Lyrics
The perfect wisdom of our God
Revealed in all the universe:
All things created by His hand
And held together at His command.
He knows the mysteries of the seas,
The secrets of the stars are His;
He guides the planets on their way
And turns the earth through another day.
The matchless wisdom of His ways
That mark the path of righteousness;
His word a lamp unto my feet,
His Spirit teaching and guiding me.
And O the mystery of the cross,
That God should suffer for the lost,
So that the fool might shame the wise,
And all the glory might go to Christ!
O grant me wisdom from above,
To pray for peace and cling to love,
And teach me humbly to receive
The sun and rain of Your sovereignty.
Each strand of sorrow has a place
Within this tapestry of grace;
So through the trials I choose to say:
“Your perfect will in Your perfect way.”
Wisdom expressed through creation, the Incarnation and His care for us
We often sing about God’s power, His love, His faithfulness, His knowledge – but not His wisdom. And while we may assent to it as a fact, we may not have stopped to consider why the wisdom of God is important to us and the world in which we live.
This song is an attempt to explore that. It begins by thinking of God’s wisdom expressed in creation. He knows the secrets of the stars and seas – secrets we are only now continuing to discover through scientific exploration – and by His wisdom He balances all the powerful elements of the universe and everything in it to keep us alive.
The second verse thinks about the way God’s wisdom directs us through our lives, through His word and the leading of the Spirit, and how it is expressed through the cross – a wisdom that seems foolishness to so many, yet just shows us how much wiser He is than any human mind.
The final verse is an attempt to apply this truth to our lives – to acknowledge that God’s perfect wisdom is being worked out even in the sufferings and the sorrows we go through – they all play a part in His great tapestry of grace.
I was nervous about writing this verse, because I didn’t want to sound dismissive of the things people go through – but to help us recognise that, although we often don’t know why we go through these things, he is working his purpose out through all these things – and I need to have the faith to say, not my will but Yours.
