Immortal Invisible

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.

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.

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 naught changeth Thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.

All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.

Walter C. Smith 1876

God is unknowable.  As a second year Divinity student at St Andrews University we had a series of lectures on the unknowability of God: that we intuit that God is there, through our response to the nature of existence, but that God, or what we might seek to call God, is unknowable.

At the time I was quite caught and struck by the idea.  God is so vast, so beyond human comprehension, so totally other – that to speak of knowing God is both the depth folly and the height of pride.  It all made sense and still makes sense as long as you don’t think about, listen to or give any weight to Scripture.

God is unknowable, unless He reveals Himself.  God is beyond our reach, unless He reaches down.  God is too vast for us to see Him, unless he makes Himself accessible to our eyes.  He has done all this in Christ Jesus.

Walter Smith expresses the joy of knowing the otherwise unknowable God -  the privilege of truly being known by Him and living with the Hope of one day fully knowing – in this great hymn.  What a hope we have.  What a joy it brings.  What life He has given to all who hope in Jesus!!!

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 11:1-4