Today, we're looking at my new favorite hymn about God's nature as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

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Timestamps

• [00:00] - I don't know anything about the author.
• [00:43] - The lyrics highlight God's triune nature.
• [01:18] - God exists as eternal, unchanging love.
• [03:25] - God's triune nature should not be ignored.
• [07:02] - The Father's ways are perfect.
• [08:44] - The Son heals us from our sin.
• [11:57] - The Holy Spirit is our comforter.
• [14:14] - Challenge: Do you have a right view of God? A right relationship with Jesus?
• [14:57] - God must exist as multiple persons to be eternal love.
• [15:46] - Challenge: Are you seeking closeness to God? Or only His power?

Song Lyrics

Verse 1:

We magnify our Father God With songs of thoughtful praise; As grateful children we confess How perfect are His ways.

We worship Jesus Christ our Lord Who saw our sin and pain And with the Great Physician’s skill Restored our health again.

Verse 2:

We glorify the Holy Ghost For fellowship and aid; In changing times we find ourselves Secure and unafraid.

The love of God will never change Throughout eternity; In rev’rence and thankfulness We bless the Trinity!

Scripture References

Malachi 3:6 - "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."

James 1:17 - "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Hebrews 13:7-8 - "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

Romans 8:35-39 - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

1 John 4:7-16 - "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Genesis 1:26-27 - "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

1 John 5:7 - "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

Matthew 28:18-20 - "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Isaiah 42:8 - "I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 - "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Mark 12:28-30 - "And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

John 14:27-28 - "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I."

John 1:12-13 - "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Galatians 3:26 - "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

Deuteronomy 32:3-4 - "Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Mark 14:60-64 - "And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death."

Daniel 7:13-14 - "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

1 Peter 1:18-21 - “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

John 9:39-41 - “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

Acts 5:3-4 - "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."

2 Corinthians 3:12-17 - “Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Romans 8:24-28 - “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Acts 1:6-8 - "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

2 Timothy 1:7 - “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Romans 8:14-15 - “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:22-23 - “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

2 Corinthians 5:4-5 - “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”

Psalms 56:3-4 - “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”

Psalms 118:5-6 - “I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”

Research Resources

Great Hymns of the Faith (#24)

Oddly enough today, the hymn that we are covering is one that I could not find any biographical information about the author of it. We're talking about We Magnify Our Father God by David George Ball. I'll have to do some more research later for you, but I'm opting out of relying on Wikipedia so we're just going to cover the song itself because all I know about the author from the hymn book that I'm pulling this from is that he was born in 1936. 


It's a beautiful song though, that highlights some very important things about the very nature of God. And so we're just going to dig right into that. 


The song says "we magnify our Father God with songs of thoughtful praise. As grateful children, we confess how perfect are his ways. We worship Jesus Christ, our Lord, who saw our sin and pain, and with the great physician's skill, restored our health again. We glorify the Holy Ghost for fellowship and aid. In changing Times, we find ourselves secure and unafraid. The love of God will never change throughout eternity in reverence and thankfulness. We bless the Trinity." 


At the end of the song, there's this emphasis on the love of God. "The love of God will never change throughout eternity." I will have all of the Bible references in the show notes for you with some extra verses as well for your own personal study. But God says, "I am the Lord, I change not." "every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness." Speaking of Jesus, it says He's "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." God does not change. Who He is does not change. 


The Bible says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers Nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 


The Bible tells us "love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. And God in him." 


Well, if God is love and God cannot change, then it stands to reason that God's love will last throughout eternity. 


The very end of the song says, "in reverence and thankfulness, we bless the Trinity." So let's break down: what is the Trinity? The word trinity is one that we have made up to describe this nature about God, but the truth supporting the Trinity is found all throughout the Bible. 


The concept is this, there is only one God. Philosophically and logically there can only be one truly almighty being, and that is the creator God. But as that one being, God exists eternally as three persons. There's the Father, who is equally God as the Son, Jesus, who is equally God as the Holy Spirit. Each of them have several different names that are ascribed to them and they have different roles, but they are all equally God, and they are all equally important. They just have a difference of role and authoritative hierarchy. 


From the very beginning as God is creating our universe, He says, "let us make man in our image after our likeness." Well, there's plurality there. He's talking to himself, but he says, us. " So God created man in his own image." He's not talking to the angels: God is speaking to himself within the Trinity. 


1 John 5:7 says "there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, The Word," " and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." There is only one God, but he is three persons. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." You see all three, but they can only be one. God will not give his glory to another. So there is no reason for Jesus to teach people to go and baptize, not just in the name of the Father God, but in the name of the Son and the Holy Ghost, unless they were all equal in importance and divinity. The Bible says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." There is only one God. 


That's difficult for us to wrap our brains around to a certain degree, but let me do my best to explain it to you. God is one being. The being is what you are. So we are human beings. God is a spirit. He's the almighty being. The person is who you are. So you are one person living as one being, a human. God is three persons living in one being. 


Some people get confused because Jesus said "my father is greater than I." but they're not separate levels of how much they are God. There's an authoritative structure. Just like a king is greater than the common person, so, the Father is greater than the Son. However, just as a king is no more human than his subjects, so the Father is not more God than Jesus Christ the Son. They're not different levels of divinity, but they choose to operate with this different level of authority. The Father directs the Son who directs the Spirit. 


Let's break these three down even further. Going back to the song, the first line is "we magnify our Father God." Bible says, "Oh Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand." I don't know that any that believe in God would dispute the existence of the Father God, so I won't dwell there. 


The song goes on to say, "With songs of thoughtful praise, As grateful children we confess, How perfect are his ways." The Bible says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, In all wisdom, Teaching and admonishing one another, In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." 


We're to sing with grace in our hearts to God. And the Bible tells us, "as many as received him," that's Jesus, "to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." So after receiving Jesus and trusting him for eternal life, we become God's children. 


Oh, how perfect are God's ways. Deuteronomy says, "Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he." 


The next portion of the song says, "We worship Jesus Christ our Lord." We've covered this many different times already, but Jesus is God. During his time on the earth, the high priest asked him and "said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." And notice the reaction here. "Then the high priest rent his clothes and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy, what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death." Well, blasphemy is the sin of claiming divine rights for yourself that do not belong to you. Jesus was not guilty of this sin but notice they clearly understood that he was claiming to be God. Jesus is making a reference to Daniel chapter 7, in which the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven to God the Father, the Ancient of Days, and the Son of Man is given an everlasting dominion. He's receiving glory that only God is worthy of. And Jesus is claiming to be that Son of Man. He is clearly claiming to be God. 


The next part of the song says, "Who saw our sin and pain." Well when was that? It's not that God has to be updated in real time about our suffering and the things that we go through and our sin that we put ourselves through. No, he was slain from the foundation of the world. Scripture says, "For as much as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God." 


I love Jesus's description of being the great physician: with the skill that only he has, he has restored our health. This is not physical health and sickness, though God does heal us physically at different times, but Jesus said "for judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind" And the point that he's making there is that for those who think they already have everything figured out and they believe they're self sufficient or they've made their own way to God, God allows them to be blind, but for those who don't see who recognize that Notice, we don't have to pay a fee and sit through a waiting room. We just have to see our need and come to Jesus, the healer, in faith. 


The second verse of the song says we glorify the Holy Ghost. During an interaction with the early church, Peter is speaking to this man, Ananias, and he says, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" And then he goes on to say, "Thou hast not lied unto men, But unto God." He equivocates the two. As Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he says, "the Lord is that Spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 


The Holy Spirit provides us "fellowship and aid," as the song says. "Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Picture this because this is truth. If you are a saved child of God, then the Holy Spirit is going to God the Father on your behalf. That is unfathomable . 


Jesus taught the disciples, "ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 


The next line of the song says "in changing times we find ourselves secure and unafraid." Could I tell you this? In changing times you are secure by trusting the unchanging God. 


The Bible tells us "we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." We have a Father- son or Father-daughter relationship with God when we receive the Holy Spirit by trusting Jesus. 


Scripture says, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." " In changing times we find ourselves secure and unafraid." Amen. 


Your right relationship with God begins with recognizing who he is, the almighty creator: one almighty God existing as three persons. 


More specifically, you need to see that Jesus is God and that He entered this world as a physical man to die, be buried, and rise again for the sake of offering you eternal life as a gift. If you do, Then the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you, to teach you and guide you through the rest of your time on this earth, and to help you gain closeness in your relationship to God. 


Do not forget that our God is three in one. If he were only a single person, Then before creation, he could not exist as love. After all, he was all that existed before he made the universe, so there would have been no one to love if he is but one person . But if he is multiple persons, then he can exist as eternal love because within the Trinity, the Father loves the Son and the Spirit. And the Son loves the Father and the Spirit. And the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. All equal in love and power in eternity past. 


God is love, and He wants you to feel His love. Would you open your heart to Him? 


On a different note, let me say a quick word about the Holy Spirit. Many Christians think that he is some kind of power source that needs to be tapped into. He does provide power in the Christian's life, but he's not an inanimate spiritual outlet. He's a person. He is God! 


Imagine if you had a friend that was always trying to be nice to you in strange artificial ways, So one day you finally ask him: "why are you acting so odd? What are you doing all these random things for?" And he responds, "look man I'm, just trying to figure out how to tap into your wallet." what kind of a friend is that? 


So why do we do the same thing to God? We ignore his personhood while trying to tap into his power. What a mistake! It is through a right relationship with him, through his personhood, that we get to fully understand and appreciate his power. 


Stop treating God like a cosmic vending machine and start drawing close to him as the wonderful, personal creator that he is. You cannot but be blessed for seeking this kind of relationship with him. 


Christ is the foundation of the church, and we must learn to lovingly respond to him as Lord if we're to enjoy the relationship potential that he has provided for us. I hope you will not only know him as Savior, but that you will truly come to fully obey him as your master. 


See you next week.