This Is My Father's World
“The Story Behind the Hymn”
This hymn has been a popular for several years. Maltbie Davenport Babcock was an outstanding athlete, baseball pitcher and champion swimmer. As the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Lockport, New York; it was his habit to have a run nearly every morning. The run took him about two miles to the top of a high overlook where there was a beautiful vista of Lake Ontario. Before he made his run, he would comment to his Church staff; “I am going out to see my Father’s world.”[1]
Babcock loved nature and all things out-of-doors. He was also an accomplished musician who played the organ, piano, and violin. So, it is a natural outflow of his personality that he should write and perform music extoling the merits of God’s grand creation. Consider the worshipful words of one line in particular: “This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.”[2]
Verse One:
This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres. This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas-- His hand the wonders wrought.
Verse Two:
This is my Father's world: The birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world: He shines in all that's fair; In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.
Verse Three:
This is my Father's world: O let me ne'er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father's world: Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King: let the heavens ring! God reigns; let earth be glad! [3]
[1] Robert K. Brown & Mark R. Norton, editors and compilers. & William J. Petersen & Randy Petersen, devotional writers; “This is My Father’s World,” One Year Book Of Hymns: 365 Devotional Readings Based on Great Hymns of the Faith (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), May 10.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Lyrics found at https://www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/this-is-my-father-s-world/