Songs of Faith and Praise

I was perusing blogs the other day and I thought that this blog about hymns was pretty interesting. Being a worship leader myself, I thought this was a thought provoking article. The author of the posting below (in purple) is Matt Elliott, worship leader for a metro church in Atlanta, GA and worship leader for YIA this past year in Nashville, TN. You may not agree with everything he says, but most of it is just plain interesting.

I’ve been reading a few other blogs lately, and a couple of my associates got me thinking about something. Two different bloggers in the past couple of weeks have quoted the old hymn, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”, in their entries. I confess that as a product of rural south Alabama, I had never even heard the song until I was a student at Freed-Hardeman College in the early 80’s. And even then, it was only sung in chapel if one of the snotty music majors was called upon to lead in chapel. We just assumed that they were showing off by choosing such an uppity hymn! (We may have been right, by the way.) Anyhoo, it likely tainted my view toward this hymn for years to come.

So, I thought I’d share some of MY favorite lines from hymns, then I thought I’d follow that up with what I would consider some of the WORST lines from hymns. Then I’ll close with a very special section on hymns in which lyrics and music clash. I invite you to click on the comment link at the bottom of the post and add your preferences and titles to any of the lists, too.

By the way, I’m only talking hymns here. I’m much more comfortable talking about dead songwriters than live ones.

In no particular order, here are some of my favorite lines from the hymns:

Crown Him with Many Crowns
Crown Him the Lord of peace,
Whose power a scepter sways
From pole to pole that wars may cease,
Absorbed in prayer and praise!
This appeals to all that is idealistic in me. Wars absorbed in prayer and praise . . . good Lord, do we ever need some praying and praising these days. Something’s gotta give.

Beneath the Cross of Jesus
O safe and happy shelter,
O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet!”
First of all, that’s just a great lyric! How often does one get to sing the word “trysting”? It’s a beautiful image of God’s great love and God’s great sense of righteousness and justice coming together to make one grand and profound statement for all humankind.

Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not,
Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
When times are tough, this is pretty much all I’ve got to hang on to. The line from the next hymn is a great companion to this one, too –

Abide With Me
Change and decay in all around I see,
Oh, Thou who changest not, abide with me!
These last two songs meant nothing to me as a boy or young man. It’s amazing how a few intense trials can change your taste in hymns, huh?

Love for All
I don’t know about you, but my most emotional response during The Passion of the Christ was when Peter denied Jesus. I knew it was coming, but I couldn’t have predicted how personal it would feel to me. The reason is simple – that was my role in the movie and in the real story. This old hymn (that I don’t lead very often) tells the story of the prodigal son. This last verse gives hope for me and all the others out there who have denied Jesus:
See! My Father waiting stands;
See! He reaches out His hands;
God is love, I know, I see,
Love for me, yes, even me.

Break Thou the Bread of Life
Like many of those “raised in the church”, I had the experience of hearing this hymn led at rather unfortunate times during worship – like right before the Lord’s Supper. This song has NOTHING to do with communion, but it does have the word “bread” in it. As a result, I avoided it for years, and then I found it again. To my surprise, it connected with a deep longing that I had in my heart and spirit:
Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord.
My spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word.

Farther Along
Yes, “Farther Along”! I love this song for two reasons – (1) it reminds me of home and people I love, and (2) it’s brutally honest. You know what? I don’t always get what God’s up to. Frankly, I haven’t a clue much of the time. And though it’s still not very acceptable to voice such feelings, somehow this rural hymn managed to let us all get away with it. Try these lyrics on for honesty:
When death has come and taken our loved ones,
It leaves our home so lonely and drear.
Then do we wonder why others prosper
Living so wicked year after year.
It ain’t pretty, but it’s honest.

Softly and Tenderly
Raise your hand if you ever saw “The Trip to Bountiful”! (Okay, I’m expecting NO response to that one.) Geraldine Page won a best actress in 1985 (I think) for her portrayal of an elderly woman who lives with her depressed son and his unhappy wife, and all she wants to do is go home again. It’s a beautiful, funny, sad, sweet movie, and the scenes at the beginning in which Cynthia Clauson sings this hymn as a little girl runs through a green field into her mother’s awaiting arms had me a puddle of tears in no time. The chorus of this song connects with that part of me that just gets tired and longs to get my loved ones and just go home forever:
Come home, come home
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home.
(I can hardly type that without getting misty!)

Rock of Ages
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
That line pretty much sums up everything!

And now for the flipside!

Here are some of the WORST lines from hymns that I can think of:

I Stand Amazed
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweatdrops of blood for mine.
“He had no tears for his own griefs”?!? What?? Are we sure about that one?

Our God, He Is Alive (#728-B)
Secure, is life from mortal mind,
God holds the germ within His hand.
First of all, I don’t even know what that means. Did a botanist or biologist write this song? I just hope God washed His hands after handling that germ.
By the way, in my mind, I hear that first line as “See – cure”. That’s the way we sang it in Opp, Alabama. It doesn’t sound authentic if you pronounce that word correctly.

Let the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen
Here’s a song that has pretty much been confined to “ladies’ retreat” worship services. There’s so much I could say about this terrible little song (no offense to lovers of it anywhere!), but my least favorite single line is this one:
Lay your gifts at His feet,
Ever strive to keep sweet,
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in you.
That’s right, folks. Jesus suffered and died so we’d be sweet. Incredible.

Mansion Over the Hilltop
First of all, may I say that the original writer (Ira Stamphill) likely was quite sincere when he wrote this song. It was a rural favorite, and it probably connected with lots of folks and their specific economic situations. But there’s nothing more ridiculous than walking into a large, suburban church and hearing the congregation sing:
I’m satisfied with just a cottage below,
A little silver and a little gold.
Lies! All lies! Leave this place at once and return to your $250,000 cottage!

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
Again --- where to start on this one?? Actually, I’m not going to post the actual lyric for fear of offending those with tender sensibilities. But let’s just say that as a former infertility patient, it is pretty much impossible for me to sing the refrain of this song with a straight face.

And for our final category, these are three hymns in which the lyrics and the music absolutely CLASH. These songs got under my skin for many years, and I’m happy to report that I haven’t been in a position to sing them in a long, long time.

Honorable mention:
O Happy Day
By the way, I’m not referring to that wonderful Edwin Hawkins version. I’m referring to the one in most of our hymnals. Note: this was not the fault of the lyricist! Phillip Doddridge wrote the words in 1755, but Edward Rinibault added the dreadful melody in 1854. Actually, it may not be that dreadful, but the way most of our churches sang it certainly was. Call me and I’ll sing to you how it sounded in my ears! Anyone else have this experience?

Runner-up:
He Bore It All
This tune is WAY too bouncy for lyrics like
My precious Savior suffered pain and agony
And
They placed a crown of thorns upon my Savior’s head.
I should not be tempted to tap my feet while singing those lines, should I?

Worst of all time:
Jesus Is Coming Soon
Basically, I have the same complaint here as with “He Bore It All”. It’s just way too joyful and peppy a melody to sing lyrics like:
Troublesome times are here,
Filling men’s hearts with fear,
Freedom we all hold dear now is at stake.
Or
Many will meet their doom.
The third verse salvages things a bit (the lyrics are bit happier!) but the damage has been done.