A very brief History of Hymns

Last Saturday I taught a workshop on Hymns in the Home at our Grace Church Women's Conference. Since I didn't say all that I wanted to say and since I still don't feel like I've finished I thought I'd give a condensed version in several posts.

Music is everywhere. We teach our kids the ABCs with it, we hum it when we are happy. We listen to it when we are depressed. We sing it in church. We sing it in the shower. Music has been around for forever, so has worship. God created us to be worshipers and if you want to know what you are worshiping, do an audit of your time, energy and money. Whatever tops the list is the god that you worship.

Long before there was a church or synagogue there were songs and psalms and music. (The first reference to music in the bible is in Genesis 4). The Israelites sang on the beaches of the Red Sea when they saw the Lord's deliverance, one of the several feasts and celebrations ordained by God was the feast of Trumpets and how did that wall of Jericho fall down? David is credited with tons of Psalms but there are many other psalms and songs that can be found throughout the O.T.

The first mention in the Bible of a "hymn" is in the story of the Last Supper and the "hymn" that was mentioned was almost certainly Psalm 136. In the New Testament there are several passages that speak of hymns and songs of praise (for the sake of brevity I won't tell you why the word for hymn is nearly synonymous with the word for "song of praise", it just is)

I Cor 14: 26
What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, Or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

Ephesians 5:18
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

James 5:13
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.  Is anyone happy.  Let him sing songs of praise.


The early Christians sang Psalms, canticles (fragments of scripture like the song of the Exodus) and there is even a little evidence to suggest that Paul quoted from some sort of early songbook. After the close of the cannon the first specific efforts to write hymns for the Congregations of believers were as a direct response to heresy.

Several Gnostics had written some beautiful hymns that "clothed the pest of deprivation in the garments of musical beauty" (St. Ephraem) and  as these hymns became popular an antidote was needed and the birth of hymns as we know them today was born.  St Ephraem's hymns were "teaching hymns" and I think that is an important element in incorporating hymns in our homes.  We want to guard, teach, protect and encourage our children.  One of the ways we do this is to teach them to memorize scripture, another way is to teach them through music although Hymns are not a substitute for God's word, they are a compliment to it.

Later "Arius [Arian heresy) wrote up his heretical view in the form of hymns set to catchy drinking songs which people could be heard humming or whistling in the streets.  Not to be outdone John Chrysostom responded by taking to the streets himself singing hymns in a processions, what one might call "taking back the streets"."

Between the 4th century and now I'll condense years of history into a broad generalization :  For the most part, up until around the 18th century the metrical Psalms were used in corporate worship and devotional poetry (i.e. hymns) were part of an individuals praise to the Lord.  These devotional poems were mostly written by members of the Clergy, inspired by their study of the word of God or as a reflection of his work among his people.  This is very interesting to me as it wasn't until later that more and more "lay people " began to write hymns that slowly strayed from rewording Scripture and it's doctrine into a variety of things and to avoid controversy I will leave it at that and not turn this into a discussion of Hymns v Chorus'. (NOTE: I personally feel that both have their place in worship and I just love the way our church weaves the two together.)

So should we only sing to God the words he wrote himself?  I think it is much safer that way but when the Psalm say: Sing to the Lord and new song"  I have to believe that a God of creativity who made us in his own image can and is glorified by the songs of his saints if they are true and excellent reflections of his nature and his works.

Psalm 30:4
Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name.

Psalm 33:1
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

Psalm 96:1
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.


Since Phillip lost his job our family has been learning "Great is Thy Faithfulness" but I want to know is what do you have to sing about? What songs are you singing? How are you teaching your children to worship God?

standards

Phillip is at a business dinner tonight and I'm channel surfing and tidying our room since it is the last room in the house to get clean. Somehow I started watching another reality t.v. show. I wonder how that happened? How many reality t.v. shows are there? It seems like all of them are about winning and involve either popular vote or being judged by people that are respected in whatever profession they are in. Possibly I'm over thinking it but - since we have embraced relativism and rejected almost all authority in every other area of our lives isn't it interresting that thousands flock to stand under some sort of standard?

what did you do today?

Sometimes when I am overwhelmed by all the things I need to do - if I get that one last project out of the way I can unlock my repressed potential and fly into action. Or something like that ... I'll be speaking at our women's conference THIS WEEKEND and have a long way to go in preparation. Knowing this and that I had a million loads of laundry to do, a messy house to clean and a full day of homeschooling to put in I decided to take apart my piano, remove the "upright action" (a.k.a. the keys, not the hammers), fix key #60 and 64 (the key lever had split) thoroughly vacuum underneath the key board and replace all the parts. It was so worth it.
As it turns out I was able to get a lot done at my computer after this. I took the kids outside and let them run wild (they were snail hunting) while I sat under at tree on a little chair from Eliannah's play kitchen. Now if only I could figure out how to tune a piano I'd be in business ...

More poetry

Don't hate me, I must share. Has something like this every happened to you?

Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost


The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

The good, the bad, the ugly

I was inspired by some comments on my last post to explain what I think good poetry strives to be.

Good poetry invites you into another perspective, bad poetry says stuff.
Good poetry paints a picture, bad poetry paints a pet rock.
Good poetry is Godiva chocolate, bad poetry is an m&m
Bad poetry is a dime a dozen, good poetry is a treasure.

The think I hate most about modern poetry is that it ignores the delete button, shares something shallow or thinks that a beautiful word picture can be sacrificed for a trivial rhyme. Much of the stuff I've read lately has no rhyme, reason, meter or discernable structure. I would consider it creative writing - not poetry. I don't want to forget what I've read when I walk away, I want to consider a poem from many angles, bat it around like a kitten, unravel it and be delighted by the journey. I guess I have no reason to be harsh on modern poets. I know what I write falls under my own criticism so I'll swallow the rest of my rant. Here's one of my favorite poets sharing a moment.

Meeting At Night
by Robert Browning


I.
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

II.
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

You can feel what he must have felt when he wrote that poem. I don't know why I like the Brownings so much, there's a lot of their poetry that I don't get at first or don't like at first but I keep reading and about every few pages I come across a poem I really enjoy. So in honor of poetry month - read something! Give it a chance. Want an out of body experience? Watch the world through a poet's eyes and you will see beauty in almost anything.

Happy Poetry Month!

So April is national poetry month and ... I got nuthin'! I've been reading the poetry in the Tribune and have decided that I either don't understand modern poetry, or it's all frightfully pretentious and uninspiring. Maybe I'm the one that is pretentious ... anyway I haven't written much lately so in honor of the creative process here's a poem I wrote last year.

Unwritten

think,think think
think,think think

"the train moved like a lightning crack ..."

I push my backspace back back back

think,think think
think,think think

"her hair was like a waterfall of grey..."

I brushed that little thought away

think,think think
think,think think

"a turbo engine and silver sage ..."

I sighed and quickly turn the page

Over thinking, loads of tripe -
I close the page. I'm done tonight.

Passover

I was looking through the church bullitin today and saw that some professor is going to speak on Passover next Sunday. I've been very iterrested in Passover and have wanted to celebrate aspects of it in our family for some time for several reasons:

1. It's part of our spiritual heritage
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the Last Supper Christ ate before his death
3. The only place the word "hymn" is mentioned in the bible is in the gospel accounts of the Last Supper and I've been studying hymnology like crazy


Today as I was reading through the ceremony I was struck by the fact that when Jesus "took the cup and gave thanks" he was drinking the 3rd cup of the feast. Why is this interresting? There are 4 cups drunk for the feast and with them the host repeats these four promises

1.) "I will bring you up out of the land of Egypt
2.) I will deliver you from slavery
3.) I will redeem you
4.) I will take you unto Me for a people and I will be your God
(from the accounts in the 4 gospels it looks as if Jesus didn't drink the 4th cup, it makes you wonder ...)

Fascinated? I am! Also, the "hymn" that Jesus sang after this was most likely part of "The Egyptian Hallell" I'm going to have to read through this tonight.

Another aspect of the Seder was to do unusual things that would provoke question (especially from children). There are blessings chanted, strange food that is eaten, ceremonial hand washings at several points in the meal but it looks as if Jesus threw in something extra. He washed the disciples feet. I wonder why he did that (besides the reason given in the text)? There are so many things to learn and ponder when you read about the last evening Jesus spent on earth in light of the Feast of Unleavened Bread I hope I can wait for next Sunday!!

(Oh, and in case you don't know I'm teaching a workshop at the ladies conference titled "Hymns in the Home" which is why I'm studying up on "hymn history")

Update

So Phillip made it through his 3 hour surgery ... in 8 hours!!! I guess there was a nerve they had to hunt for and the rest of the damage was even more extensive than they had hoped. Either that or the Doctor was optimistic to begin with and we didn't really know it. The recovery nurse said Phillip was awake when they wheeled him out of surgery but he doesn't remember it. I wasn't able to see him for awhile because every time I asked for him (I was in the waiting room much of the time) they told me something different. At one point they said:
a. he had already left
b. he wasn't there
c. they couldn't find him, and
d. he wasn't out of surgery (this after the doctor had come and talked to me to tell me how the surgery had gone.)

The good news? He's alive and the surgery was successful and his room mate is the saltiest old codger I've ever met. He's given us a good laugh or too and given the nurses h-ll. (direct quote: my wife divorced me 10 years ago and it was the biggest favor she'd ever done me" Phillip and I couldn't stop giggling so he continued to regale us with his gruff stories.)
The bad news? He's in so much pain he isn't able to go home yet because I can't inject him with morphine and all the other stuff they are giving him. It's horrible to see him suffer.


If you are a prayer (and even if you aren't) please keep Him in your prayers!!