WHATE’ER MY GOD ORDAINS IS RIGHT[1]
Charles Spurgeon once preached, “The moment we are reconciled to God, we consent that Jehovah should do as he wills. What better rule could be than the absolute empire of love? . . . Let love reign without limit; let love be sovereign; let love bear the keys of government upon her shoulder and let her name be called the almighty God. . .. When the heart is reconciled to God, we can say, ‘Amen, so let it be, what God ordains must be right.’”[2]
Sing through me, O Spirit of God. Call forth songs of praise. Let my lips, my tongue, my life proclaim the glories of the Living One who died and conquered death; the Risen One who leads me into life. What once was lost, you have reclaimed. What had been harmed, you will remake. What was unwell, you now restore. You make all things well![3]
Whate’er my God ordains is right, his holy will abideth; I will be still whate’er he does and follow where he guideth. He is my God, though dark my road; he holds me that I shall not fall; and so to him I leave it all, and so to him I leave it all.
We, your creatures, O Christ, once endured the cringing lives of slaves, in a long bondage bereft of hope, bowed by the weight of grief, subjected to futility, fettered to our fear of death. But you did not abandon us. You were not content to cede one speck of ground to the enemy of souls, or to the cruel kingdom of death. You were ever mindful of our plight. All praise to you, Lord Christ![4]
Whate’er my God ordains is right, he never will deceive me; he leads me by the proper path, I know he will not leave me. I take, content, what he has sent; his hand can turn my griefs away; and patiently I wait his day; and patiently I wait his day.
Death’s dark shroud has been rent ragged and pierced through by the first dawning of your resurrection light. And after your return, after the final splintering of that dark night, death will possess no lasting fame; the works of death will win no glory for its name. Hear this promise, O children of God, hear and know: Death will surely die forever, his shoddy works undone, his usurped crown torn from his palsied grasp, his impotence unmasked, his power to harm shattered for all eternity like shards of thinnest glass. Receive the glory due your name, Lord Christ![5]
Whate’er my God ordains is right, though now this cup in drinking may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all, unshrinking. My God is true, each morn anew sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart; and pain and sorrow shall depart, and pain and sorrow shall depart.
The victory is yours, O King! Now claim what is your own! Every inch of earth, all the span of heaven, fields and skies and stars and seas, all continents and forests, all nebulae and galaxies, all creatures and peoples, all principalities and governments, all of time and history, all wonders and mysteries, all loves, all hearts, all lives – all this is yours!
The crown, the throne, the prize!
The name above all names!
The kingdom and the joy!
The glory and the praise!
The victory over death! The conquering of the grave!
O King of Kings, we offer our eternal adoration![6]
Whate’er my God ordains is right, here shall my stand be taken; though sorrow, need, or death be mine, yet I am not forsaken. My Father’s care is round me there; he holds me that I shall not fall; and so to him I leave it all, and so to him I leave it all.
Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right
https://youtu.be/23-bjF_wLOI?si=iQXDvngcq4D8Mysf
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Words: Samuel Rodigast, 1675; translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1858, revised 1863.
[2] The Sing! Hymnal, Crossway Publishers, 2025, p. 913.
[3] Douglas Kaine McKelvey, “A Liturgy of Praise to Christ Who Conquered Death.” Every Moment Holy, Volume II, p. 321.
[4] Douglas Kaine McKelvey, “A Liturgy of Praise to Christ Who Conquered Death.” Every Moment Holy, Volume II, p. 322.
[5] Douglas Kaine McKelvey, “A Liturgy of Praise to Christ Who Conquered Death.” Every Moment Holy, Volume II, p. 324.
[6] Douglas Kaine McKelvey, “A Liturgy of Praise to Christ Who Conquered Death.” Every Moment Holy, Volume II, p. 328.
