Lead, Kindly Light

Text Cardinal John Henry Newman 1801-1890 

Lead, kindly light amid the encircling gloom, 
And lead me on! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
Lead Thou me on! 
Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 
 
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 
Shouldst lead me on; 
I loved to choose and see my path; but now 
Lead Thou me on! 
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years! 
 
So long Thy power hath blessed me, surely still 
’Twill lead me on 
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent’ 
Til the night is gone’ 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Today’s Devotion:

Much of today’s devotion is paraphrased from Eric Routley’s wonderful book. Hymns of the Faith 1952. 

Darkness

We love this hymn for its strong, dark colors. If a hymn writer knows how to use his colors and can draw his picture well and true to the heart of life, there will certainly be a hearing of such a hymn. How many hymns beguile us in one way or another with such dark colors?

We all have at one time, or another known what deep darkness feels like. The darkness here is the darkness of a late October night deep in the woods. We acknowledge that hiking through such darkness is fraught with peril. Taking a walk in such darkness could lead our imaginations to run wild with thoughts that every rabbit hole leads to streams and torrents of dangerous water and sinister swamps. This kind of darkness can lead anyone to be willing to figuratively sell their soul to anyone who might be able to offer a light. Coming upon that first lighted window of an old farmhouse can make you feel as if that light is the sun rising in the east.  

Of course, this is not the way we live our lives day to day. We work, we come home, we use electrical lights, and our cars are well-lit. Losing one’s way home is not a common experience for most of us. We have GPS that leads us out of every scary patch. 99.9% of the time losing our way isn’t a problem which of course can lead us to know how much worse it is when we do lose our way.   

Enter a young man of 32, our author, Cardinal John Henry Newman, the author of this hymn. He was on a Mediterranean cruise in the 1830s with his friends, Hurrell Froude and his father. He fell sick of an illness which was probably less than half physical in its origin, and more likely half occasioned by the great mental tension through which he was passing. Some believe he was on the sea when he wrote this text, but the imagery leads one to believe he was on land.

When a person is in such dire straits, one can be led to sing or compose a hymn such as the one we are talking about today. It’s the kind of hymn you may not need all the time, but when you need it, you REALLY need this text. “The night is dark, and I am far from home.”

We all know as we live our lives how the bottom can quickly drop out from under us at any time, setting our lives adrift. Some stroke of fortune good or bad can cut clean through the plans we’ve made so confidently.  

‘Keep Thou my feet:

I do not ask to see, the distant scene; one step enough for me”. This is one secret in finding our path once more.

When the world dissolves into such confusion, consider that there might be something close at hand that can be done to relieve the burden of the feelings of being lost.  Maybe the darkness is only five yards and not complete. If God’s guidance on the problem is not forthcoming, God might be waiting to reveal or say something on a matter that might seem trivial at first, but God renders it important. He may be preparing you for that farmhouse window just beyond that 5 yards of darkness you are caught up in. It is also possible that keeping our eye on that window can lead us to misstep and twist our ankle in a hole we didn’t expect.

But as for me, said the psalmist, my feet were almost gone; my treading had well-nigh slipped, BUT THEN “nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me with thy right hand.” (Psalm 73).   

 The hymn talks of the same thing. I thought I had a firm hold on my life. I can’t remember ever feeling this low or lost. I thought I knew the terrain. If there was a problem, I thought I could handle it - but now, Lord, lead thou me on. I thought the light I was using was helping me, but it became as useless as the flashlight on our phone as we lost power, this light is adequate, but can it take us through to the end of our journey? If it’s possible, we should make a new beginning, ask for real light, and wash out the memory of those past years in which we took pride in our own abilities to manage through life’s hardships. I’m in an emergency, Lord! Lead me through this! 

Our faith is the answer

to this feeling of being lost. For God, to whom I pray for light, has been very forbearing so far. I have invited his impatience, and he has never let me down or left me completely alone. So long thy power has blessed me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.   

Til the night is gone’ 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 

This line can seem perplexing to us when taken out of context but not so to the singer singing the verse. It is only by taking thought that we succumb to perplexity, and having succumbed we must work through our truth. The truth may well be this, that the traveler, looking for a light is promised daylight. By the light he prayed for he might see what he had expected to see. By the light God gives, the lost person might find a light that takes him by surprise. He may see something that he thought was lost that he loved long ago. The traveler had lost his capacity through all the travails of this life to see things as they really are. Seeing things with the insight of heaven is one of the gifts of the Spirit that are given to people of faith; it is one of those things that go along with childlike innocence and are distorted by the corruptions of life. When the morning breaks the traveler will see straight and clear. He will see not only the path but the scenery.  He will see God’s plan as God devised it. He will see the past and present in true proportion. He will then understand how long it has been since he last felt sure of himself and of God.   

Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts

Glory to God: 494

Text: Bernard of Clairvaux Latin 12th century
Translated by Ray Palmer 1858 

Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, 
thou fount of life, thou light of all, 
from the best bliss that earth imparts 
we turn, unfilled, to heed thy call. 
 
Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood; 
thou savest those that on thee call; 
to them that seek thee thou art good, 
to them that find thee, all in all. 
 
We taste thee, O thou living bread, 
and long to feast upon thee still; 
we drink of thee, the fountainhead, 
and thirst our souls from thee to fill. 
 
Our restless spirits yearn for thee, 
where'er our changeful lot is cast, 
glad when thy gracious smile we see, 
blest when our faith can hold thee fast. 
 
O Jesus, ever with us stay; 
make all our moments calm and bright. 
O chase the night of sin away; 
shed o'er the world thy holy light. 

Today’s Devotion:

This week's hymn takes us back to the Middle Ages.  Enjoy this brief biography of Bernard of Clairvaux, the supposed writer of this text.   

Bernard of Clairvaux

saint, abbot, and doctor fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the Middle Ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy, in 1091.

He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. The world, it would be thought, would have had overpowering attractions for a youth who, like Bernard, had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who had died in 1105), he chose a life of asceticism, and became a monk. In the company of an uncle and two of his brothers, who had been won over by his entreaties, he entered the monastery of Citeaux, the first Cistercian foundation, in 1113. Two years later he was sent forth, at the head of twelve monks, from the rapidly increasing and overcrowded abbey, to found a daughter institution, which in spite of difficulties and privations that would have daunted less determined men, they succeeded in doing, in the Valley of Wormwood, about four miles from the Abbey of LaFerté—itself an earlier swarm from the same parent hive—on the Aube. On the death of Pope Honorius II, in 1130, the Sacred College was rent by factions, one of which elected Gregory of St. Angelo, who took the title of Innocent II, while another elected Peter Leonis, under that of Anacletua II. Innocent fled to France, and the question as to whom the allegiance of the King, Louie VI., and the French bishops was due was left by them for Bernard to decide. At a council held at Etampes, Bernard gave judgment in favor of Innocent. Throwing himself into the question with all the ardour of a vehement partisan, he won over both Henry I., the English king, and Lothair, the German emperor, to support the same cause, and then, in 1133, accompanied Innocent II., who was supported by Lothair and his army, to Italy and to Rome. When Lothair withdrew, Innocent retired to Pisa, and Bernard for a while to his abbey of Clairvaux.  

From. -John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907). 

Biography of Ray Palmer

Here is a brief biography of Ray Palmer, who translated the text in 1858. 

Ray Palmer (b. Little Compton, RI, 1808; d. Newark, NJ, 1887) is often considered to be one of America's best nineteenth-century hymn writers. After completing grammar school, he worked in a Boston dry goods store, but a religious awakening prodded him to study for the ministry. He attended Yale College (supporting himself by teaching) and was ordained in 1835.

A pastor in Congregational churches in Bath, Maine (1835-1850), and Albany, New York (1850-1865), he also served as secretary of the American Congregational Union (1865-1878). Palmer was a popular preacher and author, writing original poetry as well as translating hymns.

He published several volumes of poetry and hymns, including Sabbath Hymn Book (1858), Hymns and Sacred Pieces (1865), and Hymns of My Holy Hours (1868). His complete poetical works were published in 1876. 

Through All the Changing Scenes of Life   

Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady 1696 

Singing the Psalms 

First five verses found in most hymnals:

Thro' all the changing scenes of life, 
In trouble, and in joy, 
The praises of my God shall still 
My heart and tongue employ. 
 
Of his deliv'rance I will boast, 
Till all that are distress'd, 
From my example comfort take, 
And sooth their griefs to rest. 
 
O magnify the Lord with me, 
With me exalt his Name, 
To him in my distress I cry'd 
He to my rescue came. 
 
With grateful hearts observe his ways, 
And on his goodness rest; 
So will your own experience prove 
That pious souls are blest. 
 
For while his fear inspires your breast, 
His mercy will be nigh, 
To guard your lives from threat'ning ills, 
And all your wants supply. 

Other verses used: 

 The hosts of God encamp around 
The dwellings of the just; 
Deliverance he affords to all 
Who on his succour trust. 

 Oh make but trial of his love; 
Experience will decide 
How blest are they, and only they, 
Who in his truth confide. 

 Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

Psalm 34 from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition:

 
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; 
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; 
    let the humble hear and be glad. 
3 O magnify the Lord with me, 
    and let us exalt his name together. 
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me 
    and delivered me from all my fears. 
5 Look to him, and be radiant, 
    so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed. 
6 This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord 
    and was saved from every trouble. 
7 The angel of the Lord encamps 
    around those who fear him and delivers them. 
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; 
    happy are those who take refuge in him. 
9 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, 
    for those who fear him have no want. 
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger, 
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 
11 Come, O children, listen to me; 
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 
12 Which of you desires life 
    and covets many days to enjoy good? 
13 Keep your tongue from evil 
    and your lips from speaking deceit. 
14 Depart from evil, and do good; 
    seek peace, and pursue it. 
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 
    and his ears are open to their cry. 
16 The face of the Lord is against evildoers, 
    to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears 
    and rescues them from all their troubles. 
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 
    and saves the crushed in spirit. 
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 
    but the Lord rescues them from them all. 
20 He keeps all their bones; 
    not one of them will be broken. 
21 Evil brings death to the wicked, 
    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants; 
    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 

Today’s Devotion: Providence of God 

 In last week’s Hymn of the Week, we compared how hymn writers have taken Psalm 34 and shaped it into singable verses of our hymn. One of the many cool things about this hymn is the fact that the Psalm itself is in 22 verses with each verse representing a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And if I included all the verses that have been written for this hymn, we would discover that there are 22 of them as well. 

Praise the Lord

To sum up, what all these verses are saying, it’s safe to say, “I shall praise the Lord because he protects me from danger.”  This is of course an easy thing to say, but how do we really know?  Maybe the psalmist has a memory from their own life that they are thinking about when God protected them.  But as the psalm continues, the psalmist universalizes the personal experience and decides that they will “Praise the Lord at all times.” 

How difficult is it to praise God when life gets difficult, harrowing, or dangerous?   I believe most Christians believe that Praise of God is the highest duty of man, but the common belief seems to be that there is a time for praising and a time for withholding praise. But when someone has personally experienced how the Shepherd comes and saves the sheep in danger and brought them back from the precipice, then that person may very well say that they will Praise God at All Times.   

Verse 2 and 3 of Psalm 34 has this to say
(not usually used in any hymnal)

2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; 
    let the humble hear and be glad. 
3 O magnify the Lord with me, 
    and let us exalt his name together. 

The person in this condition wants to share the story of his deliverance, to tell his neighbors.  He doesn’t want this to make himself feel better than his neighbors but that the neighbor may simply “be made glad.” 

Who then is entitled to believe that they are looked after by God?  A verse not used in many hymnals today gives us a clue: 

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

In a general way, Christians could say that there are no accidents in life, but I think we all know that this is not the case. We can all agree that it would be a very bad idea to tell a new Christian that now that they are Christian their troubles are over. But Christianity can help us steer our way through the rocks and dangerous places in our lives. 

Eric Routley

Eric Routley uses the following description:  Let’s say a man loses his sight. It would be possible for the man to say “God has taken my sight from me. Then I shall see to it that society pays me back for this awful thing that has happened.” It is also possible for the blind man to come to a place where he can say, “What is it that God wants from me and what can I do better because of this blindness.” The blind man example is a good one as I’m sure we all know of folks who have lost their sight. And how often have we been blessed by their cheerfulness and heroic Christian courage?” Whatever our affliction the choice is clear: “I will sue God for damages for what has happened to me” or “I will praise God at all times.” 

Once at this place, the next question becomes, why has God spared me or saved me in his way?  This is the heart of the Christian life as it concerns the individual. When the hideous thing or the miraculous thing happens, when a person has been knocked down by death or love, that is the question we all come to at some point. 

When a physical calamity befalls us, it is easy to ask “Why me? Why me?” It can become almost a drumbeat for us. (I’ve had these thoughts myself many times).  

In reading over Eric Routley’s thoughts and this hymn and Psalm, I keep coming back to the story of Job; that I was lucky enough to have an hour-long Bible study on while at Montreat this summer. Job’s friends, when all has been taken from him tell him to curse God. After almost 40 chapters of discourse, God has had enough and comes down in a whirlwind asking Job if he was there when the stars were made and if he knows how to feed a lion or take care of a goat in the wild.  Job then humbly confesses that God is all-knowing and present and repents. 

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

Fear the Lord; treat God’s plan as relevant and important, and there will be no grievances, no senseless accidents, only, at all times, grounds for worshiping and praising God.   

Through All the Changing Scenes of Life   

Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady 1696 

Singing the Psalms 

First five verses found in most hymnals:

Thro' all the changing scenes of life, 
In trouble, and in joy, 
The praises of my God shall still 
My heart and tongue employ. 
 
Of his deliv'rance I will boast, 
Till all that are distress'd, 
From my example comfort take, 
And sooth their griefs to rest. 
 
O magnify the Lord with me, 
With me exalt his Name, 
To him in my distress I cry'd 
He to my rescue came. 
 
With grateful hearts observe his ways, 
And on his goodness rest; 
So will your own experience prove 
That pious souls are blest. 
 
For while his fear inspires your breast, 
His mercy will be nigh, 
To guard your lives from threat'ning ills, 
And all your wants supply. 

Other verses used: 

 The hosts of God encamp around 
The dwellings of the just; 
Deliverance he affords to all 
Who on his succour trust. 

 Oh make but trial of his love; 
Experience will decide 
How blest are they, and only they, 
Who in his truth confide. 

 Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear; 
Make you his service your delight: 
Your wants shall be his care. 

Psalm 34 from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition:

 
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; 
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; 
    let the humble hear and be glad. 
3 O magnify the Lord with me, 
    and let us exalt his name together. 
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me 
    and delivered me from all my fears. 
5 Look to him, and be radiant, 
    so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed. 
6 This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord 
    and was saved from every trouble. 
7 The angel of the Lord encamps 
    around those who fear him and delivers them. 
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; 
    happy are those who take refuge in him. 
9 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, 
    for those who fear him have no want. 
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger, 
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 
11 Come, O children, listen to me; 
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 
12 Which of you desires life 
    and covets many days to enjoy good? 
13 Keep your tongue from evil 
    and your lips from speaking deceit. 
14 Depart from evil, and do good; 
    seek peace, and pursue it. 
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 
    and his ears are open to their cry. 
16 The face of the Lord is against evildoers, 
    to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears 
    and rescues them from all their troubles. 
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 
    and saves the crushed in spirit. 
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 
    but the Lord rescues them from them all. 
20 He keeps all their bones; 
    not one of them will be broken. 
21 Evil brings death to the wicked, 
    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants; 
    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 

Todays Devotion

I want to spend the next couple of weeks looking at this hymn. It has everything a good Calvinist would want. It is a paraphrase of Psalm 34 and Calvin was a big supporter of singing our faith, the Psalms in particular. This tradition has been handed down from generation to generation and it is still used today. 

Psalms & Songs

The tune O Bless the Lord, My Soul from the musical Godspell comes to mind along with short choruses and so many other tunes that use the Psalm text as a starting place. How many times have we relished singing the song My Shepherd Will Supply My Need during Good Shepherd Sunday?

All this is to say that these wonderful hymns come to us for a specific reason and in the tradition of John Calvin who had this to say about singing the Psalms and singing in church: 

As to public prayers, there are two kinds: one consists of words alone; the other includes music. And this is no recent invention. For since the very beginning of the church it has been this way, as we may learn from history books. Nor does St. Paul himself speak only of prayer by word of mouth, but also of singing. And in truth, we know from experience that song has great power and strength to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a heart more vehement and ardent. One must always watch lest the song be light and frivolous; rather, it should have weight and majesty, as St. Augustine says. And thus, there is a great difference between the music that is made to entertain people at home and at table, and the Psalms which are sung in church, in the presence of God and His angels. Therefore, if any wish rightly to judge the kind of music presented here, we hope he will find it to be holy and pure, seeing that it is simply made in keeping with the edification of which we have spoken, whatever further use it may be put to. For even in our homes and out of doors let it be a spur to us and a means of praising God and lifting up our hearts to Him, so that we may be consoled by meditating on His virtue, His bounty, His wisdom, and His justice. For this is more necessary than one can ever tell.  (Written while writing an exegesis on the book of Ephesians).  

An Invitation

This week, I invite you to do only one thing. Check out the way the musical verses are set compared to how they are written in the Bible. Meditate on how certain words were chosen over others to highlight. Why do you yourself think the verse was set in a particular way? 

Other questions you might ask might be, why are the first five verses of the hymn used more frequently and why were the other verses discarded? What is it about the verses that speak to us and illuminate new meaning when compared to just reading the Psalm? 

Again, with this hymn and so many more, there is a lot to unpack.  Have fun this week just doing a side-by-side comparison between the verses of the hymn and how the Psalm was written. 

See you next week! 
Philip 

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing 

Glory to God: 610

Text: Charles Wesley 1739 
Music: Carl Gotthelf Glaser 1828 

O for a thousand tongues to sing 
My dear Redeemer’s praise, 
The glories of my God and King, 
The triumphs of God's grace! 
 
Jesus, the name that charms our fears, 
That bids our sorrows cease; 
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, 
’Tis life, and health, and peace. 
 
Christ breaks the power of reigning sin, 
And sets the prisoner free; 
Christ's blood can make the sinful clean, 
Christ's blood availed for me. 
 
My gracious Master and my God, 
Assist me to proclaim, 
To spread through all the earth abroad 
The honors of Thy name. 

To God all glory, praise and love 
Be now and ever given 
By saints below and saints above, 
The church in earth and heaven 

Two verses not found in Presbyterian Hymnal 1990 or 2014. 

He speaks; - and – listening to his voice, 
New life the dead receive, 
The mournful broken hearts rejoice, 
The humble poor believe. 

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, 
Your loosened tongues employ; 
Ye blind, behold your Savior come; 
And leap, ye lame, for joy! 

Todays Devotion

Conversion. Part 2

This idea of Conversion has also played a more prominent role in our church services as this past week we have had the story of Saul who became Paul was converted from a man who hunted down members of the early church to a man who gave his life to Jesus and spread God’s message of love and freedom throughout the world.

Sunday’s Worship

On August 6th we listened to the story of Jonah living his life the way he wanted until God intervened with the sea monster (maybe a whale) and brought Jonah back to God and ultimately a life lived in freedom.

Eric Routley 

Last week, we discussed the rhyme scheme and how even though it is usually once from ABAC in rhyme scheme, those verses have morphed over time into a kind of free verse that is now more natural to the 21st-century ear. Along with the various ways the hymn has been rhymed, we also discussed how one can see this as a hymn about Conversion. Using Eric Routley’s wonderful book; Hymns and the Faith, we began looking at the verses and even added a few that while not in our hymnal, are still relevant to this idea of Conversion.

Eric has much more to say on the subject and I think you will find his words fascinating concerning this word that is used by so many folks for their own spiritual purposes. Eric Routley asks us to look at how almost every line in the hymn takes us from darkness into light.  ‘Jesus, the name that charms our fears; that bids our sorrows cease’ – anxieties are dispersed, sorrows and grievances evaporate.  “Christ’s blood can make the sinful clean. (Some versions use the word “foulest” instead of sinful).  The dirt and blurring tarnish of the ineffective and aimless life gives way to the fresh brightness and cleanness of a life filled with purpose.  Further, the author insists that the results of the conversion are spectacular and demonstrative.  The dumb (mute in this sense) men not only speak; they praise.  The lame man not only walks, but he also leaps and capers about in public.  The blind not only see; they see Jesus.  The mournful are not only relieved of their sorrow but are taught the technique of joy.  

In fact, (our author continues) the whole of the converted life can, on the evidence of this hymn, be summed up in a single word – freedom.  This word is one of Wesley’s favorites.  He rarely leaves it out of one of his texts.  Freedom from sorrow, bondage, deafness, blindness.  ‘Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,’ says Psalm 51, ‘and uphold me with thy free spirit.  Then will I teach thy way to the wrongdoers; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.  Deliver me . . .’ This is the freedom, the fearlessness, the innocence that our Lord was pointing out in the child whom he held up as an example to his disciples.    

To close this week’s thoughts on this amazing text, I want to share with you this great anecdote of Routley’s about his life as a kid in school.  Routley discusses his early life and in particular, what he says is an embarrassing part of his schooling on the subject of Geometry.  He says that he always found the subject to be unintelligible until a certain day that he still remembers years later. Up to his “conversion” moment, Routley would take the word of the book or teacher as gospel but be incapable of using his mind freely on the subject, of seeing the logical connection between this proposition and that, and of moving by the free discipline of logic into further deductions.  On this particular morning, the teacher drew the diagram appropriate to the proposition that the angle in a semicircle is always a right angle.  Up to that moment, this was nothing more than “Theorem 41’, just one more boring, unrelated, unpersuasive proposition.

But then, Routley threw up his hand and exclaimed, “Please sir, I see why that is!’  The master turned around and listened to young Routley’s explanation, and then said “Well! So, you have started at last!”  So astounded was he that, as he recalls, he gave him about 5 times the appropriate number of marks. The point is that he had “started at last’ and had moved of his own free will from one proposition to another in the field of geometry. From that day, Routley felt more knowledgeable than he was before, not greatly advanced in his learning on the subject, but free of the subject. 

We all have experiences like this. I can think of the time I started to understand how the rotation of the hand felt at the piano and how it freed my sound up, made playing my instrument so much easier and the sound more honest and freer. Routley reflects further about how this sense of conversion then becomes ours and we understand we can never go back.  To continue Routley says; “I am no mathematician at all. I should have to turn back to the pages of the textbooks to remind myself and follow through on the arguments before I could recount them to others.” But he shall never again be as desperate and blind as he was before the revelation. Do I still have to go back and reteach myself passages and work through places where I may have gotten rusty before I can approach the technique found in a Beethoven Sonata? Yes, but because of this understanding of how the piano and my hands work, I now realize it will never be as though that freedom was never given to me and that I can reclaim it once again.  Nor can the gift of the freedom of living be taken away.

A person may become rusty, and despised by his friends, but this remains, that he has been given the freedom to follow, and at any point take the life of freedom up again, even if they have to go back on that Jerusalem Road at a point several miles back from where they were. What has this to say to all of us ordinary Christians who might be put off by the idea of conversion? There are probably MANY Christians (me included) who can point to a time, a sermon, or a rough time in their lives when the idea of conversion came to mean something to them. Routley encourages the Christian to use the time to self-reflect.  Not for the purposes of self-pity but to do it as a means of discerning the plan God has for us.  The author warns us not to believe that since we’ve had that moment, we are good and now know all about life.  Anyone who would claim that might be a little suspect. He encourages us to be content with discerning in our lives many moments which mark turning points in our “road to Damascus”; which can result in new and exciting vistas along the way. Our journey on this road after a conversion has often been labeled “sanctification” while the gift of a free life is called “justification.” If once we can agree that it is a real experience, and a common one, we shall also be able to agree on this as well: that this is nothing more than a gift from God and that nothing is more precious or more deserving of our cheerful gratitude.   

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing 

Glory to God: 610

Text: Charles Wesley 1739 
Music: Carl Gotthelf Glaser 1828 

O for a thousand tongues to sing 
My dear Redeemer’s praise, 
The glories of my God and King, 
The triumphs of God's grace! 
 
Jesus, the name that charms our fears, 
That bids our sorrows cease; 
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, 
’Tis life, and health, and peace. 
 
Christ breaks the power of reigning sin, 
And sets the prisoner free; 
Christ's blood can make the sinful clean, 
Christ's blood availed for me. 
 
My gracious Master and my God, 
Assist me to proclaim, 
To spread through all the earth abroad 
The honors of Thy name. 

To God all glory, praise and love 
Be now and ever given 
By saints below and saints above, 
The church in earth and heaven 

Two verses not found in Presbyterian Hymnal 1990 or 2014. 

He speaks; - and – listening to his voice, 
New life the dead receive, 
The mournful broken hearts rejoice, 
The humble poor believe. 

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, 
Your loosened tongues employ; 
Ye blind, behold your Savior come; 
And leap, ye lame, for joy! 

Todays Devotion

What a great hymn this is!

While I began working on a hymn of my own this summer, during Montreat at the “Hymn Writing for Beginners” class, we were told to keep our first venture into hymn writing simple and straightforward by using this hymns pattern of rhyme for our first attempts.

Rhyme Time

You will notice a couple of things about how this hymn works.  The first line has 8 syllables, the second line has 6, the third has 8 again and the fourth has 6.

In hymn language, you would see the following sequence of numbers either at the back of the hymnal in the Indexes or at the bottom of the page of the hymn. 8.6.8.6. 

The rhyme scheme is A, B, A C which means that mostly the hymn’s first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth do not always rhyme.

Just knowing this about the hymn is more than enough fodder to talk about how the text has changed over the years. 
Hymns today are finding ways that the rhyming becomes more free verse which is what the later 20th century, 21st-century ear has gotten used to in poetry.   You can see where this might be the case in some of the verses listed above.  Notice the stanza that isn’t in the hymnal that rhymes dumb with come and employ with joy.  A, B, A, B.  The ways these subtle changes occur tell us a lot about theology and how ideas and beliefs change over time.  Here are some of Eric Routley’s thoughts about the hymn from the 1950s from his book; Hymns and the Faith. 

Conversion 

If there is one word that divides the world, it is the word; “Conversion.”  Bring it into a conversation and you will immediately arouse emotions that will divide unbelievers against believers and believers against each other.  It arouses all the defense machinery in the minds of the sensitive, and all the aggressive energies in the zealous.  It is, to use a vivid but (as so often) precise Americanism, the “hottest” word in the Christian vocabulary.  

Conversion is of course associated especially with the name of Wesley.  He was an Anglican priest but was feeling lost in his faith and more and more miserable.  A spark of life began however when Wesley led a prisoner to Christ by preaching a gospel of faith and forgiveness, and he saw a man instantly transformed. His more enthusiastic Moravian friends encouraged him to have faith and to expect transformation and assurance. 

On the morning of May 24, 1738, he opened his Bible to read the words: 'There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye should be partakers of the divine nature.' 

That evening, a still depressed Wesley 'unwillingly' attended a Christian meeting in Aldersgate, London. There he heard a reading from the Reformer Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. At about 8.45 pm, as he heard Luther's words, something deep and dramatic took place. 

In Wesley's words: 'While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.'   

Scriptural Word and Notion

While conversion is associated with Wesley, it is no monopoly of any family or denomination, or way of Christian thought.  It is a scriptural word and notion.  To be sure the word is not employed that often in the English Scriptures.  It and its cognates appear about a dozen times in the Bible. 

Two of its more famous contexts are the 51st Psalm: “and sinners shall be converted unto thee’ and in Matthew 18:3, “except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” 

But the idea is part of the essential teaching of the Bible. 
After all (provided you do not use this offensive word) there is something almost platitudinous in saying that, things being as they are, there is a great need for radical change in people’s outlook; that in order that things may be as God meant them to be there needs to be a change in the center of gravity, or the focus of attention, from self to God.   The idea of conversion is inseparable from any evangelistic activity, whether or not it be Christian or even religious.   

This is a lot to unpack in one hymn devotion.  Stay tuned next week for more reflection on this timeless and ever-changing hymn. 

Hymn of the Week: We Gather Here in Jesus’ Name (Come, Share the Lord)
Glory to God: 510

Text and Music by Bryan Jeffrey Leech 1984

We gather here in Jesus' name
His love is burning in our hearts like living flame
For through His loving Son the Father makes us one
Come take the bread come drink the wine
Come share the Lord

No one is a stranger here,
everyone belongs;
finding our forgiveness here,
we in turn forgive all wrongs.

He joins us here He breaks the bread
The Lord who pours the cup is risen from the dead
The One we love the most is now our gracious host
Come take the bread come drink the wine
Come share the Lord

We are now a family
of which the Lord is head;
though unseen he meets us here
in the breaking of the bread.

We'll gather soon where angels sing
We'll see the glory of our Lord and coming King
Now we anticipate the feast for which we wait
Come take the bread come drink the wine
Come share the Lord
 

Some hymns seem to flow immediately from the author’s pen, while others require months of gestation. The latter is the case with “Come, Share the Lord,” by Bryan Jeffery Leech (b. 1931), who wrote both text and music.

The composer is a native of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England, who moved to the United States in 1955. His communion hymn, “Come, Share the Lord,” has become not only his most frequently used hymn, but also a favorite hymn during the Lord’s Supper, especially among evangelical congregations.

Mr. Leech provides us with a background on his struggle to compose the text of this hymn:

“In the autumn of 1982, I made an inner resolve to write a communion anthem and promptly forgot about it. During Christmas with my family in England, I invented a melody at the piano, but my mind was barren of any lyric ideas.

“One hot summer day, while visiting a musician friend in Simi Valley, Calif., I played the setting and asked him to react to it. After repeating it, he thought a moment and then said, ‘It’s obvious: Holy Communion.’ I went home and within an hour the words were complete. In the anthem arrangement by Roland Tabell, it has become my most popular song to date.”

In reflecting on the text, the author’s theology of communion unfolds. Sharing the Lord’s Supper is a response to the “burning in our hearts” for the love of Christ who “makes us one.”

In the stanzas that follow we find that this is an open table where “No one is a stranger” and “everyone belongs.” Furthermore, this is a table where we “find... forgiveness” and “we, in turn, forgive all wrongs.”

The author places this celebration in the context of the post-Resurrection appearances of Christ with his followers. The second stanza begins with a reflection on passages like Luke 24:13-27 (the appearance of Christ on the road to Emmaus) and the multiple post-Resurrection appearances in John 20 and 21: “He joins us here, he breaks the bread/ the Lord who pours the cup is risen from the dead.”

This stanza takes the relationship of those gathered at the table a step further. This is not only a table where there are no strangers and “everyone belongs;” in the sharing of communion, “We are now a family of which the Lord is head.”

Bryan Jeffrey Leech received his education at The London Bible College in England, and at Barrington College in Massachusetts, and North Park Seminary in Chicago. He was ordained in 1959 in the Evangelical Covenant denomination and has served pastorates in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California.

Mr. Leech is pastor emeritus at First Covenant Church in Oakland, Calif. He has composed over 500 songs, hymns, anthems, and cantatas.

The author succeeds beautifully in communicating a sense of cosmic time that surrounds all who share this meal. In this hymn we recall the post-Resurrection meals as a biblical witness of the past; we share the meal with Christ in our midst in the present; finally, “we anticipate the feast for which we wait” in the future.

The fullness of communion comes for those who understand that at the moment of this meal, time—past, present, and future—collapses into that single moment.

*©1984, 1987 Fred Bock Music Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Dr. Hawn is a professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.

My Faith has Found a Resting Place

Text: E. E. Hewitt  1870 
Music: LANDAS 

My faith has found a resting place, 
from guilt my soul is freed; 
I trust the ever-living One, 
his wounds for me shall plead. 

I need no other argument, 
I need no other plea, 
it is enough that Jesus died, 
and that he died for me. 

Enough for me that Jesus saves, 
this ends my fear and doubt; 
a sinful soul, I come to him, 
he’ll never cast me out.

I need no other argument, 
I need no other plea, 
it is enough that Jesus died, 
and that he died for me. 

My heart is leaning on the Word, 
the written Word of God, 
salvation by my Savior’s name, 
salvation thro' his blood.

I need no other argument, 
I need no other plea, 
it is enough that Jesus died, 
and that he died for me. 

My great Physician heals the sick, 
the lost he came to save; 
for me his precious blood he shed, 
for me his life he gave.

I need no other argument, 
I need no other plea, 
it is enough that Jesus died, 
and that he died for me. 

Todays Devotion

This week’s hymn comes to us from Eliza Edmunds Hewitt.

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt

was born in Philadelphia, 28 June 1851. She was educated in the public schools and after graduation from high school became a teacher. However, she developed a spinal malady which cut short her career and made her a shut-in for many years.

During her convalescence, she studied English literature. She felt a need to be useful to her church and began writing poems for the primary department.

She went on to teach Sunday school, take an active part in the Philadelphia Elementary Union and become Superintendent of the primary department of Calvin Presbyterian Church. 

The tune is a Norwegian Folk tune that was later harmonized into 4 parts by William Kirkpatrick 

 Other well-known hymns of hers include: Sunshine in My Soul Today; When We All Get to Heaven; Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown and More About Jesus. 

This week’s hymn arrangement mixes our tune with the timeless Dona Nobis Pacem 

Lord, Make Us More Holy
Glory to God: 313

African American Spiritual 

Lord, make us more holy; 
Lord, make us more holy; 
Lord, make us more holy, 
until we meet again: 
holy, holy, holy, 
until we meet again. 

Lord, make us more loving; 
Lord, make us more loving; 
Lord, make us more loving, 
until we meet again: 
loving, loving, loving, 
until we meet again. 

Lord, make us more patient; 
Lord, make us more patient; 
Lord, make us more patient, 
until we meet again: 
patient, patient, patient, 
until we meet again. 

Lord, make us more faithful; 
Lord, make us more faithful; 
Lord, make us more faithful, 
until we meet again: 
faithful, faithful, faithful, until we meet again. 

Todays Devotion

This week’s hymn is almost Taizé like in that the repetition of the song gives only a change of one critical word which causes the song to reach further into the heart. 

Sung Prayer

The Glory to God hymnal has this to say about this spiritual: 
Like many African American Spirituals, this one creates a framework for almost endless expansion beyond the four stanzas given here.  This sung prayer is notable as an affirmation of God’s active care for the once-gathered community while dispersed and of hope of being reunited.  

My Country, ‘Tis of Thee
Glory to God: 337

Text Samuel Francis Smith
Tune Harmonia Anglicana 1744

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring.

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song.
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.

Todays Devotion

The hymn this week was previously shared on July 4th, 2022.

I’ve been at Montreat this week, reconnecting with old friends and meeting many wonderful folks who serve as church musicians from all over.

These musicians have come together at Montreat to worship and inspire each other. What a wonderful week it has been. Our days have been filled with lectures, rehearsals, reading sessions, Bible study and varied musical seminars.

Let freedom ring!

When Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous "I have a dream" speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the refrain -- "Let freedom ring!" -- that climaxed this famous speech came from Samuel Smith's patriotic hymn.

Samuel Smith (1808-1895)

wrote the hymn in 1831 and Martin Luther King's speech took place 132 years later -- a testimony to the power of a song to shape and maintain an idea.

Smith was born in Boston and educated at Harvard and Andover Theological Seminary. Though inspired by Adoniram Judson to mission service, poor health forced him to give up that dream.

Smith was a friend of Lowell Mason, the famous Boston music educator and hymn tune writer. According to hymnologist Leonard Ellinwood, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" was one of a group of German poem adaptations Smith wrote for Mason.

It is not until the final stanza that God and country are linked. The author offers a prayer of petition to God to maintain "freedom's holy light" in our land and to "protect us by thy might."

Infinitely more Singable than the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" earned Smith a certain level of popularity. The famous 19th-century Chicago evangelistic singer, Ira Sankey, cites one example:

"Dr. Smith visited the Board of Trade in Chicago in May of 1887. While sitting in the gallery he was pointed out to some of the members. Soon he became the center of considerable notice.

All at once, the trading on the floor ceased, and from the wheat pit came the familiar words, 'My country 'tis of thee.' After two stanzas had been sung, Dr. Smith arose and bowed. A rousing cheer was given by the men on the floor, to which Dr. Smith was now escorted by the secretary of the Board. The members flocked around Dr. Smith and grasped his hand.
Then they opened a passage through the crowd and led him to the wheat-pit, where they took off their hats and sang the rest of the hymn."

It is doubtful that many United States citizens could sing the entire hymn by memory today, but, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., the power of the first stanza continues to resonate in ways probably not imagined by the author.

King transformed Smith's antebellum poem into a civil rights refrain in one of the most famous speeches ever given in the history of the United States.

Sources:

Discipleship Ministries | History of Hymns: "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (umcdiscipleship.org)

Enjoy Mahalia Jackson’s stirring rendition of this much-loved song here:
MAHALIA JACKSON: America (My Country 'Tis of Thee) with The Norman Luboff Choir - YouTube

Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven
Glory to God: 620

Text Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847). 1834
Music John Goss 1869

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven; 
to his feet your tribute bring. 
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, 
evermore his praises sing. 
Alleluia, alleluia! 
Praise the everlasting King! 

Praise him for his grace and favor 
to his people in distress. 
Praise him, still the same as ever, 
slow to chide, and swift to bless. 
Alleluia, alleluia! 
Glorious in his faithfulness! 

Fatherlike he tends and spares us; 
well our feeble frame he knows. 
In his hand he gently bears us, 
rescues us from all our foes. 
Alleluia, alleluia! 
Widely yet his mercy flows! 

Verse often left out 
Frail as summer’s flower we flourish, 
Blows the wind and it is gone: 
But while mortals rise and perish 
God endures unchanging on. 
Praise him, praise him, 
Praise the high eternal one. 

Angels, help us to adore him; 
you behold him face to face. 
Sun and moon, bow down before him, 
dwellers all in time and space. 
Alleluia, alleluia! 
Praise with us the God of grace!  

Todays Devotion

Lyte, Henry Francis, M.A.,

son of Captain Thomas Lyte, was born at Ednam, near Kelso, June 1, 1793, and educated at Portora (the Royal School of Enniskillen), and at Trinity College, Dublin, of which he was a Scholar, and where he graduated in 1814. During his University course he distinguished himself by gaining the English prize poem on three occasions. At one time he had intended studying Medicine; but this he abandoned for Theology, and took Holy Orders in 1815, his first curacy being in the neighborhood of Wexford. In 1817, he removed to Marazion, in Cornwall. There, in 1818, he underwent a great spiritual change, which shaped and influenced the whole of his afterlife, the immediate cause being the illness and death of a brother clergyman. Lyte says of him:—

“He died happy under the belief that though he had deeply erred, there was One whose death and sufferings would atone for his delinquencies, and be accepted for all that he had incurred;"

and concerning himself he adds:—

"I was greatly affected by the whole matter, and brought to look at life and its issue with a different eye than before, and I began to study my Bible, and preach in another manner than I had previously done."

From Marazion, he removed, in 1819, to Lymington, where he composed his Tales on the Lord's Prayer in verse (pub. in 1826); and in 1823 he was appointed Perpetual Curate of Lower Brixham, Devon. That appointment he held until his death, on Nov. 20, 1847. His Poems of Henry Vaughan, with a Memoir, were published in 1846.

Hymns and the Faith

The following is a paraphrase from Eric Routley’s book, Hymns and the Faith written in 1956.

“Praise, my soul” is at present the most popular, in the sense of being the hardest-worked, of English hymns. It finds a place in the repertoire of every kind of Christian gathering, from royal weddings to street corners. This seems to say that this hymn comes nearer to saying what we all want, just now, to say. Years such as those through which we have passed since, say, 1930 – so dramatically charged with trials and blessings, cause men to demand not the intimate and the exquisite but rather the objective, outward-looking hymns that speak of God and of his mighty works.

This hymn is a version of a Psalm, Psalm 103 in particular. What is the special quality of the 103rd Psalm? It is the most evangelical of the psalms; in it we see furthest into the New Testament, in it, God looks most like Christ.

Praise My Soul is everything we want a hymn to be. It speaks in simple language that conceals a quite unusual degree of skill and concentration. It speaks clearly but leaves much to the imagination. It has several arresting lines, yet the whole is homely enough for the edifying of the simplest and the comforting of the most distracted.

It has a quality of being all things to all people. This may stem from the fact that the text comes to us from a poet. The same poet who gave us the text, Abide With Me.

I invite you to pull out your Bible and do a side-by-side of the text with the actual 103rd Psalm. Here is an example of how Mr. Lyte captures in the first verse of the hymn several verses of the Psalm.

The text in the hymn states: Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Here is the Psalm text: Who forgiveth all thy iniquities: who health all thy diseases: who redeemeth thy life from destruction: who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.

He concludes by asking, which of us can put their hand on their heart and declare they haven’t done something that God should have dealt more severely with them for? Yet, when we think of the God who created each beautiful day or Mt. Everest or the beauty discovered in a walk in nature or falling in love.

Quite literally the mind cannot bear thinking about all this and not help but anchor itself in the idea that God forgives and that the shape of life is determined by God’s forgiveness. Life is at each point new-fashioned by bis infinitely resourceful mercy.

That is what this hymn is singing about - mercy and love, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Enjoy these two contrasting interpretations showing us the still wide appeal of this timeless hymn.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
Glory to God: 1

Part 2

Text Reginald Heber 1826 
Music:  The United States Sacred Harmony 1799 

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! 
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. 
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, 
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; 
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, 
which wert and art and evermore shalt be. 

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee, 
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, 
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee, 
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity. 

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! 
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea. 
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 

Todays Devotion

Part two of Holy, Holy, Holy is adapted from Eric Routley’s wonderful book, Hymns and the Faith, 1956. 

The Blessed Trinity 

The doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine that classically embodies it (the Nicene creed) is the tour de force of intellectual achievement. But – here is the vital truth without which the whole picture will be thrown out of the drawing – it is also the tour de force of intellectual renunciation. 

Tour de Force

We mentioned last week how the Old Testament has a great paradox in its use of the word Holy. God is all-powerful but lets Abraham’s prayers persuade a certain outcome. God cannot be drawn or sculpted but words are used to describe God throughout the Bible. This titanic paradox is what sets the entire Old Testament in action.  

The leaders of the early church were bold to ask: Dare we try to state all that in language which will convey the truth to somebody who is not yet morally or emotionally committed to it? Can we put it in such a way that the mind of man can accept this reality? When one sings Holy, Holy, Holy, one must have a need for the doctrine of the Trinity.  

The codification and clarification of doctrine is entirely necessary to human life.  When one talks of creeds and doctrines, there lies in the background a truth that is moral and emotional as well as intellectual. The truth is that it is the duty of every person to thrust out with their mind to its utmost limit. They must find for themselves by experimentation, where that limit is. To abandon intellectual sovereignty too early will be credulity; to abandon it too late will be arrogance.

The Christian must find the frontier, and when found, behave on this side of it with intellectual prudence and responsibility, and on the other with intellectual submission. It is our duty to grow up in the Faith, and this is how we do it.  The mark of the mature Christian is the combination of real skill and clarity of mind mingled with submission of mind and humility before the holiness of God.   

Dr. Routley concludes with the following: All this is a mystery. The fruitful attitude towards it is not analytical and explanatory, but the reverent and expectant. The author of our hymn, which is so magnificently incoherent reflects that necessity found in the hymn. The very shakiness and disjointedness of the hymn are a kind of humility. What we think is of less importance than what God is. 

It is enough that the author of the hymn clothes the whole in the mysterious shot-silk colors of the book of Revelation, and that the musician has set the whole to a tune that strikes the homely and traditional note. Reverence and joy, on this scale, are a sufficient sacrifice of praise.    

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
Glory to God: 1

Text Reginald Heber 1826 
Music:  The United States Sacred Harmony 1799 

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! 
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. 
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, 
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; 
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, 
which wert and art and evermore shalt be. 

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee, 
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, 
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee, 
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity. 

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! 
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea. 
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 

Todays Devotion

In honor of Trinity Sunday on the 4th, I wanted to reflect on the beloved hymn of our faith; Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson

is on record as having said that this was one of his favorite hymns.
It is indeed a Tennysonian hymn in that it has an almost artificial stillness and symmetry to it which can be found in much of his poetry.

It has the characteristics of Tennyson’s poems in that is able to handle a vast subject like the Trinity in language whose texture is almost delicate, so much so that it could almost be perceived as trivial, but this hymn is anything but.
Chesterton has said of Tennyson that the poet “loved beauty in its completeness, as we find it in art, not in its more glorious incompleteness as we find in nature.”
This can apply to this hymn as it becomes more a matter of doctrine rather than experience and the hymn presents theology in its completeness as you would find in doctrine more so than in Scripture and all its mysteries. 

Doctrine of the Trinity

In sixteen lines the Doctrine of the Trinity becomes common praise. This is incredibly awe inspiring and wonderful to comprehend. There are three main reasons why we still know and love and continue to sing this great hymn today.
One is the use of the word “Holy,” the second is the word , “Trinity,” and the third is the scripture that it comes from, in Revelation 4: 6-8,  

And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal…And they rest not day or night saying, Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was,and is, and is to come….and the Elders cast down their crowns before the throne. While the book of Revelation gets used in all sorts of manners to use the symbolism in a myriad of ways depending on the person interpreting these symbols, there is still much to learn from the final book of the Bible. For our purposes, I have simply provided the scripture and will let the scripture speak to each individual. 

Holy

This word is used throughout the hymn and most of the hymn has its text based on the Old Testament. What is Holy in the Old Testament is thought to be untouchable. Holiness has a religious sense before a moral sense, and a superstitious sense before a religious sense. 

A holy thing was something you couldn’t touch, a holy mountain was a mountain you couldn’t climb, a holy place (the holy of holies in the temples was a place only the priests could enter) is a place no one may enter.  This instills a certain feeling of reverence and also confusion and taboo creating the dichotomy between love and fear.

In taboo you keep away from something because you hate or fear it, and on the other hand you stay away from it because you love it so much, you feel unworthy to get too near.  So reverent was their idea of “holiness,” people in the Old Testament did not dare even speak the name of God. They preferred names such as “Most High” or “Our Lord.” The idea of holiness holds fear but also a feeling of love and mercy. The thing unapproachable was something both fearful and utterly desirable. And its in this hymn that these two emotions collide beautifully.   

Stay tuned next week for a discussion of the Trinity as we continue to look at this great hymn of our faith.   

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty

All Who Love and Serve Your City
Glory to God: 351

Text Eric Routley 1966 
Music:  The United States Sacred Harmony 1799 

 All who love and serve your city, 
all who bear its daily stress, 
all who cry for peace and justice, 
all who curse and all who bless: 

In your day of loss, of sorrow, 
In your day of helpless strife, 
Honor, peace, and love retreating, 
Seek the Lord who is your life. 

In your day of wealth and plenty, 
wasted work and wasted play, 
call to mind the word of Jesus, 
"You must work while it is day." 

For all days are days of judgment, 
and the Lord is waiting still, 
drawing near a world that spurns him, 
offering peace from Calvary's hill. 

Risen Lord, shall yet the city  
be the city of despair? 
Come today, our judge, our glory. 
Be its name “The Lord is there!" 

Todays Devotion

This week, after the wonderful handbell concert from my alma mater Westminster Choir College, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic for this special place.

Eric Routley

I decided to talk about one of the former faculty members of Westminster, Eric Routley, who served on the faculty there from 1975 to his death in 1982.

A Scholar and Educator

Known mostly as a scholar and educator about hymnody in Britain and the U.S., Dr. Routley has written several texts that have become almost a sacred text in and of themselves for the passion he extends to his research.

He served in ministry in Great Britain at a Congregational Church there from 1943-1974 before moving to Princeton where he joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College.

He has written two comprehensive volumes about hymnody including A Panorama of Christian Hymnody (1979) which surveys the history of hymn texts, and The Music of Christian Hymns (1981) which surveys the history of hymn tunes.

He also explored the theological implications of hymnody in worship through his book The Church and Music (1950) and Church Music and the Christian Faith (1978).  

Hymnody During the 1960s

This hymn is practically a lesson in and of itself on what was happening with hymnody during the 1960s.

Keeping in mind that at the time Dr. Routley wrote this lovely hymn, the 2nd Vatican Council had happened in 1965, Vietnam was happening, we were heading into space, taking pictures of our globe showing us the vulnerability of our blue marble from outer space.  We were not that far from the 1950s and the aftermath of World War 2 and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  All of this intense time of change and upheaval led to a kind of Renaissance in hymnody.  Hymn writers began creating texts that became more direct in language.  The poetry of these hymns turns towards themes of social justice.  During this volatile time hymn writers became aware that contemporary and inclusive language needed to become more prevalent in the hymns of this time.  Brian Wren notes in his book, What Language Shall We Borrow the growing awareness that “though language does not determine how we think, it shapes and slants thinking and behavior.”  Emphasis is now placed on speaking directly in terms of the here and now and not as much about the hereafter of early hymns.  With this upheaval there is now a freedom to challenge the social norms of the past and embrace a direct approach that is more true to the Triune God.   

Stanzas

Stanza 1 brings us into the cities filled with stress, civil unrest, war, causing us to call on God for aid. In the second stanza, as well as the next, Routley draws attention to the circumstances of those he is addressing and offers a charge in how they should respond. In loss, sorrow, and helpless strife, rather than focusing on things that are on the earth, the individual can find hope in seeking Christ, who is the believer’s life, knowing that when Christ appears, they will also appear with him in glory (Col 3:1–4).   

The fourth stanza draws attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the solution to provide healing and reconciliation. The peace that is offered from “Calvary’s hill” is well-presented in Ephesians 2:11–22. In Paul’s discourse to the church in Ephesus, he reveals that Christ makes peace between the Jew and Gentile, creating one unified people of God (Eph 2:11–15). Additionally, Christ through the cross reconciles this unified people to God giving them access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:16–18). Finally, Paul points out the implications of Christ’s peace. No longer strangers and aliens, all those who trust in Christ are fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, and the dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph 2:19–22). 

The second and final biblical quotation in this hymn is cited from the final verse of Ezekiel’s prophecy.

This city’s new name is to be “The Lord is there!” (Ezek 48:35), communicating the character of the city as one in which God’s presence among his people is evident. Understood with an eternal perspective, “no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Rev 22:3). This is the great hope for the modern “city of despair.”

Knowing that reconciliation and peace is offered in Christ, those “who love and serve [their] city” can look forward to a greater city without stress, injustice, loss, sorrow, helpless strife, or wasted work and play. 

This moving and straightforward hymn gives the singer time to reflect on their own life and an ability to recognize the redeeming life Christ gave us through his Crucifixion and Resurrection, giving us eternal hope of a perfect city.   

Hymn Reflection Link:

Hymn Reflection: All Who Love and Serve Your City | by Laramie Minga | Reflections on Music, Worship, and Spiritual Formation | Medium

All Who Love and Serve Your City

Come Sing, O Church, in Joy!
Glory to God: 305

Text. Brian Dill 1988 
Music John Darwall  1770 

Come Sing, O Church, in joy! 
Come join, O church in song! 
For Christ the Lord has led us through the ages long! 
In bold accord, come celebrate the journey now  
and praise the Lord. 

Long years have come and gone,  
and still God reigns supreme, 
empowering us to catch the vision, dream the dream! 
In bold accord, come celebrate the journey now  
and praise the Lord. 

 Let courage be our friend, 
Let wisdom be our guide, 
As we In mission magnify the Crucified! 
In bold accord, come celebrate the journey now  
and praise the Lord. 

Come sing, O church, in joy! 
Come join, O church in song! 
For Christ the Lord has triumphed o’er the ages long! 
In bold accord, come celebrate the journey now  
and praise the Lord. 

Todays Devotion

I invite you to learn of this wonderful hymn writer from my hometown of Springfield, Ohio. 

Devotional Thoughts Based on the Glory to God Hymnal 

Isaiah 63:16 

For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. 

To my knowledge,

I have only met one hymn writer and that one is the author of this hymn.

The Rev. Brian Dill, who served as Associate Pastor at North Lakeland Presbyterian Church, wrote the lyrics, that were set to the tune: Darwall’s 148th, also the setting for “Rejoice, the Lord Is King!”

A hymn competition was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA) Bicentennial Committee for the 1988-1989 observance which had the theme “Celebrate the Journey.” Brian was a great guy and a very humble servant. He wrote some wonderful lyrics for that occasion and the hymn has become quite popular in Presbyterian Churches.

I enjoyed getting to know Brian and I would have liked to have known him better, but he joined the Church Triumphant in October 2016.

Rev. Dr. Brian Kenneth Dill

Rev. Dr. Brian Kenneth Dill, 67, of Lakeland, FL, passed away surrounded by his family on October 17, 2016, following a sudden bout with an aggressive and rare form of cancer.

The youngest son of Kenneth Leonard Dill and Lucille “Sue” Gibson Dill, Brian was born on February 19, 1949, in Springfield, OH.

He met his wife of 45 years, best friend, and inseparable partner, Barbara, at Springfield’s Oakland Presbyterian Church when the two were in fourth grade.

A graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Dill majored in journalism and wrote for the student newspaper, The Lantern. He received his Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and his Doctor of Ministry from Louisville Theological Seminary.

During their 42-year ministry, the Dills served pastorates in Park Ridge, IL; Louisville, KY; Virginia Beach, VA; Orlando, FL; and Lakeland, FL. A gifted and entertaining writer, Dr. Dill worked for several years with David C. Cook Christian Publishing Company as an editor and curriculum developer. Dr. Dill was a beloved leader in the communities where he served, participating on a variety of boards and committees including the YMCA.

Dr. Dill was a talented musician and his legacy includes innumerable original compositions, including “Come Sing, O Church, in Joy!,” the bicentennial hymn for the Presbyterian Church (USA) that now appears in hymnals around the world.

Recognized throughout his career with a variety of distinguished honors, Dr. Dill held a commission in the honorary order of Kentucky Colonels and gave the invocation at the commissioning of the USS Laboon. Humble, kind, creative, and an engaging listener, Brian will be greatly missed.

Obituary

He is survived by his wife, Barbara of Lakeland, FL; sons Daniel Dill of Washington, D.C. and David Dill (fiancée Jillian) of Greenville, SC; brother David Dill (Martha) of Carlsbad, CA; three nieces; and one nephew. He was preceded in death by his parents and daughter, Jennifer Curry Dill. Brian and his family wish to offer a special thank you to the members and attendees of the Presbyterian Chapel in the Grove for making this last year so special and fun for him. His family also thanks the Florida Presbyterian Homes and the staff members at the Porter-McGrath Health Center for their kindness. A memorial service, conducted by the Rev. Dr. Mike Loudon, will be held Saturday, November 5, 2016, at 1:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church Lakeland. Interment will be on a later date at Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield, OH. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in Brian’s memory to the Presbyterian Chapel in the Grove, 1540 New Jersey Dr., Lakeland, FL 33803. “Come celebrate the journey now and praise the Lord!” 

Link:

https://www.firstpreswh.org/daily-devotional/come-sing-o-church-in-joy-hymn-305/  

Come Sing, O Church, in Joy!

Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation
Glory to God: 394

Text. Latin 7th Century.  Translated. John Mason Neale 1851
Music Henry Purcell 1680

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and cornerstone,
chosen of the Lord and precious,
binding all the Church in one;
holy Zion's help forever,
and our confidence alone.

To this temple, where we call you,
come, O Lord of hosts, and stay;
come, with all your loving-kindness;
hear your people as we pray,
and your fullest benediction
shed within these walls today.

Here bestow on all your servants
what they seek from you to gain;
what they gain from you, forever
with the blessed to retain;
And hereafter in your glory
evermore with you to reign.

Laud and honor to the Father,
laud and honor to the Son,
laud and honor to the Spirit,
ever three and ever one:
one in might and one in glory
while unending ages run!

Todays Devotion

Today’s article comes chiefly from C. Michael Hawn’s wonderful online articles about various hymns.  More information can be gleaned from his article at the following link. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-christ-is-made-the-sure-foundation

When it comes to translating hymns written originally in Latin or Greek, John Mason Neale (1818-1866), sometimes called the “prince of translators,” has no peer. The son of an Anglican clergyman, Neale intended to follow the same path. Hymn scholar Leon Litvack notes, “Neale entered Cambridge as an Evangelical, but emerged an Anglo-Catholic.” Fascinated by the tracts of the Oxford Movement, he became intensely interested in the medieval church. The result was an interest in a “high church” in contrast to an “evangelical” perspective that influenced developments in liturgy and architecture as well as hymn singing.

Neale was a student of worship in the early church and one of the first to translate ancient Greek and Latin texts into metrical English for singing. American hymnologist William Reynolds notes that “His strong attachment to the old Breviary hymns [of the medieval church] caused him to urge the omission of the Protestant hymns from the Anglican service in favor of translations of medieval hymns.”

Though an ordained Anglican priest, Neale was unable to serve a parish due to his health. He was appointed as a warden of a home for indigent old men, but was not permitted to serve as a priest because he had alienated the hierarchy of the Anglican Church due to his independent spirit regarding his beliefs and rigorous devotional practices. His minimal caretaker duties, however, allowed Neale time to pursue his scholarly studies.

Within our Glory to God hymnal there are twelve hymns that are attributed to John Mason Neale.  They include such popular hymns as: Creator of the Stars of Night #84 in GTG, and Of the Father’s Love Begotten #108 GTG.  Both of these taken from Latin texts as today’s hymn is. While today’s hymn is set by Henry Purcell in a more “hymnlike” fashion in four part harmony, these two hymns usually sung at Christmas and Epiphany were translated using the same Latin chant or tune.  Other tunes we know and love that he translated are:  Good Christian Friends, Rejoice #132 GTG, All Glory Laud and Honor #196 GTG, The Day of Resurrection #233 GTG, O Sons and Daughters Let Us Sing #233 GTG.  

Taken from the Latin monastic hymn “Urbs beata Jerusalem,” dating between the sixth and seventh centuries, the original Latin was written for the dedication of a church, appearing in a manuscript printed in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I with a Roman Brevary text. Neale’s first version translated the two parts of the Latin text as a single hymn for his 1851 publication cited above. He divided it into two for the Hymnal Noted Part I (1852), the first part becoming “Blessed City, heavenly Salem,” and the second part being our hymn. The first hymn was to be sung at the Vigil in the monastic offices (night) with the second section sung at Lauds (dawn). The final stanza is a doxology that could be sung at both services. The original music was an unmetered, unaccompanied plainsong melody.

The parallel with Ephesians 2:20-22 is striking: “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (NKJV).

I Peter 2:4-7 adds even more context for the hymn: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

‘Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.’” (NKJV)

Neale’s original translation has been altered significantly for today’s hymnals, and the flowing plainsong melody has been replaced by the stately tune Westminster Abbey composed by the famous English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Yet something of this song from deep in our Christian past remains and still informs our faith today if we will allow ourselves to sing with the saints.

Resources:

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

C. Michael Hawn is University Distinguished Professor of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, SMU.

Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation

Today’s recording comes from King Charles II’s coronation.  We sang this hymn on May 7, 2023.

Hymn of the Week: I Danced in the Morning
Glory to God: 157

Text Sydney Carter 1963
Music Simple Gifts, Quaker Folk Song

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem I had my birth.

"Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance," said he.
"I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
I will lead you all in the Dance," said he.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,
But they would not dance and they wouldn't follow me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and for John;
They came with me and the dance went on. 

"Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance," said he.
"I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
I will lead you all in the Dance," said he.

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame,
The holy people, they said it was a shame;
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high,
And they left me there on a cross to die.

"Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance," said he.
"I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
I will lead you all in the Dance," said he.

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black;
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back;
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone,
But I am the dance and I still go on. 

"Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance," said he.
"I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
I will lead you all in the Dance," said he.

They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that'll never, never die,
I'll live in you if you'll live in me;
"I am the Lord of the Dance," said he. 

"Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance," said he.
"I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
I will lead you all in the Dance," said he.

TODAYS DEVOTION

Please enjoy today’s devotion, we first enjoyed this devotion and hymn on April 25, 2022. Our handbell choir will be playing this beautiful piece this week. It feels appropriate to enjoy it once again.

LORD OF THE DANCE

Upon his death on March 13, 2004, at the age of 88, Sydney Bertram Carter’s obituary in the London Telegraph began with the bold assertion, “Lord of the Dance” was “the most celebrated religious song of the 20th century.” This statement deserves further examination.
Upon his death on March 13, 2004, at the age of 88, Sydney Bertram Carter’s obituary in the London Telegraph began with the bold assertion, “Lord of the Dance” was “the most celebrated religious song of the 20th century.” This statement deserves further examination.

“Lord of the Dance” (1962) captured the spirit of the 1960s protest movement in the United States. It became a sacred equivalent for songs by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s, including “Where have all the flowers gone” and “To everything turn” (later made even more popular by Peter, Paul, and Mary), as well as Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the wind” (1962). While the direct – even, for some, sacrilegious – language accompanied by the folk acoustic guitar bordered on heresy for some; for others, these songs were a breath of fresh air. “Lord of the Dance” brought this sound and spirit into the church, especially in services designed to reach young people.

SYDNEY BERTRAM CARTER

Born in 1915, Carter was educated at Oxford, and he taught high school in the 1940s. Sympathizing with the Quakers, he served in an ambulance unit with the Society of Friends during World War II. Carter began composing songs in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which remain very popular in the schools of Great Britain to this day.

Called a “carol” by Carter, “Lord of the Dance” was not the first song on this theme. “Tomorrow will be my dancing day,” a seventeenth-century English carol, provided an obvious model for this famous hymn. An earlier medieval carol also explored the allegory of the dance as a metaphor for humanity’s relationship with Christ. Carter adapted a melody from the Shaker dance tune Simple Gifts. The first four stanzas appeared in the Student Christian Congress Hymns (1963), and the five-stanza version in 9 Songs or Ballads (1964). Carter’s Green Print for Song (1974) suggests that he wrote the words first and then adapted the tune of Simple Gifts to the text later. Simple Gifts has been identified as a quintessential American folk tune by composer Aaron Copeland (1900-1990), who quoted the tune as the climax of his famous symphonic work Appalachian Spring (1944).

A favorite of youth groups in the 1960s and 1970s, “Lord of the Dance” spread far beyond the Christian community, partially because the song never mentions Jesus or Christ by name. Its most famous use beyond the church is as a “Celtic” dance for Michael Flatley’s world-famous show, Lord of the Dance. The origins of the tune are not Celtic, however, but thoroughly American.

Always the iconoclast, Carter’s theological perspective may not pass all tests of orthodoxy. The opening lines of this first-person account of Christ’s life have been thought by some to “contain a hint of paganism which, mixed with Christianity, makes it attractive to those of ambiguous religious beliefs or none at all.” While inspired by the life of Jesus, Carter implied that the Hindu God Shiva as Nataraja (Shiva’s dancing pose), a statue that sat on his desk, also played a role in the song’s conception. The choice of an adapted Shaker tune for the melody – sometimes called the “Shaking Quakers” who were known for their vigorous dancing during their rituals – rounds out the dance theme. Carter acknowledged the theological contradictions but never attempted to resolve them.

CARTER NOTES:

“I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.” For the complete text, see http://celtic-lyrics.com/lyrics/309.html (a misnomer since neither the lyrics nor the tune are “Celtic”). The second stanza mentions that the “scribes and Pharisees” would not join in with the dance, but the “fishermen, . . . James and John” did continue the dance with the Dancer. The third stanza has been viewed by some as anti-Semitic – “the holy people said it was a shame” – leading to Christ’s crucifixion.

The fourth stanza has one of those turns of phrases that are typical of many folk-based songs – “it’s hard to dance with the devil on your back” – a bit shocking for those who have grown up with “Abide with me,” yet offers a different perspective on this central narrative in the Christian experience. The final stanza captures the untainted joy of the Resurrection when the dance is complete and all are invited – “I’ll live in you if you live in me.”

Carter placed the primary emphasis on faith rather than creeds or theology. He asserts: “Faith is more basic than language or theology.” Later, he continues this idea: “Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith will still go dancing on.”

WELSH HYMNOLOGIST ALAN LUFF

writes perceptively, “In his notes on his songs Carter insisted that they are to be seen in a state of coming to be, and, although some have now been printed many times in books, they need always to be approached as ready to be remade. He abhorred finality and called his book Green Print for Song, not ‘Blue print’ because a blueprint was a final draft. He wrote his own tunes but did not claim to be a musician. He has been fortunate in his arrangers, but none of their versions should be thought of as authentic or final.”

Alzheimer’s disease began to take a toll on Carter by 1999. He was lovingly cared for by his second wife Leela Nair until his death. A friend, Rabbi Lionel Blue, commented after a visit, “our only contact is a thin thread of memory and his songs. I start singing them, and he joyfully joins in—and I leave him as he continues singing.”

RESOURCES:

C. Michael Hawn is a University Distinguished Professor of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, SMU.

A special thank you to Linda Habig for providing her amazing flute for this week’s Hymn of the Week!

Hymn of Promise

Text and Music Nathalie Sleeth

In the bulb there is a flower;
in the seed, an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise:
butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter
there’s a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

There’s a song in ev’ry silence,
seeking word and melody.
There’s a dawn in ev’ry darkness,
bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future;
what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning;
in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing;
in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

Todays Devotion

has been reprinted with permission of the author, James C. Howell, from his book entitled: Unrevealed Until Its Season: a Lenten Journey with Hymns. Published by Upper Room Books 2021. The book can be found here: The Upper Room

Something God Alone Can See

The origin of hymns and life stories of composers usually aren’t things I obsess over, maybe in the same way I enjoy watching ballplayers or listening to music without needing to know so much about a quarterback’s love life or a guitarist’s partying. But sometimes circumstances within which a hymn was birthed can help us overhear a deeper resonance and some untapped emotion.

Nathalie Sleeth

began publishing anthems in the late 1960s and wound-up conceiving more than two hundred anthems for choirs. “In the Bulb, There Is a Flower,” a choral piece we know as “Hymn of Promise,” sprang from a season in the mid-1980s when she was “pondering ideas of life, spring, winter, Good Friday and Easter,” and also T.S. Eliot’s intriguing poetic line, “In my beginning is my end,” which she cleverly reversed to “In our end is our beginning.” The words and music she wrote were simple, eloquent and beautiful.

And then, just a few days after putting the finishing touches on it, her husband, Ronald (a professor of preaching), was diagnosed with terminal malignancy. When he heard her play the anthem for him, he asked that it be sung as a hymn at his funeral. So, it was. He was only sixty-three. She lived seven more years, dying at age sixty-one. I’ve sung it now at enough funerals of people I’ve loved that I get a little choked up and teary any time I hear it.

Superficially, the hymn is about natural beauty. But what did Sleeth select from the world of nature? Just as the apostle Paul tried to explain the resurrection of the body by pointing to the way a seed falls to the ground, Sleeth draws our attention to a flower bulb, an apple seed, and a cocoon. If an alien arrived from another planet and picked up a bulb or cocoon, it would probably toss it aside as if of no use. If someone said it will become a fragrant flower or a beautiful butterfly, the alien would scoff. The bulb, the seed, and the cocoon persuade us that, yes, we do know something of a surprise, of anticipated new life.

So, she leads us then to recall that a cold winter eventually yields to the warmth of spring. Silence can be deafening for the one who grieves. Can the hollow silence become holy stillness? Can a song transform an empty space into a holy place? The dawn does dawn after all. That apple seed really is transformed, if you wait long enough, into a tall, sturdy tree-producing fruit for us to eat.

When Sleeth died at age sixty-one, she ceased being productive. But her work is still bearing much fruit. Isn’t this the goal for all of us? We only produce for a brief time. But our love, our words, and our being can still be fruitful even long after we are gone.

When we bury our dead, even if we purchase a pretty casket or a velvety box for the columbarium, the body isn’t much to behold, with no life in it. God’s surprise, God’s gift, is entirely hidden from us – and yet it is surely there. It’s “something God alone can see.” God, even in the hour of death, can already see our redeemed, eternal life of joy, light, and love. And so, ours is to hope.

A Song in Every Silence

The hymn captures how grief works. When we have no words, when we shrink back in the quiet, “there’s a song in every silence.” I continue to be impressed by brave families who stand in our sanctuary and defy death by raising their voices in hymns. Their loved one is now all memory, but “from the past will come the future, what it holds, a mystery.” We do not know what will happen next; we aren’t entirely sure about the shape of a reunion or a gathering to come. It’s “something God alone can see.”

The Eliot line makes us dizzy with paradox – and that is how hope works. It’s not logical, it’s not in our control, and it’s certainly nothing automatic or even natural. “In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity; in our life, eternity; in our death, a resurrection” – and this victory is “something God alone can see.” It’s unrevealed until its season.” In the meantime, in this season, ours is to grieve, sing, and hope.

Hymn of Promise

O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing

Glory to God: 255
Text Attr. Jean Tiesserand 15th century
Music French melody

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

O sons and daughters, let us sing
with heavenly hosts to Christ our King;
today the grave has lost its sting!
Alleluia! Alleluia!

That night the apostles met in fear;
among them came their Lord most dear,
and said, “My peace be with you here.”
Alleluia! Alleluia!

When Thomas first the tidings heard,
how they had seen the risen Lord,
he doubted the disciples’ word.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

"My pierced side, O Thomas, see;
and look upon my hands, my feet;
not faithless, but believing be."
Alleluia! Alleluia!

No longer Thomas then denied;
he saw the feet, the hands, the side;
"You are my Lord and God!" he cried.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

How blest are they who have not seen,
and yet whose faith has constant been,
for they eternal life shall win.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Jean Tisserand

The author of the Latin poem “O filii et filiae, Rex coelestis, Rex gloriae,” Jean Tisserand (d. 1494, Paris), is little known to us. He was a Franciscan monk who founded a penitent order for women.

John Mason Neale

Tisserand’s Latin poem was translated into English by the famous 19th-century hymnologist, John Mason Neale (1818-1866). Neale was the guiding light of the Oxford Movement, devoted to the recovery of ancient practices in hymns, liturgy and architecture.

Rather than a restoration of antiquity, however, the Oxford Movement’s “recovery” of earlier practices was quite romanticized and fit perfectly into a general interest in history common to the period. Nevertheless, Neale has left us with many splendid hymns based on Greek and Latin devotional writings and plainsongs.

Translations of hymns from another language into English are really works of poetic art in themselves since musical and textual accents must coincide, and some poetic skill must be evidenced so that the work when sung will not become too stilted or pedantic. The United Methodist Hymnal contains nine of Neale’s translations, including the famous “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” and “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice.”

Easter Carol

This particular song falls under the category of an Easter Carol with a dance-like feel (in three beats or even one beat to a measure) and its storytelling quality. Probably, this was a tune that could have been accompanied by medieval wind instruments and percussion, most likely outside of the church’s liturgy. In its original form, the carol begins with a triple alleluia that sets the tone for the narrative to follow. In many ways, this carol is the Eastertide equivalent of “The First Noel” (UM Hymnal, No. 245).

“O Sons and Daughters” is particularly attractive for its simple narrative quality. The nine stanzas found in many hymnals are part of an original 12-stanza hymn that was included in Neale’s Medieval Hymns and Sequences (1851). It tells not only the story of the resurrection but continues with the risen Christ’s appearance to the apostles who “met in fear” following the death of Christ.

Drawing from hymnologist Albert Bailey and the accounts of the resurrected Christ found in Matthew and John, the nine stanzas might be outlined as follows:

1. Introduction: Invitation to praise;

2. The visit of the faithful women, Matthew 28:1;

3. The angel and his message, Matthew 28:2-7;

4. The appearance to the 10 disciples, John 20:19-20;

5. We respond in praise to the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples;

6. Doubting Thomas, John 20:24-25;

7. The revelation to Thomas, John 20:26-28;

8. Christ’s blessing to all those of faith, John 20:29.

Of particular note are the three stanzas (6-8) devoted to Christ’s appearance to Thomas. This makes this hymn a favorite in many churches on the Second Sunday of Easter when the lectionary texts focus on this passage.

We love to sing the story of Christmas but often fall short when it comes to singing the story of Easter, especially the events that took place while the resurrected Christ was on the earth. This carol rectifies this omission in our sung experience.

The double “alleluia” refrain is particularly effective for those congregations that have omitted alleluias from their services all throughout the season of Lent. The story-like quality may be brought to life in worship by assigning some stanzas to the choir or soloists as characters in the unfolding drama.

The congregation should always sing the alleluia refrain as the voice of the church throughout the ages. The church, like the women at the tomb and the disciples, bears witness to the resurrection—the central event of our faith.

O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing

Were You There

Glory to God: 228
Text and Music African American Spiritual

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (Were you there?)

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? (Were you there?)

Were you there when they pierced him in the side? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they pierced him in the side? (Were you there?)

Were you there when the sun refused to shine? (Were you there?)
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when the sun refused to shine? (Were you there?)

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? (Were you there?)

Opt. 6 Were you there when he rose up from the dead?

Were you?

Trying to absorb, deflect, or cope with medical questioning about what must have caused her husband’s death, Joan Didion kept wanting to blurt out, “were you there?” She didn’t need to “review the circumstances of the death.” Why? Because she was there.

None of us were

A plaintive old hymn asks, “Were you there?” Where? “When they crucified my Lord,” “when they nailed him to a tree,” “when they pierced him in the side”, “when the sun refused to shine,” “when they laid him in the tomb.” None of us were, although the Gospels, centuries of prayers, hymns, and sermons have done their best to take us to that very place, those unspeakably grievous events of Good Friday.

This hymn would have been fitting for the first Holy Saturday. What a bleak day that must have been. Thos who loved Jesus were numb with grief and guilt. Their teacher and healer had been gruesomely executed, yet most of them had been too scared to stick around. Only a few lingered at the cross. Jesus’ other closest friends only heard about it the way we hear about it. “Were you there?” No – but then again, yes. Trying to stave off bitter disappointment and disillusionment, they all hung their heads.

Pregnant Emptiness

Alan Lewis calls Holy Saturday “a significant zero, a pregnant emptiness, a silent nothing which says everything.” We live our lives – don’t we? – in between, like Holy Saturday. Talk to a widow whose husband died of cancer last year. She has seen Good Friday. She believes in the Easter resurrection, but for now she is in between.

God could have raised Jesus immediately or levitated him directly from the cross into heaven. But God waited. God did nothing for a time. God, being the kind of God we know and love, knew we would experience life and loss in just this way. We cling to hope. But the waiting can be a silent nothing. And so we wait. We live in between.

C.S. Lewis shared the grief he felt when his wife, Joy, died:

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing. At other times it feels like being mildly drunk or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting.

Our hymn spends much of its time on a long, moaning sound that barely qualifies as a word: “Oh….oh….oh.” And we “tremble, tremble, tremble.” Musically, by not peppering us with multiple words, the hymn sounds like we feel. The ache, the inarticulate inability to say or do anything, this anguished, “Oh” draws our minds toward what I count as Paul’s single greatest gift to us in all of his letters. After his insight that “the sufferings of this present time” are the whole creation “groaning in labor pains,” he offers the most profound mercy: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness: for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Roms. 8: 18-26). When there are no words, when you almost cry out, “Were you there?” When one despairing sigh after another sagging groan is exhaled from your soul, it’s not despair; it is the Spirit praying in you, for you, and with you. It is the prayer God loves; the trembling “Oh….oh…oh” of Holy Saturday.

Sources

1. Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 56.

2. Alan E. Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 3.

3. C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York: Bantam Books, 1976), 1.

Where You There