CrossTalk: We Praise You, O God

 

This week (December 7) Christians will commemorate Ambrose of Milan—as they have done for 16 centuries. This pious and gifted teacher of the church is one of those people whom God put into the world at a pivotal moment in history to preserve His Word and teaching for us.

Ambrose’s life and work are well worth studying. I want to commemorate him here by reflecting on one of the most widely used and enduring hymns of Western Christianity, traditionally ascribed to him. We call it by its Latin title, Te Deum. Translated, it sings out: “We praise you, O God, we acknowledge You to be the Lord. All the earth now worships you, the Father everlasting.”

With the little word, “now,” Ambrose underscores an astounding new reality that modern Christians often fail to see. Suddenly, after the sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension of the Jewish man, Jesus, the entire world began worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Until Jesus, only one small nation on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea had ever heard of Him.

As Christians of the first several centuries observed that the Old Testament was being read in every city of the inhabited world, they noted the fulfillment of prophecies like, Psalm 22:27 “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.” This became one of the most convincing proofs that the Messiah had, indeed, come into the world.

For the Jews, this meant that the eternal song of the angels, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth” (Isaiah 6:3), was now made plain. With the coming of Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was revealed by His Trinitarian Name: “The Father of an infinite majesty; Thine adorable, true, and only Son; also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.”

Ambrose next goes on briefly to outline the saving acts of Christ, “the King of glory,” who is “the everlasting Son of the Father.”

First, in the fullness of time, the eternal Son became a man—something that He never was before. “When You took upon Yourself to deliver man, You humbled Yourself to be born of a virgin.”

Next, as the God-man he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day, he rose again from the dead and appeared to the Apostles, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:22-23).

This Ambrose captured with the words, “When You had overcome the sharpness of death, You opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”

Third, Jesus, with His risen and glorified body, ascended into heaven to rule the universe not only as the God He always was, but now also as the only Perfect Man. We sing, “You sit at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.”

Jesus’ fourth and final act for your salvation has not yet happened. But we sing it out in full confidence through Ambrose’s poetry, “We believe that you will come to be our judge.”

After such a striking summary of Jesus’ work for your salvation, there is still one thing needed—faith. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).

So, Ambrose ends with a supplication: “We, therefore, pray You to help Your servants whom You have redeemed with Your precious blood. Make them to be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting.”

This beloved hymn has been sung since the early fifth century A.D. It is said that Ambrose wrote it for the baptism of Augustine on Easter Sunday of 387. Whatever occasioned its writing, the Te Deum remains one of the most beloved hymns in Christendom.