God and Nature Winter 2019
in chaos and nothingness
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by David Lee
1. In chaos and nothingness, you of unnameable Name
spoke into the emptiness, fanning dark energy's flame.
Your Spirit was hovering, racing and shaping the birth
of galaxy clusters, of sun and the moon and the earth.
2. Your voice pierced the darkness, your Word blazed your light on the world;
whole continents drifted while aeons and ages unfurled;
and coaxing the DNA helix to double and bind,
your Spirit breathed origin to every species and kind.
3. O Lord, where were we when you laid the foundations of earth?
When morning stars harmonised song, when the oceans burst forth?
When you played your dice, when you planned that through chance life evolved?
In mere mortal span, still your mysteries remain unresolved.
4. So where then is wisdom, and can understanding be found?
Yet heavens are voicing your glory: in Christ is their crown.
Invisible God, given visible image, you came,
breathed order and life: Jesus Christ, Name above every name.
Transcendent and immanent, God ever three, ever one:
we praise you and worship you, Father and Spirit and Son.
Suggested tune: [MP3 audio]
See sheet music below.
Being a scientist by training, I have long believed that we need a hymn that positively accepts modern science (cosmology, geophysics, evolutionary biology, etc.) as a gift of our omniscient God, and that revels in his creative glories revealed by the writers of Genesis 1-2, the Psalmists (19:1-6; 50:1-6), the author of Job, and St. Paul. In this, we simply follow the early Church Fathers, who recognized the non-literal, allegorical wonders of the creation stories. This hymn is an attempt to do just that, setting alongside these wonders the unimaginable mystery of a triune God.
1. In chaos and nothingness, you of unnameable Name
spoke into the emptiness, fanning dark energy's flame.
Your Spirit was hovering, racing and shaping the birth
of galaxy clusters, of sun and the moon and the earth.
2. Your voice pierced the darkness, your Word blazed your light on the world;
whole continents drifted while aeons and ages unfurled;
and coaxing the DNA helix to double and bind,
your Spirit breathed origin to every species and kind.
3. O Lord, where were we when you laid the foundations of earth?
When morning stars harmonised song, when the oceans burst forth?
When you played your dice, when you planned that through chance life evolved?
In mere mortal span, still your mysteries remain unresolved.
4. So where then is wisdom, and can understanding be found?
Yet heavens are voicing your glory: in Christ is their crown.
Invisible God, given visible image, you came,
breathed order and life: Jesus Christ, Name above every name.
Transcendent and immanent, God ever three, ever one:
we praise you and worship you, Father and Spirit and Son.
Suggested tune: [MP3 audio]
See sheet music below.
Being a scientist by training, I have long believed that we need a hymn that positively accepts modern science (cosmology, geophysics, evolutionary biology, etc.) as a gift of our omniscient God, and that revels in his creative glories revealed by the writers of Genesis 1-2, the Psalmists (19:1-6; 50:1-6), the author of Job, and St. Paul. In this, we simply follow the early Church Fathers, who recognized the non-literal, allegorical wonders of the creation stories. This hymn is an attempt to do just that, setting alongside these wonders the unimaginable mystery of a triune God.
David Lee's undergraduate studies in Geology with Geophysics (Durham University, UK) and then M.Sc. in Computing Science (Newcastle University, UK) have been followed by a career in IT closely associated with scientific research, firstly at Durham University and latterly at ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The hymn In Chaos and Nothingness was recently chosen by BioLogos for their annual conference.