Minister’s Letter – Hymn of the Month: God Has Spoken
Friends, the hymn of the month is God has Spoken.
It was written by George Wallace Briggs (1875-1959). He was born in Nottingham, England and died in Surrey. A Congregational Minister and Professor of Church Music, Erik Routley, apparently called him the most prolific and successful hymnwriter of his era. Educated at Cambridge, he became a chaplain in the Royal Navy (1902-09). He then served as an Anglican minister in various churches. Briggs was a founder of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Of his many hymns, God Has Spoken has endured as his most popular.
This hymn presents one of the more robust and thorough theologies of God’s Word that I’ve ever heard in song. The hymn obviously takes its lead from Hebrews 1:1-2
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (NIV)
For copyright reasons, we cannot reprint the full lyrics in this Minister’s Letter. But stanza one of Brigg’s hymn clearly echoes verse one of Hebrews: “God has spoken by his prophets” through the past ages. And it’s true that the Old Testament prophets’ key subject is God himself, “God, the one, the righteous Lord”. The hymn says the one true God’s existence is our anchor in a world of despair and turmoil: “God is king, his throne eternal; God the first and God the last.” How wonderful that this God has communicated with us!
The second stanza focuses attention on God’s supreme revelation of himself to us: by sending not just merely human messengers, but his very own Son – “Christ, the everlasting Son” – to speak to us and teach us. The stanza also describes Jesus as “Brightness of the Father’s glory”. Again, this echoes how Heb 1:3 calls Jesus “the radiance of God’s glory”.
It’s the many Scriptures like Hebrews 1 that caused the Christian church to articulate:
- The doctrine of Trinity, expressed in the song by saying of Christ the Son that he is “with the Father ever one”, and “God from God, ere [i.e. before] time began”;
- And also the doctrine of the Incarnation, saying that God the Son became fully human. So the hymn continues (in its traditional wording), “Light from light, to earth descending, Man, revealing God to man.” (Modern versions of this stanza in their desire to use gender-neutral language have sometimes obscured this teaching.)
The last stanza picks up the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit, who continues to speak to us today. And how does the Spirit speak? “In the age-long Word, expounding God’s own message now as then.” To hear God, we must expound (i.e. explain) the Scriptures!
Theologians note that in Hebrews 4:7, the author quotes Psalm 95 from the Old Testament and says God spoke these words in the past through King David. But in Heb 3:7, when the author first quotes Psalm 95, he introduces the quote by saying, “as the Holy Spirit says” – present tense! Briggs also knew that the Bible is no dead book, but an “unchanging Word”, still relevant today. As Heb 4:12 says, it’s “the living and active Word of God”!
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant