I love singing hymns and if you asked me what my favourite is, I wouldn’t know. There are so many to choose from.
However, one is number 67 in Singing the Faith: “This, this is the God we adore”, written by Joseph Hart. This hymn goes back to the 1700s and has really stood the test of time. Originally it was the last verse, divided into two, of a hymn which started: “No prophet nor dreamer of dreams”, based on Deuteronomy 13:1.
When I went on a Methodist Pilgrimage to Malta in 1990, we had an excursion to the island of Gozo and its Cathedral. We stood in the forecourt and sang this hymn – no hymn books, we knew it. People came out on the balconies around to see what we were all about and clapped when we finished. What a surprise and a spine-tingling moment and one I will never forget.
The hymn says everything to me – God is faithful and unchangeable, and even if we have a difficult past, we know he loves us and can trust him for all that’s to come.
This, this is the God we adore
Our faithful, unchangeable friend
Whose love is as great as his power
And neither knows measure nor end.
‘Tis Jesus, the first and the last
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home.
We’ll praise him for all that is past,
And trust him for all that’s to come.