Admittedly, scripture contains a lot of poetry. Poetry has its form and its pattern of language - our hymns have verses and rhymes, the Hebrew had its parallelism, balancing one thought by an echoing thought, perhaps the same thought in different words, or perhaps contrasting. Poetry also has the capacity to enlighten us, by putting the strange alongside the familiar - for example, describing the Holy Spirit as running water (John 7.37‑39) or as the wind (John 3.8), or presenting the change in a repentant human being as being born all over again.

There is a passage in the Book of Job not unlike the picture of Christ with which we started. Job thinks of God as a judge to whom he longs to present his case, but can not get through - almost like a mighty warrior king whose power gives him de facto the right to judge. But Job's thought is on a cosmic scale.

"But how can a man be just before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength - who has resisted him, and succeeded? He who removes mountains and they know it not when he overturns them in his anger who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble who commands the sun and it does not rise, who seals up the stars who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea, who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Chambers of the South, who does great things beyond understanding and marvellous things without number..." (Job 9.2‑10 RSV)

Here we have pictures of the Creator shaking the earth (earthquakes), commanding the sun (eclipses), stretching out the heavens (galaxies, space). It has a resonance with our hymn, particularly when we consider certain New Testament passages regarding our Lord Jesus Christ:

"In the beginning the Word already was. The Word was in God's presence and what God was, the Word was. He was with God at the beginning and through him all things came to be, without him no created thing came into being." (John 1.1‑3 REB.)

"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Col.1.15‑17).

"For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. " (1 Cor.8.6)

We draw our breath in awe as we realise that the person who walked about in Palestine doing good for a period of years, was the same one who was responsible for the existence of humankind. "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, vet the world knew him not." (John 1.10.)

This is a strange thought to the scientific mind, which seeks explanations not in terms of who did it, but how did it come about. People look for explanation not in terms of a mind and a purpose, but of a process. For example, one can imagine a young cyclist toiling up a hill. The poet sees him striving to succeed, and enjoy the exciting view from the top. The scientist sees the effects of a gear ratio, measures the force needed to overcome friction and the pull of gravity, and how one movement affects another. Modern minds see the world in terms of descriptive laws and operative systems, but religious thought can take account of both approaches.

Here is part of a contemporary prayer, which blends the poetic and the literal, accepting the emotional impact of accepted facts of science: "Creator God, the universe you created, the millions of stars, the burning sun, the planets, the deep rich blackness all amaze us. The laws of gravity and relativity amaze us. We are in awe of you. The earth you created, the lush green forests, the dry stark deserts, the deep blue seas, the beautiful gems hidden in the earth amaze us. The interconnection of the ecosystems and the abundance of your planet amaze us. We are in awe of you...."

Long ago it was written: "When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established, who is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?" (Psalm 8.3)

"Hands that flung stars into space... to cruel nails surrendered." It is a vivid picture. The joy of creation is followed by the dragging, tearing pain of redemption. Of course, the hands that made the world are a picture. The hands nailed to the cross are only too real. But the Person involved is the same, whether imagined or seen. "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails" said Thomas, "I won`t accept it." When he saw, he exclaimed "My Lord and my God!"

Peter. speaking fifty days after the crucifixion, could see what had been happening. "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." (Acts 2.23.)

David the psalmist, speaking hundreds of years earlier, has a remarkable picture (similar to Isaiah in chapter 53) of the suffering Servant who in the end is successful in His mission. Yet before that triumph, it is evident that "a company of evildoers surround me, they have pierced my hands and feet." (Psalm 22.16).

Paul, when writing to the Christians at Colosse, completed his statement about our Lord as follows: "He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood qf his cross." (Col.1. 18‑20).

Scripture is full of word pictures and examples - it is the way our finite minds can understand. The picture of the hands nailed to the cross brings clearly to mind how awful are the results of human sinfulness - my sinfulness. Paul too saw himself as an example - both of sin and of forgiveness. "And I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life." So, "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever." 1 Tim.1.15-17.

Words of worship like these help to carry us beyond what we can picture to what we cannot even imagine - the absolute wonder of the Father. But the Jesus we meet in the gospels is a picture of Him.

"Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,

Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise."

We live not by sight but by faith, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"And this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen." 1 Tim.6 15,16.

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