Gadsby #4

4 C.M. Isaac Watts
The Sovereignty of God. Job. 23:13; Rom. 9:15-18
 
1 Keep silence all created things,
And wait your Maker’s nod;
My soul stands trembling while she sings
The honours of her God.

2 Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown,
Hang on his firm decree;
He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave TO BE.

3 Chained to his throne a volume lies,
With all the fates of men,
With every angel’s form and size,
Drawn by the eternal pen.

4 His providence unfolds the book,
And makes his counsels shine;
Each opening leaf, and every stroke,
Fulfils some deep design.

5 Here he exalts neglected worms
To sceptres and a crown;
And there the following page he turns,
And treads the monarch down.

6 [Not Gabriel asks the reason why,
Nor God the reason gives;
Nor dares the favourite angel pry
Between the folded leaves.]

7 My God, I would not long to see
My fate with curious eyes;
What gloomy lines are writ for me,
Or what bright scenes may rise.

8 In thy fair book of life and grace,
O may I find my name
Recorded in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord the Lamb.

God borrows no leave TO BE. In other words, God isn't taking any vacations from being God. "Our God is in the heavens" and that means he is always in the heavens.

I feel bad for atheists. True atheists, that is. Those who deny any purpose to the universe. I can respect an atheist who sticks to his principles. Although, I have yet to meet one of those, but I digress. It is a pitiful life not to take notice of God's deep designs in, well, everything.

Stanzas seven and eight of this hymn are the best ones, wouldn't you say? Though many of us sinfully pine for omniscience in delusions of control, life as a human is better lived as a human - not knowing all, but knowing the One who does.