Fairly frequently in mainline churches Sunday morning worship brings me hymns and songs from many different eras. John Wesley might come in the same service as Matt Redman, and Fanny Crosby might sneak in on the same day. Sometimes a hymn works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
I can’t influence Crosby or Wesley, but I would love to offer a suggestion to those still writing hymns: tell the truth in your lyrics.
Recently an order of worship invited me to sing “Earth and All Stars,” a 1964 hymn appearing in over 20 hymnals. I like the tune by David N. Johnson — actually it stays in my head for days. And I like the idea of the lyric — I don’t know what Herbert Frederick Brokering was aiming for exactly, but it strikes me as an attempt at a modern version of the “Song of the Three Holy Children.”
That is a great goal. It is the execution that kills me — sorry for the pun.
He has everything in the natural order (“Earth and all stars…Hail wind and rain…”) along with everything in the human realm (“Steel and machines…Classrooms and labs…”) singing a new song to the Lord.
Well and good. I love the “Song of the Three Holy Children” and am happy to revisit it.
The problem comes from the fixed pattern Brokering chose to fit all this into. Each of the four stanzas has eight lines. The second and fifth line of every stanza has to begin with the word “Loud.”
Sometimes it is fine:
“Steel and machines,
Loud pounding hammers
Sing to the Lord a new song!”
But fully half of the time it is terrible:
“Earth and all stars,
Loud rushing planets…”
Okay, “loud” is sound, and sound is carried by air, and the planets rush through — vacuum. Planets rush through space with an austere and awesome silence. They are not loud.
“Classrooms and labs,
Loud boiling test tubes…”
I didn’t do that well in high school chemistry, but when we boiled stuff in test tubes it was pretty quiet.
“Knowledge and truth,
Loud sounding wisdom…”
Maybe in Proverbs 1:20 “Wisdom cries out in the street” but most of the time the loud voices are anything but wise. I wish wisdom were loud. Instead, as in Proverbs 2:2 I have to work to make my ear attentive to wisdom, and incline my heart to find it.
“Daughter and son,
Loud praying members…”
Not in a mainline church. And kind of not recommended by our Lord (Matt. 6:5-7).
The problem is that in four out of eight of these assertions the hymn is simply wrong. It asks me to sing something I know is false.
I know, I know. this is small-scale error.
But if a hymn or song is wrong about life — ordinary human living, life as we know it — why should I believe what it says about God and salvation?
Please, those of you who write music for the Church: Please tell the truth. Little stuff, big stuff, everything. (Same goes for the preachers out there.)
What is the most troubling thing you have encountered in the lyrics of a hymn or worship song?
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I am often appalled by new hymns written to old tunes. To make a new message fit the tune–and sometimes a rhyming pattern, the language can be grating. This is amusing when someone writes a song for someone’s retirement, awful when one has to sing it in church. I have to admit that music is probably the main focus of my worship experience, so having to sing such words can ruin my day.
Yes, this can go terribly wrong, can’t it?
On the other hand, I have an old friend, Mike Graef, a UMC pastor and former DS, who used to put new TUNES to old WORDS, especially words by Charles Wesley. Sometimes the tunes of centuries past don’t have quite the zing they used to — the tune can be so dated that people miss the fact that. Singing them to a tune that sounds like modern music can be a revelation.
There are some songs/hymns that do that for me, too. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, i.e. it’s poetry, usually. And, the meanings of words are not always simple. Loud also has the connotation of insistent, emphatic, and conspicuous (which may or may not be helpful in this instance). Can “loud” be metaphoric?
Two good points, Arlin. Thanks.
Very good advice to maintain humility, and do our best to worship through the songs and hymns whether they suit our taste or not.
Metaphor is a complex issue. In this hymn the basic layer of meaning is straightforward. Many parts of creation singing to the Lord a new song — loudly.
I love the tune and the words to the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” until we get to the second verse and the words “We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.” Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with these words, as the voices of the congregation turn to mumbles and silence until we are past these words.
Thanks Ramona. Here’s a case where the difference between your context and that of the writer might be the most important thing. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is often called “the black national anthem.” When I consider the 300 years of slavery people from Africa endured here, “the blood of the slaughtered” makes more sense to me.
“Like a rose, trampled on the ground, You took the fall, and thought of me above all.”
From Michael W Smith’s “Above All’. Sounds pretty narcissistic, that Jesus centered me out specifically to benefit from His great sacrifice.
Wow, Sandra, I hadn’t heard that one — but the line you quote does sound narcissistic. I wonder if there is a different nuance that others hear in this. Anyone want to chime in?
Of all the things that bother me regarding music of the church, and there are many. the worst for me, is telling God he is “worthy of our praise”. That phrase is contained in so many contemporary pieces. It is a great concern to me that it is felt Humanity is so elevated, there is the right to tell God what he is worthy of or not as the case may be. I applause Gary’s writtings on this subject and hope the Christian musicians take it seriously. Thank you Gary.
Sharon, this is a very interesting case where our culture’s differences from biblical cultures comes into play. The phrase is biblical — Psalm 145:3 in some translations is to the point. But when individualistic westerners sing it I see how it could sound like we are standing high and making a judgment!
I think you are right in the mark with these thoughts Gary. Fortunately, I have never been called upon to sing Earth and All Stars (or God, You Spin the Whirling Planets for that matter, not that it is inaccurate but just strikes me as a bit fluffy). N.T. Wright has a good discourse on his frustration with inaccurate/misleading hymn lyrics on pgs 20-23 of his book Surprised by Hope. He writes, “The many-sided confusion plays out in the hymns we sing,” and he goes on to give several examples.
Thanks Jeff — I’ll have to check it out.
It’s hard getting imagery and music to fit well. Sometimes we write music that gets it all correct and other times we miss. I ask myself “Is my theology good?” “Is it Lutheran enough?” “Is it Presbyterian enough? ” (My major audiences) And then I try to let it sit for a few days and come back to it and make corrections. I love the God moments when nothing needs fixing. Then I can share it. I worked with Herb back in 1980 for a few days at a Bible camp. Herb was a true poet and worked in imagery. I’m sorry that Earth and All Stars doesn’t work for everyone. I guess I get caught up in the imagery of calling all parts of life to give praise to God. As a musician, I especially like that my marching band experience should have brought praise to God as well as my academic work. And as a string player and as a vocalist. I am grateful that we have people willing to express the goodness of God in as many ways as possible to reach all the people of God.
Thank you, Richard. Great to hear from someone with an insider’s perspective! It must be hard to make both poetry and music work together well. Perhaps the most surprising thing to me is that particular pieces of music can strike individuals and congregations so very differently — like “Earth and All Stars”. I’m not the only one who responds as I do to the lyric, which to my ear simply needed another editing session to be made, er…, stellar. But clearly lots and lots of folks enjoy it or it wouldn’t be in so many hymnals.
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