Almighty Father, Covenant God

Author: Marie J. Post

Marie (Tuinstra) Post (b. Jenison, MI, 1919; d. Grand Rapids, MI, 1990) While attending Dutch church services as a child, Post was first introduced to the Genevan psalms, which influenced her later writings. She attended Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she studied with Henry Zylstra. From 1940 to 1942 she taught at the Muskegon Christian Junior High School. For over thirty years Post wrote poetry for the Grand Rapids Press and various church periodicals. She gave many readings of her poetry in churches and schools and has been published in a number of journals and poetry anthologies. Two important collections of her poems are I Never Visited an Artist Before (1977) and the posthumous Sandals, Sails, and Saints (1993). A member… Go to person page >

Marie J. Post (PHH 5) wrote "Almighty Father, Covenant God" in 1975 for the baptism of her grandson Wyatt L. Worst. Both text and tune were first published in the 1987 Psalter Hymnal

The text includes both Old Testament covenant language, such as "the seed of Abraham" (st. 4), and New Testament images for baptism, such as being grafted into Christ and being adopted as children of God (st. 2). Stanza 5 is a trinitarian doxology (see PHH 246 for a brief explanation of trinitarian structure).

Liturgical Use:
Infant baptism.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook