Immortal Invisible God Only Wise
How do you express the inexpressible mystery of the Creator whose name was unutterable in Hebrew Scriptures, save the self-described "I AM"? How do you put into words what cannot be known? How do you sing about the One who is ineffable—beyond all words?
Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908) attempted this in his classic hymn, "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise." A Scottish Free Church minister educated at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Smith served congregations in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
This hymn is the only one from his volumes of poetry that remains in common use. It is one of its kind when it comes to showing attributes and magnificent descriptions of God.
The original version was written in 11-11-11-11 meter and typically known with the hymn tune called St. Denio, referring to St. Denis, the patron saint of France. Thereafter, the tune was (first) set into harmony and the text adopted after a number of revisions into the four-stanza version which was included in the influential The English Hymnal (1906), assuring its fame to the present day.
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
The obvious scriptural foundation for stanza one is from I Timothy 1:17: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Of course, immortality and invisibility is the true nature of God. However, Smith further described Him with the phrase “In light inaccessible hid from our eyes”. In the third verse, he refers to God as the “Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days.”
Indeed, the Lord is all of that and more. Furthermore, going through other verses and stanzas of the hymn, you will see many adjectives and phrases he used to describe the true nature of God.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
In stanza two we find that this unseen One "rulest in might." This One also is a being of "justice like mountains high soaring above" and "goodness and love" reflected in the "clouds like fountains" that sustain life on earth.
To all life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.
It is stanza three that reveals even more of the Holy One's nature: the source of all life "to both great and small." The Holy One's unchanging nature is the antithesis of living creatures that "blossom and flourish" and then "wither and perish."
Great Father of Glory, pure Father of Light
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render, O help us to see:
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.
Stanza four reveals that the Holy One is adored by angels suggesting not only that the Creator is a cosmic being but that we should follow the angels' example and render our praise.
The central metaphor of light suggests the transcendence of the One who was known as I AM. Stanza one refers to this One as "light inaccessible hid from our eyes." In stanza two the metaphor is elaborated by describing the Holy One as "silent as light." Stanza four has two references to light: "thou dwellest in light" and "'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee."
Even while the hymn is centered primarily around the theme of light, it is brimming with specific attributes of God. Our attention is called to the actions and attributes of the I AM, giving us some indication of who this being is.
This classic expression of faith that acknowledges human finiteness in the face of the One hidden by the "splendor of light" contrasts with more evangelical hymns that express a desire for an intimate relationship with Jesus. Perhaps this indicates a need for balance between the intimate and ineffable.
Walter Chalmers Smith surely set out with lofty goals when he sat down to write the words to “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.” Although it later became his most famous hymn, he was hesitant to complete it, and spent almost forty years revising, reconsidering, and researching before it reached its final form.
Going through the text of the hymn “Immortal Invisible God Only Wise” and how it were arranged, it is not a gainsaying that the hymn is one of the great Christian hymns that can be used to praise the Almighty God who is Immortal, Invisible and Only wise.
In fact, you can actually do a quiet and thoughtful meditation about God with this hymn. Just sit down in a quiet place and reflect through the words of the hymn, and you can only conclude by joining in Smith's supplication before God to let go of the veil and the vile as the glory of Christ dawns in your heart.
But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.
And now let Thy glory to our gaze unroll,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.
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