O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His wonderful love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.
All hail to the King in splendor enthroned,
Glad praises we bring, Thy wonders make known.
Returning victorious great conqueror of sin,
King Jesus, all gracious, our victory will win.
----
I notice that there are several variants of the text available online. I took this one from a church bulletin. None of them vary significantly in content.
This hymn names many of the different names of God and calls for his worship and praise. It uses quite beautiful and flowery language. But it doesn't really say a whole lot about the Christian faith nor proclaim much about Christ. It comes the closest in the very last two lines, but still says very little for all the words expended. Some lines are very vague and perhaps leave quite a bit up to interpretation.
I think a hymn like this sometimes passes the test to be used for church unfortunately simply because it is a hymn and uses church-like language - on the surface it sounds like a rather Lutheran hymn. But does it preach the Gospel? Teach the law? No, not very convincingly. We can do better.
Update: Several readers pointed out that I may have been too harsh in my evaluation. Read on in the comments for some more good discussion...
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"O Worship the King" is what I would call a "First Article hymn." It speaks of God's power, providence, and protection -- all subjects that we teach in our youth catechism classes when we discuss the First Article of the Apostles Creed.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound odd coming from a guy like me, but I don't necessarily have a problem with a hymn like this. We don't deny the First Article just because it doesn't cover the doctrine of salvation. Luther states near the end of his Small Catechism explanation to the First Article: "For all [these blessings] I ought to thank and praise, to serve and obey [God]." So God's creation, providence, and protection call forth our praise just as his salvation and redemption do.
But I wouldn't end my comments there, either. We confess the First Article, but our faith is built on the message in the Second Article. Without the saving and redeeming work of Jesus Christ, we would have little reason to praise God for daily bread. So a hymn on the First Article is certainly appropriate for worship, and a hymn on the Second Article is even more appropriate. If a First Article song is sung in worship, that's fine (assuming there are no other theological issues in the words). If First Article songs are the only songs sung on a given occasion, or if they are the musical main course and steady diet offered in worship, then I'd start raising some red flags.
In my opinion, First Article hymns work well as opening or sometimes closing hymns. I like to see Second Article texts in the Hymn of the Day spot and after the sermon (post-sermon hymn or distribution hymn). And I don't think First Article hymns work well as a substitute for the "Gloria in Excelsis," as they are sometimes used. Look at the doctrines confessed and proclaimed in the Gloria. A substitute deserves to have comparable content.
Amen. Please stand and sing the "Te Deum."
Just seconding what Pastor Strey said -- as I read your comments, Mark, my first thought was, "Not every hymn will fully express our doctrines!" Reading your comments out of context (and I admit this up front, that I'm ripping it out of context) I feel that the only hymns that would appeal to you would be as lengthy as the Formula of Concord. I know that's not your point, but that's the knee-jerk reaction I had.
ReplyDeleteAs Pastor Strey said, it's ok and perhaps even good on occasion to use a first article hymn or a hymn that focuses in on some other doctrine than justification. Am I saying we should ignore justification? Certainly not! That is still what the musical content of the service, and all the service, should focus on! Yet we can also praise God for, say, his creation. And that's not a bad thing! We're certainly thankful for that display of power as well, even if it comes in second to that little ol' salvation thing.
As one of my homiletics profs once told me, "Remember, you've got 52 Sundays and 70 services every year...you don't have to get everything in every sermon."
ReplyDeleteThat's the glory of the Church Year. While we proclaim Christ crucified predominately and consistently, while every week is Easter, we also have the weeks that focus on the rest of Scripture, and we must, because, "Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us" (Romans 15:4).
I heartily third Pr. Strey's remarks. While making sure that the gospel predominates in our worship (Second Article), we at the same time will proclaim proudly the whole counsel of God, as Paul did, and teach the 1st and 3rd Articles, the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, etc. etc. etc.
And if occasionally that means a more Twinkee-like hymn is part of our worship, that's fine. Eating a twinkee now and again won't kill us. But it can't be our steady diet.
On the other hand, I do understand your concerns, for when I worship plan and look at the texts of the hymns I'm considering for a given Sunday, I'm always concerned that if a hymn has absolutely no gospel proclamation. And so sometimes that's enough to strike that hymn.
But, then I look at the context of the service, how will it fit in with everything else?
And again, we can say, "Thank God for the Liturgy," because it helps us worry just a little less about hymns like this. If this hymn is mostly First Article, well then good thing we've got the Confession/Absolution, Gloria, Creed, and Agnus Dei. They certainly help balance things out.
Satis.
Grace and peace,
Ben
Thanks for all the constructive comments!
ReplyDelete