“Our God, He Is Alive”

by Micky Galloway

When I was a teenager growing up in Kentucky, I enjoyed attending gospel meetings. I have mentioned before attending gospel meetings at Green’s Chapel (between Bearwallow and Uno). I suppose it was there I learned the grand song, “Our God, He Is Alive” with the capable song leader, Jimmy Sturgeon. I didn’t know then anything about the history of the song and probably didn’t appreciate the powerful lessons of the song. Now I swell with emotion as I consider the grandeur of the great God whom we serve expressed in this song.

The author of the song, Aaron Wesley Dicus (1888 - 1978) was quite a man of accomplishments. After considerable financial troubles, he obtained his B.S., M.A., and Ph. D. degrees. In 1929 he was offered the job of chairman of the physics department at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee. “In the mid-1940’s, Dr. Dicus became heavily involved in training graduates for nuclear studies in connection with the Oak Ridge National Laboratories” (Bert Thompson, Ph. D., Apologetics Press). Much biographical information can be obtained from Apologetics Press as well as many other sources. Bro. Dicus obviously spent considerable time researching and teaching phenomena in the world that most of us are ignorant of and often take for granted. He trained students how to decipher the basic building block of the atom. Bro. Dicus was also a gospel preacher and an inventor. One little known fact is that he invented the automobile turn signal.

In the 1960’s a movement began in America that was characterized by the phrase, “God Is Dead.” This soon became the prime issue debated in the media and displayed on everything from newspapers to billboards. For example, the April 8, 1966 cover of Time magazine simply read, “Is God Dead?” (See http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html.) Bro. Dicus responded with the words, “Our God, He Is Alive!” This song was copied and pasted into songbooks across the country. It became a very clear and defiant answer to the question, “Is God Dead?” Your God may be dead, but our God is the Creator of all that is. He has spoken. He is the only one who holds the secret of life. He grants salvation to the sinner and He is very much alive!

Let us give consideration to the words of the song:

“There is beyond the azure blue, a God concealed from human sight; He tinted skies with heavenly hue and framed the worlds with his great might.” Beyond the beautiful blue sky, is someone that we cannot see. He is described as the “invisible God” (Colossians 1:15; I Timothy 1:17). Yet, we know He is there because of the evidence of the universe. The Gentiles in Rome were rebuked, “For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, (even) his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse” (Romans 1:20). The psalmist declared, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalms 19:1). When our faith begins to waver, let us open our eyes and see the creation of God. The Scriptures teach that God “created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.”

“There was, a long, long time ago, a God whose voice the prophets heard. He is the God that we should know, who speaks from His inspired word.” God speaks to man! This is a marvel in itself. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in (his) Son …” He is the God we should know! He is the only “living and true God” (I Thessalonians 1:9). God said, “I am God, and there is none else; (I am) God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9). He who knows God keeps His commandments (I John 2:3-4). Therefore, we know God through His written word, “Every scripture inspired of God (is) also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17). II Peter 1:21 declares, “For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:21).

“Secure is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within his hand. Tho’ men may search, they cannot find, for God alone does understand.” The “germ” of life, the power to make alive belongs to God alone. Of all the great knowledge man may accumulate, of all the marvels he can build, man will NEVER create life! “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). As Paul described God to the idolatrous Athenians, he said, “God that made the world … He himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:24-25).

“Our God, whose Son upon a tree, a life was willing there to give, that He from sin might set man free, and ever more with Him could live.” Here we sing of God’s scheme of redemption, in the mind of God from eternity (cf. Titus 1:2; II Timothy 1:9). The “principalities and powers in the heavenly places” were in awe as Paul wrote of God’s “eternal purpose … in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10). God gave “His only begotten Son …” (John 3:16), to die on the “tree,” the cross of Calvary. Paul wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). God’s love is manifested in that He was willing to sacrifice His Son, so that we could live with Him forever!

Then the beautiful chorus, leading with the bass, “There is a God, He is alive, in Him we live, and we survive.” When there are those who doubt, those who believe that “God is dead,” let us with good courage loudly proclaim that “There is a God!” Paul spoke to the Athenians as he taught them about ONE God, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28)! The chorus closes with the soprano boldly declaring, “From dust our God created man, He is our God, the great I AM.” When Moses was instructed by God to go “unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people out of Egypt,” he objected, “the children of Israel … shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13-14).

In this great song, God is presented as Creator who has spoken to man. He is the one who holds the secret of life and grants eternal salvation to a lost world. Indeed, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalms 90:2).