Saturday, May 13, 2006

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

1. Whate’er my God ordains is right, Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does, And follow where He guideth.
He is my God, Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall, Wherefore to Him I leave it all

2. Whate’er my God ordains is right, He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path, I know He will not leave me
I take, content, What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away, And patiently I wait His day

3. Whate’er my God ordains is right, Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking
My God is true, Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, And pain and sorrow shall depart

4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care, Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall, And so to Him I leave it all

©1998 David Braud Music. Words by Samuel Rodigast (1649-1708)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It reminds me, of course, of Gen 18:25b you quoted the other night, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
It's not, however, that God does what is right, as if He is held to a higher standard of right and wrong, but that what He does actually determines what is right. In other words, god does not do what is right; What is right is what God does.
What do you think?

John K

Terry said...

There is an element of "what is right is what God does," but we must be careful not to give the impression that God is capricious. Biblical Christianity is not fatalistic (though we Calvinists are charged with that). God is intimately involved with his creatures even as they are free moral agents, responsible for their choices.

In Gen. 18, it appears that Abraham argued with God on the basis of His goodness as perceived by Abraham (gracious condescension indeed!).

God's sovereign providence will bring good out of evil for His people(Gen. 50:20, Rom. 8:28, etc), and one day that goodness will be apparent to all.

This is a topic of study where we have to be content with the biblical givens, even if we can't go all the way to the end of the logical trajectories the questions lead us toward.

I'll have to blog about this some time.