The Glorious Church

A love song. Psalm xlv. 1.

O Christ, whose glory filleth thy blood-beransomed Bride,
Whose grace her splendor willeth, who to adorn her died,
Though naught in us inhering can claim thy matchless love,
Thine election, endearing us, lifteth us above,
From whence thy favor freely all blessing to us brings,
Till we in beauty see thee, O peerless King of kings.

(John 17:22; Rev 5:9; Hos 2:19-20; Rev 21:2; Eph 5:25-27; Isa 64:5-7; Eph 1:3-5; Isa 33:17)

The dying thief entreated, “My Lord, remember me
When, ev’ry foe defeated, thou reign in victory.”
Like him, we wheeze and rattle our fellows’ souls to win,
And we labor in battle to crucify our sin,
But when humiliation of death shall close our eyes,
Thy conquering salvation is ours in Paradise.

(Luke 23:42; 1 Cor 15:25; Luke 23:40-41; Col 3:5; 1 Cor 15:53-54; Luke 23:43)

Elected and recorded within the book of life,
And straining till rewarded as victors in the strife,
We join the saints around us, in love and service grown,
Till thy headship hath bound us and knitted us to one:
Thy Church! from ev’ry nation and folk and tribe and tongue,
To magnify salvation around thy holy throne.

(Rev 21:27; 3:5; Eph 4:15-16; Rom 12:3-8; Rev 5:9-14)

Thy righteous scepter graces the purified above;
Thy throne is all their praises of covenantal love;
Thine exc’llent ones thou homest that they may dwell with thee,
Thou who wast, art, and comest in all eternity,
Thy sov’reign Name the only by earth and heav’n adored:
O holy, holy, holy, Almighty God, the LORD!

(Ps 45:6; 22:3; 16:3; Heb 11:14-16; Rev 21:3; 4:8; Ps 86:8-10; Rev 15:3-4; 4:8)

—4/28/26. To “Thaxted” (“O God, Beyond All Praising”). A love song.

Once again I must cite my sources. This is pretty freely adapted from a sermon by Rev Dr Gabe Sylvia, “What is the Church?” And gosh, my brain has been on fire since I heard it. Read these quotes: “His Church is full of his glory…Clearly, the Lord whose bride is the Church thinks her to be glorious….The Lord of glory paid the price in his blood to call out a people from the world, gather them in the Church, and call them his Bride…a group gathered by the Lord to be recipients of his saving initiative.”

What an incredible concept. It calls to mind Song 4:9: “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; / You have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, / With one jewel of your necklace.” There is just no fully bearing the weight of the glory in our human capacity (2 Cor 4:17). The Lord loves his Church! It’s glorious!

A couple of stray thoughts: Was the thief on the cross the first distinctly Christian evangelist? Maybe not. But even in his justly earned humiliation, he still proclaimed the sinlessness of Christ to his deathmate. The whole Gospel as he had it. Sin, and righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). There is something so beautiful about that. And then a bit of wordplay I found checking my references: Whereas heaven says of the Lord in Rev 4:8 that he “was, and is, and is coming” (see LSB footnote), the angel says of the Beast in Rev 17:8 that he “was, and is not, and is about to…go.” I have been giggling at the contrast for four days now.

The tune, Thaxted, is from the middle section of “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. It is majestic. While Holst himself adapted it for hymnody, I like his original version better for the rhythm of the fourth line. This is why mine reads rather stilted, unfortunately.


Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan, Gustav Holst: The Planets, “Jupiter,” beginning 2:58.

However, it sings beautifully. Or at least I hope it does. I think this tune has a little more range than we are used to, based on my unscientific measure of trying to sing it myself. This is the version I've been listening to in the car to keep familiar with the tune:


FOCUS and Sarah Kroger, origin, “O God Beyond All Praising.”

Final bit of lore: the original hymn this tune was adapted for, “I Vow to Thee, My Country,” was a favorite of Princess Diana’s. She had it sung at her wedding, and it was also sung at her funeral.