What "Meekness and Majesty" means
The title is the paradox. Meekness and majesty do not usually share a sentence. They belong to different categories of being, which is precisely Graham Kendrick's point. This 1986 hymn is a sustained meditation on the Incarnation, the moment the majestic Son who holds all things together chose to enter the world in obscurity, live as a servant, and die in shame. Key of G for male voices, Bb for female, at 76 BPM in 3/4, the waltz time gives the song a wondering, unhurried quality suited to the mystery it describes. Philippians 2:5-11 is the theological engine. The kenotic passage, the self-emptying of the Son for the sake of sinners, is the greatest statement in Scripture of what this song keeps circling. Each verse adds a new facet of the paradox: wisdom and wonder, lordship and servanthood, eternity compressed into a human life. The refrain resolves each verse with confession and wonder, drawing the singer into the same response Philip's Ethiopian eunuch reached when he encountered Isaiah 53 and found Christ there.
What this song does in a room
Waltz time does something to a congregation that 4/4 rarely achieves. There is a natural sway in 3/4, a circular motion, and it creates a sense of movement that feels less like marching and more like being carried. That quality is right for this content. The Incarnation is not a thing to be declared with a clenched fist. It is a thing to be held with open hands and tilted toward the light. Rooms that don't know this song often find themselves caught off guard by the refrain. The title phrase "this is our God" arrives after three verses of paradox-stacking, and when it does, it lands as a moment of recognition rather than announcement. Congregations who have sung it for years report the same thing: it does not get smaller with repetition. The mystery it holds is inexhaustible, and the waltz time keeps the song from becoming the kind of thing you belt out without thinking. It keeps the singer in the posture of wonder.
What this song is saying about God
God's greatness expresses itself in smallness. That is the irreducible claim. Philippians 2 does not say Christ set aside his deity for the Incarnation. It says he added humanity, servant form, obedience unto death. The majesty did not leave. It took on meekness as its chosen expression. John 1:14 says "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Hebrews 1:3 says he is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." Both of those descriptions belong to the same person who was laid in a manger, who got tired, who wept at a tomb. The song is insisting that meekness and majesty are not competing claims about two different moments. They are simultaneous, co-present truths about the same Person. That is a Christological claim of the first order, and it has pastoral weight for a congregation trying to understand how the God who holds the universe together can also be the God who knows their particular suffering.
Scriptural backbone
- Philippians 2:5-11 (the kenotic hymn, the primary source)
- John 1:14 ("the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us")
- Hebrews 1:3 ("the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being")
- Isaiah 53:2-3 (the Servant's obscurity and rejection)
How to use it in a service
Advent and Christmas Eve are the obvious settings, and the song earns its place there year after year. But Christological depth does not expire on December 26. Any series on Philippians 2, on the person of Christ, on the Incarnation as an ongoing theological reality rather than an annual event, this song belongs in it. Holy Week is a particularly powerful context because Philippians 2's kenotic passage moves explicitly from the self-emptying of the Incarnation to the cross and exaltation. The servant theme does not stop at the manger. If this hymn is unfamiliar to a congregation, introduce a single verse and chorus before asking the full room to join. Let them hear it once before they sing it. The tune is not immediately obvious, and the 3/4 time can catch people off guard if they are expecting 4/4 without warning.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
The waltz feel is the whole ballgame. If the tempo locks into a rigid, metronome-driven pulse, the song loses its wondering quality and becomes mechanical. The 3/4 needs to breathe, especially in the space between the third beat and the downbeat of the next measure. Conductors call this "the lean," and it is what gives waltz time its characteristic motion. Bring that physical sense into your leading. The refrain "this is our God" carries significant theological freight. Do not rush through it as a transitional phrase. It is the song's anchor. Let it sit. The congregation needs to mean it, and meaning something takes a beat longer than simply singing it. Also watch for the temptation to modernize the song's diction in real time. Some of the hymn's language is formal and that formality is doing theological work. The elevated register signals that something of great weight is being described.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
The piano is the lead instrument here, and a flowing legato feel is what the song requires. Avoid percussion that imposes a rigid grid on the 3/4 time. If a cajon or snare is in the arrangement, it should follow the music rather than enforce it. Acoustic guitar with a waltz strum pattern works as an alternative primary instrument. Contemporary settings that recast the song in 4/4 exist, but they cost the song something real. The wondering, swaying quality lives in the 3/4 time signature. If this hymn is new to the congregation, the team should know it inside out before Sunday. A congregation that is learning a melody for the first time needs to hear the vocal line clearly above everything else. Pull back on everything that is not supporting that clarity.