“I’m Not Ashamed to Own My Lord” performed by Nathan C. George and family
Today’s hymn of faith is from the profound and marvelous writer Isaac Watts. The tune is called Pisgah and was written by J.C. Lowry according to the Kentucky Harmony tunebook (1811). The wonderful performance above captures the feel of the tune.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ethe power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV).
1 I’m not ashamed to own my Lord, or to defend his cause, maintain the honor of his Word, the glory of his cross.
2 Jesus, my God! I know his name, his name is all my trust; nor will he put my soul to shame, nor let my hope be lost.
3 Firm as his throne his promise stands, and he can well secure what I’ve committed to his hands ’til the decisive hour.
4 Then will he own my worthless name before his Father’s face, and in the new Jerusalem appoint my soul a place.
I was surprised to learn today’s hymn of the faith is not more popular than it is, because it’s one of my favorites. “Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!” (also called “Our Great Savior”) has been published in only 77 hymnals. It was written by Presbyterian minister John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918), who was advocated large evangelistic events around the turn of the 20th century. The tune is a wonderful Welsh piece by Rowland H. Prichard (1811-1887).
“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children” (Luke 7:34–35 ESV).
1 Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! lover of my soul; friends may fail me, foes assail me, he, my Savior, makes me whole.
Refrain: Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end.
2 Jesus! what a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in him; tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, he, my strength, my vict’ry wins. [Refrain]
3 Jesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll, even when my heart is breaking, he, my comfort, helps my soul. [Refrain]
4 Jesus! what a guide and keeper! While the tempest still is high, storms about me, night o’ertakes me, he, my pilot, hears my cry. [Refrain]
5 Jesus! I do now receive him, more than all in him I find; he hath granted me forgiveness, I am his, and he is mine. [Refrain]
Today’s hymn comes from the great English hymnist Isaac Watts (1674-1748). It was published in 1707, while Dr. Watts was pastor of Independent Church of London. The tune is a familiar Irish melody called St. Columba. (And since I found it, let me share this organ prelude to St. Columba. You’ll want headphones for both recordings to catch the subtleties.)
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15 ESV)
1 How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors, while everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.
2 While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries, with thankful tongue, “Lord, why was I a guest?
3 “Why was I made to hear Thy voice, and enter while there’s room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?”
4 ‘Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in; else we had still refused to taste, and perished in our sin.
5 Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come; send Thy victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home.
6 We long to see Thy churches full, that all the chosen race may, with one voice and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace.
“My Faith Has Found a Resting Place,” performed by Danielle Franklyn & Waneisha Denny
This month, our theme will be faith, which will gather in popular song this one from Lidie H. Edmunds (1851-1920). Edmunds, a native Philadelphian, was home-bound for many years. In order to use her time well, she studied literature and wrote hymns.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
1 My faith has found a resting place, from guilt my soul is freed; I trust the ever-living One, his wounds for me shall plead.
Refrain: I need no other argument, I need no other plea, it is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.
2 Enough for me that Jesus saves, this ends my fear and doubt; a sinful soul, I come to him, he’ll never cast me out. [Refrain]
3 My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God, salvation by my Savior’s name, salvation thro’ his blood. [Refrain]
4 My great Physician heals the sick, the lost he came to save; for me his precious blood he shed, for me his life he gave. [Refrain]
Today is Memorial Day. It was raining here today, so I couldn’t fly my flag. I’d better lose no (more) time in posting my virtual commemoration of the holiday. The video above was (oddly), compiled by a Canadian, using footage from some of our more patriotic movies and TV series, the kind they don’t do anymore.
The Memorial Day tradition goes back (according to Wikipedia, to a proclamation by John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (the Civil War veterans’ organization), declaring May 30, 1868 to be a day for placing flags on the graves of fallen soldiers. Decoration Day, it was called. (That was what my grandmother used to call it. The official name was changed in 1971, some time after her death.) However, the Veterans’ Administration credits the idea to a woman named Mary Ann Williams.
The hymn tune, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is obscure in its origins. It seems to have risen in the camp meeting culture of the American south, and possibly echoes a Negro spiritual. The tune was picked up by the 2nd Infantry Battalion, Massachusetts Militia (the “Tiger Battalion”). They used the coincidence of one of their members being named John Brown to make up a song that teased him, when he was late to report for duty (apparently a frequent occurrence). They joked that this was excusable on the grounds that he was dead – all the papers said that John Brown (the abolitionist) had been hanged. Other units picked the song up without the teasing, as the conviction grew in the ranks that they were carrying on John Brown’s work.
Julia Ward Howe, the abolitionist, felt the lyrics were not worthy of the cause, and sat down to write a nobler version, which was first published in 1862 in the Atlantic Monthly. It is a stirring song, and I remember thrilling as I sang it as a member of the Waldorf College Choir in 1969.
A few years back I discussed the hymn with a scholarly friend whose field is American religion. He pointed out to me – and I should have been aware of this, but emotion dulls the sight – that the theology here is in fact rather bad. A political/moral cause is elevated to the level of the work of salvation. The fighting of a war is compared to Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.
Howe was in fact a progressive, my friend pointed out. She had left Calvinism to embrace Unitarianism. In the manner of progressive Christians, she downplayed the atonement for sin and focused on the creation of a more just society. She and her compatriots were the forerunners of today’s social justice warriors.
There has never been a nobler cause in human history than the abolition of slavery. It’s a supreme triumph of Christian civilization – one for which Christian civilization gets insufficient credit. But it wasn’t the same thing as Christ’s redemption.
Having conceded that, I still have to say I’ll always love the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It’s not a true Christian hymn, but it’s a very good earthly sentiment. I’ll put it up against secular sentiments from anybody’s culture you care to name.
The original text for today’s hymn, “The God of Abraham Praise,” comes from Maimonides of the 12th century. Ken Myers writes, “The medieval Jewish philosopher Moses ben Maimon (commonly known as Maimonides, 1135?-1204) formulated a list of thirteen essential articles of faith. Some time after his death, probably in the late 14th century, his ‘creed’ was paraphrased in a metrical Hebrew poem, suitable for singing by Jewish congregations and cantors. This hymn is known as the ‘Yigdal,’ from the first Hebrew word in the poem, which means “magnify” or ‘praise.'”
“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire” (Daniel 7:9 ESV)
1 The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above, Ancient of everlasting days and God of love. Jehovah! Great I AM! by earth and heav’n confessed; I bow and bless the sacred name, forever blest.
2 The God of Abraham praise, at whose supreme command from earth I rise and seek the joys at his right hand. I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and pow’r, and him my only portion make, my shield and tow’r.
3 He by himself hath sworn, I on his oath depend; I shall, on eagles’ wings upborne, to heav’n ascend. I shall behold his face, I shall his pow’r adore, and sing the wonders of his grace forevermore.
4 The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty blest, a land of sacred liberty and endless rest. There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound, and trees of life forever grow, with mercy crowned.
5 There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our Righteousness, triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of Peace. On Zion’s sacred height his kingdom he maintains, and glorious with his saints in light forever reigns.
6 The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high; “Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” they ever cry. Hail, Abraham’s God and mine! I join the heav’nly lays; all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.
Today’s hymn comes from a man who is thought to have been one of the scholars behind the Geneva Bible of 1560. He lived for a time in Geneva (overlapping dates with the great John Calvin) and worked on 25 Psalm versifications for an English psalter. This one, derived from Ps. 100, has endured until today and found the most popularity. The tune also comes from Calvin’s service to the church, being attributed to his music director Louis Bourgeois.
“Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3 ESV)
1 All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice; him serve with fear, his praise forth tell, come ye before him and rejoice.
2 The Lord ye know is God indeed; without our aid he did us make; we are his folk, he doth us feed, and for his sheep he doth us take.
3 O enter then his gates with praise, approach with joy his courts unto; praise, laud, and bless his name always, for it is seemly so to do.
4 For why? The Lord our God is good, his mercy is forever sure; his truth at all times firmly stood, and shall from age to age endure.
Speaking of Norway, when I began earning spending money in my late teens, I agreed to receive the initial offer from The Musical Heritage Society. You could receive the monthly featured album (tape or CD) very naturally (they would just assume you wanted it) or refuse it. They sent a small musical review to let you know what you would receive with plenty of time to opt out. That’s how I was introduced to Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 which added a pipe organ to orchestra. It’s how I fell in love with Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 (The New World Symphony) and judge every other recording of it by the one I played repeatedly in my 20s. I was familiar with “Flight of the Bumblebee” and Scheherazade from the radio, so I bought four tapes of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, one with the Arabia Nights piece, the other three with several works I didn’t know, like the “Procession of the Nobles.”
The Musical Heritage Society is also how I purchased a tape of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, recorded with full choir for The Hall of the Mountain King and a gorgeous soprano for Solvieg’s Song. This recording, which I think only had voices in these two pieces,
I listened to this music so much, I engrained it in my mind. Later I forgot where certain familiar melodies (one or two) came from. I remembered them casually, almost as if I’d made them up, and lo, they were from Peer Gynt. Moments like that make me think I haven’t had an original thought in my life. Maybe all of my ideas are just a snatch of something I heard in the past, ripped from its context, its source forgotten.
We had realized for many months the insecurity of our position in England as there was so much hate growing in the hearts of the general populace. This could be understood because we had many German members; also the pacifism of our English members roused a bitter spirit in nationalistic minds.
It is my custom, every May 17, to make some kind of mention of Norway’s Constitution Day, celebrated each year on this date. I’ve told the story of the holiday many times – this year I’ll restrict myself to saying that Norway celebrates its Constitution Day as its major national holiday because of a historical anomaly – we had a constitution for almost a century before we got independence. So Constitution Day became the traditional patriotic holiday.
The video above is rather nice – lots of natural beauty, in which Norway is excessively rich. If you’d like a translation of the lyrics, you can find it here.
The Syttende Mai present I received today was a good writing session. I actually gave myself the shivers reading the current draft of The Baldur Game. I suppose that’s insufferable, like comedians who laugh at their own jokes. But writing at my level offers few tangible rewards. And finding the same exhilaration in your own writing that you get from your favorite authors’ is as delicious as it is rare.
To make things even better, I had a thought today – not as common an occurrence as you might imagine. (G. B. Shaw once said that he’d made an international reputation by thinking once or twice a month.) I can’t remember what provoked the thought (perhaps it was the creative thrill I described above, but I’m not sure). But it suddenly appeared, fully formed in my head, and even after several hours I can find no fault with it. It goes like this:
No work of art is ever fully original, nor should it be. Art is a multimedia matrix of interactive themes and influences — all hyperlinked, in a sense. Taken all together, great art participates in an infinitely greater tapestry.
Today’s hymn is by German lawyer and hymnist Johann Jakob Schütz (1640-1690). The recording above has only two verses, and the second isn’t copied below. Perhaps it’s another translation.
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end” (Lamentations 3:22 ESV).
1 Sing praise to God who reigns above, The God of all creation, The God of pow’r, the God of love, The God of our salvation; With healing balm my soul He fills And ev’ry pain and sorrow stills: To God all praise and glory!
2 The angel hosts Thy praises sing Around Thy throne in heaven. On earth and sea, O mighty King, All praise to Thee is given. Let all who ‘neath Thy shadow dwell In hymns of praise Thy wisdom tell: To God all praise and glory!
3 What God hath wrought to show His might, He evermore sustaineth. His eye is o’er us day and night, His mercy never waneth. Thro’out His kingdom’s wide domain His works are right, His judgments plain: To God all praise and glory!
4 I cried to God in my distress, His mercy heard me calling; My Savior saw my helplessness And kept my feet from falling; For this, Lord, praise and thanks to Thee! Praise God most high, praise God with me! To God all praise and glory!
5 Ye, who confess the Savior’s name, To God give praise and glory! Ye who the Father’s might proclaim, To God give praise and glory! Let idols under foot be trod! The Lord is God! The Lord is God! To God all praise and glory!
6 Thus, all my gladsome way along, I’ll sing aloud Thy praises, That men may hear the grateful song My voice unwearied raises; Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, Both soul and body, bear your part; To God all praise and glory!
