Victorian songs about the hereafter and the journey to get there were often maudlin. Some contemporary songs evince the same characteristics. We find ourselves floating six inches above the ground. Part of the trouble, I believe, is that we concentrate on the wrong thing – ourselves, ourselves and our exuberance.
Richard Baxter would have none of that. His little-known hymn ‘Lord, it belongs not to my care’ sets the pace. We are encouraged to fit into the big plan, to do what is in us to do, to allow our Maker and Redeemer the choice of how long that allowance continues. This kind of faith and this kind of song is robust and sturdy. It helps us take up our responsibilities while we can and while God approves.
Another angle on hymns about our heavenly destination is the position occupied by Jesus. ‘The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now’, wrote Thomas Kelly. He was not thanked for it. Instead his bishop (actually the Archbishop of Dublin) gave him a rap on the knuckles. Kelly went on to preach the Gospel outside the Established Church.
A similar approach comes from a Lutheran hymn-writer with Paul Gerhardt’s: ‘O sacred head sore wounded‘. Gerhardt was a prolific writer of worship-songs. ‘Crown him with many crowns’ by Matthew Bridges, who converted to Roman Catholicism, has the same emphasis.
We should mention songs that dare to suggest human reaction. ‘There is a land of pure delight’ contents itself with tangential references to eternal bliss, fulfilment, wonder and worship. Neale’s translation of ‘Jerusalem the golden’ steers a cautiously oblique course.
Balance is all. Gusto and ff are all right in their place but the Gospel is also about other things. Worship-songs need a measure of nuance, of reticence. Marching under a banner is good but contemplating our destination deserves some delicate consideration.
TINKERING WITH THE PSALMS
Watts can probably be described as the father of English hymn-writing but there were other pioneers. Turning the Psalms into metred English suitable for singing in worship was the first port of call of those keen to expand the musical element in congregational worship. They came in pairs – first Sternhold and Hopkins with the first complete English version of the Psalms in 1562, then Tate and Brady in 1696. Another Gospel partnership came when in 1872 Moody (the preacher) and Sankey (the singer) introduced the UK worshipping public to such songs as ‘There were ninety and nine’ in their immensely popular ‘Sacred Songs and Solos’.
Read more in ‘A Brief History of Christian Music’ by Andrew Wilson-Dickson.
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