Former Air Force Captain James F. Linzey, composer of the United States Space Force Hymn (“Creator of the Universe”), whose composition has been embraced by chaplains, churches, and veterans’ groups nationwide. (Public domain)

A reverent recording renews the hymn’s spiritual and cultural significance.

NEWS PROVIDED BY
James F. Linzey
June 30, 2025

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2025 /Standard Newswire/ — What began on a dusty, out-of-tune upright piano in the Dalton Gang Museum has become the anthem chaplains now call the “United States Space Force Hymn.”

In early 2020, Chaplain (Major) James F. Linzey, USA (Ret.)—a Southern Baptist minister who served 24 years in both the Army and Air Force—sat down at the antique instrument inside the museum he had purchased on Coffeyville’s historic Eighth Street. Stirred by news of the United States Space Force, he penned an eight-bar melody and four stanzas, the first being:

Creator of the universe,
Watch over those who fly;
Through the great spaces beyond the earth,
And worlds beyond the sky.

He titled the hymn “Creator of the Universe.” Federal law bars the Department of Defense from commissioning religious music, but the piece is already echoing through military chapels, veterans’ gatherings, and Independence Day services across the country.

Carrying on a Sacred Tradition

Just as sailors have long sung “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” and airmen cherish “Lord, Guard and Guide the Men Who Fly,” Linzey sought to give Space Force Guardians a devotional counterpart. His lyrics weave subtle references to both earlier hymns, underscoring the new service’s continuity with its naval and aerospace forebears.

From Saloon Piano to Cathedral Acoustics

Florida composer Dr. Dan Kreider produced what sounds like a “National Cathedral Version,” slowing the tempo and enriching the harmony in a style reminiscent of Ralph Vaughan Williams. “It sounds as if you’re praying beneath stained-glass windows,” Linzey remarked. The recording is available free of charge at SpaceForceHymn.com, where sheet music downloads have already topped an estimated 40,000.

Growing Recognition

Since its debut, the hymn has attracted coverage from Christianity Today, Baptist Press, Charisma Media, the Montgomery Independent, and the Black Hills Pioneer. Nationally syndicated Christian radio programs aired the recording during the 2024 Independence Day season.

The Road to a Hymnal—and Beyond

Will “Creator of the Universe” one day appear in a Department of Defense hymnal alongside the Navy and Air Force hymns, or be arranged for a full military band? Linzey would welcome it, but he’s content to let the hymn spread organically.

Final Measure

Coffeyville’s old piano is silent again, its keys still. The former Dalton Gang Museum awaits renovation. But the melody birthed there now echoes far beyond southeast Kansas—perhaps in a Vandenberg control room, a chapel on Guam, or a small-town Coffeyville church on Veterans Day.

Wherever it is sung, the hymn retains a purposely timeless prayer of petitioning the “Eternal Father” who “in solitude of sov’reign grace” might grant courage for each flight.

James Linzey is the only living author of both a U.S. military hymn—The United States Space Force Hymn (the first such hymn written in 105 years)—and an official institutional military prayer: The United States Army Cadet Command Prayer.

SOURCE James F. Linzey

CONTACT: 760-855-3905, militarybibleassociation@gmail.com