed’, or ‘de­feat(ed)’ (v. 4), but High did not dwell on those for long. Instead, he sensed ‘calm’, ‘sure(ty)’ (v.1); the ‘oil of gladness’, and ‘sweet(ness)’ (v.2); ‘blend(ing) of spirits’, ‘fellowship’, and ‘friend(ship)’ (v.3); being able to ‘soar like an eagle’, and a ‘greet(ing) from ‘Heaven’  -- what an amazing thought! (v.5). It was enough to make Hugh undismayed, even if his hands no longer worked as well, or if he could no longer speak, or even if his own heart stopped working (v.6). If the mercy seat remained a place where God still would want to meet him, that was enough. Moses may have sensed God’s anger on occasion – and so did the people. But, was it not worse when He stopped providing mercy for a time, as He did on multiple occasions during the time of the judges, when the people needed to be chastened (see Judges 2:11-15 as one example)? Even then, He responded in pity to bail them out when they groaned in pain (Judges 2:18). He’s still willing to reach down for me today, and you too. He’s got Jesus in the mercy seat, so go meet Him there.

 

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982.

 

See here for the hymn’s original six verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/r/o/m/e/fromevsw.htm

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holman_The_Mercy_Seat.jpg …This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1931, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation….found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_seat

 

Yes, I Believe God Is Real -- Alton H. Howard

 

This fellow didn’t have to look very far to see why he could answer that “Yes, I Believe God Is Real”. He might have been thinking about what it would be like to have God’s viewpoint of this blue spheroid He created, and indeed Alton Howard saw God in everything he could see in the earth and the universe that He created. (See here the earth, as God might have when He created it.) And so, that spurred Alton’s short testimonial in four verses and a chorus, and they’re not filled with any deep theology, but rather with suggestions about what anyone with two good eyes could ascertain. ‘Just look around yourself’, Alton might have summed up for anyone who asked him about God’s credibility and presence. It might strike a skeptic as too simple, but can you explain what you see without God in the picture? What takes more faith, to believe or not to believe? Is He really too incredible, or absurd? Alton didn’t think so.

 

Alton might easily be described as an exceptional person, and yet he pointed to whom he thought was truly exceptional – as the word actually means, according to the dictionary – and that would be God. Incomparable would be another appropriate adjective for Him, and how Alton perceived that incomparability is what his poem-song is all about. Though what, if any, specific event or circumstances stirred Alton’s inspiration for this song in 1973 (the year associated with its publication) are unknown, this author needed only what his life’s trajectory and its focus of worship spoke to him daily for the song’s content. So much could be said of Alton and his entrepreneurship and how his accomplishments resonate still today, and indeed if you want to know them, just check out the links below this entry – Alton’s obituary was certainly not one of mourning, but a celebration of a life so well lived. But if Alton could be called an entrepreneur extraordinaire, do you think it’s possible he was just looking at someone else as his model? What person looking at what He’s created – and Alton certainly looked quite closely, we could say – would conclude other than how Alton did? Alton Howard ticked them off in his few words – the stars and sky (v.1); storm(s) and the morn(ing) of each new day (v.2); things as small and unnoticed as dew, and others as lively as birds (v.3); and the sun and the evening shade that calibrate our walk here below (v.4). Is that enough to compel belief? Which one in the scope of Alton’s life was the true entrepreneur? God has many names, but when one looks at Alton and what he had to say about Him, other adjectives and names for God come to mind as we examine Alton’s life and how he reflected Him. Perhaps impresario or mogul are how we might characterize Him; how about genius or virtuoso? One of Alton’s eulogists said that he had ‘a pretty good batting average’ in the business things he tried, while having a few that did not work out. But, that’s part of the human experience, isn’t it? Even Christians don’t bat 1.000, though Alton kept swinging.

 

If Alton struck out on a few things, that doesn’t mean he became a doubter. It seems Alton wasn’t necessarily looking at his own achievements and his own efforts to imitate Him as a gauge for his belief. If that had been the barometer, Alton probably would have quit pretty early on in his journey. That’s what we can see if we look at this one extraordinary guy from West Monroe, Louisiana. He must have had a huge reserve of trust in the One whose creation spoke to him so clearly. ‘Try one thing, maybe, and if it doesn’t work out and point to Him or provide for others to see Him better, I’ll try something else’. That sounds like what must have played and replayed in Alton’s mind continually. He’s a God who doesn’t demand perfection, and so I can try again. Fall down? Get back up, and keep looking up. He’s got more in store for you. Others might say you were remarkable, as they reflect on a human life. What’s really remarkable is how He lets us bear His image at all.         

 

Read about the author-composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Hardy_Howard   and also here: https://christianchronicle.org/songbook-publisher-entrepreneur-howard-dies-at-age-81/?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2809510&ObjectID=4369268&ObjectType=35

 

Information on the image is found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blue_Marble,_AS17-148-22727.jpg … This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)---found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth 

God, Who Stretched the Spangled (Heavens) -- Catherine Cameron

 

This one gestated inside her for months, and that might have been necessary for Catherine Cameron to really capture something essential about creativity. When she looked up (see the image of the heavens here, as it was seen by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, released for us to see on 11 July 2022) and thought about “God Who Stretched the Spangled (Heavens)”, and evaluated herself and the others around her, Catherine marveled and bid God to instruct us mortals even more about what it means to mimic Him in creativity. Do we appreciate that finding Him in the world of science can be both a terrifying and a thrilling exercise in discovery? ‘Be real, real, careful out there!’, as someone has said. Approaching and actually contacting Him is an awesome thing, and to see and comprehend what He’s made – including each of us – should make you and me behave with great care, for we are in His image (Genesis 1:26-27; Exodus 9:6). Catherine Cameron makes us think about that.

 

Catherine shared that she was experiencing a creative renaissance in the mid-1960s – in a way she was growing in her likeness with God – when she wrote about Him who created, and found an urge to stretch human ingenuity ever closer toward Him. That’s a laudable goal. It was the space-race years, as one group of humans tried to reach the Moon before another group of humans might try to do the same. Catherine was nearing or right at 40 years of age (depending on which year she actually wrote ‘God, Who Stretched…’), and she responded, when asked about her creation, that she was hearkening back to her teenage years and the poetry she found herself contemplating then. The incongruity sometimes between the words and the music that believers were prompted to offer to Him just bothered Catherine. Should not both the lyrics and the melodious sounds flow in the same direction? She determined that that was her objective as a creative being. But her response would not be like an eruption, an explosion of innovation. Instead, it was more like a small flame that was kept alive for several months that caused her poetry to emerge in four verses, matching a tune that was ready and waiting for her words. (The tune she chose initially was the 1797 Austrian Hymn by Joseph Haydn; Holy Manna was another tune, written in 1825 by the Columbian Harmony, that is often paired today with Catherine’s words.) Catherine’s poetry in two of her verses (one and three) exalt God for the universe and the basic building block of life – the atom – and proclaim our aspirations to be like Him, even as we risk ‘life’s destruction’ (v.3) spurred by our own curiosity. Catherine seemed to accept that risk, while deploring some of our inventions, our ‘modern cities’ (v.2) that leave us empty as a people ‘lost to purpose and to meaning’. Self-indulgence is a trap, and perhaps that is what Catherine saw in so much of the everyday hubbub of modernity, a blur of people wrapped up in themselves and what they do to approach self-actualization. What about God-actualization? That seemed to be Catherine’s aim for our race in verse four – ‘honoring You’, so that ‘our goals and Yours are one’. If we see a ‘horizon beckon’, we should acknowledge that we’re seeing Him in the majesty of His handiwork. His symphony is abiding every day for us to see and hear.             

 

There are some 85 verses in the bible that speak about image, so consider them when you think about His creativity. Read them closely, and you can see without much effort that He’s the only one we should acknowledge with respect; no other images are acceptable (Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 5:8), and note how many times God says, as if through clenched teeth, ‘vile images’ (especially in Ezekiel). That is such a crucial part in knowing and relating to Him -- that each of us is His image-bearer (Romans 8:29), a responsibility with lots of gravity. It can also mean celebration, as Paul reminds us in that letter to the Romans. He’s the only one, and each of us is like Him in that image-ness, made to follow Him in renewal (see also 1 Corinthians 15:49, 2 Corinthians 3:8, and Colossians 1:15; 3:10). It’s admittedly hard to fathom, isn’t it? What a gift! Though I cannot completely grasp His creativity, it is like encountering a new discovery in science, something wondrous but also potentially pretty dangerous. Catherine included the ‘secrets of the atom…unimagined power’ in her 3^rd verse, hitting upon something very true. How dangerous is the atom today, or for those who probed it a century ago before they really understood radioactivity? Humans can get twisted sideways into various contortions, even without the radioactivity of an atom. Today is 9/11, the anniversary of a day 25 years ago when humans destroyed rather than created. It’s been something like 60 years since Catherine created her ode to God about us creating and trying to be more like Him who put this gene inside us. How do you think we’re doing? Go create. Watch out for the Destroyer, but know the Creator is greater.      

 

Read the story of the hymn here: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-god-who-stretched-the-spangled-heavens and here: https://hymninfo.com/songs/god-who-stretched-the-spangled-heavens

 

See information on the image here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Webb%27s_First_Deep_Field.jpg …This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA, ESA and CSA. Material from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA/CSA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if source material from other organizations is in use. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space