Hymnody and Poetry

My fellowship has a strange custom when singing some old hymns--skipping verses--usually the third. That is strange to me when one considers that the verse is poetry. When reading "Crossing the Bar", would you skip the third verse????? I have never really found out why that happens in our worship; does anyone know?

Another thing we do in our fellowship is change verses we do not like or understand. Many years ago, it was references to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the verse was "too emotional", sometimes the verse contained "archaic or words that would be unknown to most people." Again, these were written by poets who said what they wanted to say in praise to God!!!

A recent example I have run across is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". In the last part of the first verse I grew up singing "Teach me ever to adore thee..." instead of "Teach me some melodious sonnet..." One is definitely more poetic than the other. Does that mean that the revisers did not think worshipers would know what a sonnet was????It is a mystery to me. I do so enjoy this beautiful old hymn in its original form. And by the way, the second verse mentions "my Ebenezer" (go figure).

In the preface to his A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, John Wesley wrote: "In these hymns there is no doggerel, no botches, nothing put in to patch up the rhymes, no feeble expletives. Here is nothing turgid or bombast, on the one hand, or low and creeping on the other. Here are no cant expressions: no words without meaning...We (he and his brother Charles) talk common sense, both in prose and verse, and use no word in a fixed and determinative sense. Here are, allow me to say, both the purity, the strength, and the elegance of the English language: and, at the same time, the utmost simplicity and plainness, suited to every capacity."

Of course, as soon as the words become public domain, anyone is free to change these old hymns.
I wish they did not seem so compelled to do that. Thomas Dudley-Smith ( a lyricist) writes, "In its own way, a hymn needs to be a work of art. A good hymn should exist in its own right as a product of craftsmanship and the artist's ear and eye."

Contemporary hymn writers are carrying on the old traditions of the Wesleys and others. I love singing both the old and the new.

Singing

Why did God ask us to sing in Ephesians 5:19? Why did he construct our vocal cords, throat and cheek cavities so that we could sing? What is there about it that He likes? I suppose he could have made us incapable of singing in the creation of our bodies. Couldn't he have made us so that all of us had beautiful voices?

I ponder these questions in worship as I look and see congregants, people who have purposely come to worship, Not sing. Why do they Not? Is it a form of rebellion? Is it because "I just don't feel like it?" Is it because they "don't sing well?" Is it because it makes them uncomfortable to express emotion? I just don't know. It is a puzzlement.

Music entered the scene early with God's people. Philo tells us that Moses was educated in all the learning of Egypt, including its music. The Egyptians considered music to be sacred. Their musicians were priests. Moses must have seen that. In Exodus 15:1, he sings a victory song to the Lord which is quickly followed by the victory song of Miriam in Exodus 15:21. And of course, there are all those Psalms to be reckoned with. David was the real impetus of music in worship. In I Chronicles 14:15, he appointed some Levites as singers--their
repertoire was the Psalms.

The earliest surviving example of Christian music is a hymn of praise to the Trinity found in that wonderful garbage dump in the ancient Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus. It is in Greek, and dates to the end of the third century. So its all been around for a very long time, and God's people have been singing for a very long time. The Puritans would allow not other hymns in their worship except the Psalms when the music got to America.

Now here we sit in the 21st century with a vast history of beautiful Christian hymns and exciting and worshipful contemporary hymns with out mouths closed.
Go figure.

New Songs

We sang three new Zoe songs yesterday. I think that all three will become classics. My favorite was "O, The Blood". But the others were wonderful too. Intersperced with O, The Blood was Nearer, Still Nearer.

That song always causes an emotional rush and tears--I don't know why. Lelia Morris, the author wrote over 1,500 hymns, but preferred to be known as a simple housewife. In fact, she composed most of her songs in her head over the sewing machine.

O, God shelter me safe in your haven of rest.