This past Sunday our class took up Lift Up Your Heart’s six hymns on Fall and the Human Condition, the shortest section in the hymnal. We weren’t familiar with most of them, but we were impressed by their compositional and theological sophistication. These are not hymns that allow verse skipping.

Since the first half of the hymnal is organized around the story of creation-fall-redemption, it needed some hymns about the fall. (Fall and the Human Condition is sandwiched between Creation and Providence and God’s Covenant Faithfulness in a larger section titled Old Testament Life and Witness that opens the hymnal.)

The section consists of three hymns that refer to the Fall and three imprecatory psalm settings (imprecatory psalms apparently saying something important about the human condition.)

Hymns about the Fall

“God Marked a Line and Told the Sea” (LUYH #28) is a hymn about lines and limits with definitely theological lyrics by Thomas Troeger. The first stanza is about the limit God put on the sea in the creation story. The second stanza is about the limit on eating the fruit in the garden. The third stanza informs us that:

The line, the limit, and the law
are patterns meant to help us draw
a bound between what life requires
and all the things our heart desires.

The fourth stanza describes our exceeding the limits, reaching “to take what is not ours.” The fifth is the conclusion:

We are not free when we’re confined
to every wish that sweeps the mind,
but free when freely we accept
the sacred bounds that must be kept.

Here is Bert Polman’s explanation of the hymn from hymnary.org: “Thomas Troeger based this text on Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17 for the First Sunday in Lent, Year A, when the assigned Old Testment reading is from Genesis 2 and 3 in the Revised Common Lectionary. Stanza 4 also references Job 38:8-11. Many of his hymn texts were written in direct response to scripture and for devotional use as well as singing in public worship. His texts often follow a three-step pattern of 1) Memory: to recall the passage; 2) Understanding: to explore the meaning, and 3) Will: to commit to live God’s will in accordance with both the memory and the understanding.”

The tune is DEO GRACIAS, which is also used in LUYH for “O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High” (LUYH #111/PH87 #364) and “Ride On, Ride On in Majesty” (LUYH #149/PH87 #382).

We concluded that “God Marked a Line and Told the Sea” is a candidate for congregational singing at Trinity, possibly with confession or as a response to appropriate sermons.

“How Sweet Was the Garden, Fertile and Fair” (LUYH #29) tells the story of the Fall: the garden was good (stanza 1); we ate the fruit (stanza 2); but God hasn’t given up on us (stanza 3). Here is the third stanza:

From dark, bitter fruit came forth a bright seed,
for God did not turn from us in our need;
the love that first formed us embraces us still
and woos us from wandering to follow God’s will.

The lyrics are by Carl Daw, who has ten songs in LUYH, including “Faith Begins by Letting Go” (LUYH #852/SNC #172) and “God of the Prophets” (LUYH #853/PH87 #521). The tune is LONG ISLAND SOUND by Rusty Edwards. Here is a sample.

Although I didn’t recognize it, our occasional choir apparently sang “How Sweet Was the Garden, Fertile and Fair” during last year’s Christmas Lessons & Carols service as a response to the Fall reading. It probably would work better with a choir or soloist than as a congregational hymn for us.

“What Adam’s Obedience Cost” (LUYH #34) tells the whole story of fall and redemption: Adam’s disobedience led to Eden lost (stanza 1); despite the Flood and “ark of mercy,” we “rebuilt… an unrepentant world” (stanza 2); through Jesus, “Eden is restored” (stanza 3) and “the kingdom is the Lord’s” (stanza 4); and we look ahead to New Jerusalem (stanza 5). The lyrics are by Fred Pratt Green. Here is a sample.

This hymn could be used as a Christmas song because the focus on Jesus is as “a little child” inspiring “joyful carols everywhere.” It would work at the end of a Lesson & Carols service.

Four Imprecatory(-ish) Psalms

Imprecatory psalms are those that pray for judgment or misfortune against enemies. Most lists of imprectory psalms don’t seem to include 52, 75 or 14/53, but they all celebrate God’s judgment and are treated by Lift Up Your Hearts and Psalms for All Seasons with special care for these elements. (LUYH specifically refers to 52 & 75 as “psalms of imprecation).

Three hymns in Lift Up Your Heart’s Fall and the Human Condition section are based on these psalms. For our class, we sang these three songs and additional songs for these psalms in Psalms for All Seasons. (We didn’t sing any of the psalm settings from the Psalter Hymnals, but I include those here.)

“God, Let Me Like a Spreading Tree” (LUYH #30/PFAS #52A) is a Psalm 52 setting by Doug Gray known in Psalms for All Seasons as “You Cunning Liar, Why Publicize.” The first seven verses of the psalm (stanzas 1-2) denounce the psalmist’s enemy and celebrate God’s coming judgment. In the final two verses (stanza 3), the psalmist declares “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God.” LUYH places the “God, let me like a spreading tree” stanza at the beginning and the end of the hymn, sandwiching (and de-emphasizing) the imprecatory part of the psalm. Here is that stanza:

God, let me like a spreading tree,
grow as I trust in your sure love.
Where loyal servants offer praise
within your house, I’ll add my voice
to glorify your holy name.

The tune is BACA.

“O God, Your Deeds Are Unsurpassed” (LUYH #32/PFAS #75A) is based on Psalm 75, which is about God as Judge. The lyrics, by Michael Morgan, place us in the position of the guilty (which the psalm doesn’t do) and asks God to “remove our pride” and “help us to know humility.” A sample is here.

According the Psalms for All Seasons performances notes: “It is dangerous to sing a psalm calling for God to judge the powerful or to pour a draught of bitter wine down the throats of the proud when the singers themselves may in fact be the powerful and the proud. Rather than representing the psalm as a call for judgment on others, this versification imagines that we may be the ones in danger of being judged as insolent. The psalm could first be read, after which the worship leader might ask, ‘Is it possible that some may be able to pray this psalm against us? Have we lifted ourselves up?’ After a moment of silence for contemplation, the congregation can sing this song with humility and contrition.”

“O God, Your Deeds Are Unsurpassed” is paired with  “God, Let Me Like a Spreading Tree” since they both use BACA and they are thematically connected to “Prayers of the Oppressed and Oppressor” (LUYH #31), which “may be prayed with the readings or singing of Psalm 52 or Psalm 75 or other psalms of imprecation.” One of the two prayers “assumes the voice of the psalmist in praying for judgment against those who hurt and oppress.” The other “assumes the voice of a person who may be the oppressor, the one the psalmist is praying against.”

“All Have Sinned” (LUYH #33/PFAS #53A) by Bev Herrema has three stanzas based on Psalms 14 & 53 (which are nearly identical) and a refrain from Romans 3 that shifts the theme from condemnation to redemption:

All have sinned, all have turned aside,
and there’s no one righteous.
But redemption will one day come
from Zion, so rejoice!

Here are samples of the first and second stanzas. The hymn is called “Hear the Fool” in Psalms for All Seasons for the beginning of the first stanza (“Hear the fool saying loud and long, there’s no God, we’re all alone”). LUYH’s name change shifts emphasis to the refrain. This song is suitable for congregation singing, perhaps after the confession/pardon of assurance.

Psalms 52, 75 or 14/53 in PFAS & the Psalter Hymnals

“You Cunning Liar, Why Publicize” is the only Psalm 52 hymn setting in Psalms for All Seasons. The responsorial setting is “But I Am Like a Green Olive Tree” (PFAS #52B). (Psalm 52’s only appearance in the Revised Common Lectionary is during Year C as a response to Amos 8, about the basket of ripe fruit.)

Psalms for All Seasons makes an odd choice with its second hymn setting of Psalm 75. “Canticle: My Soul Cries Out” (PFAS #75B/LUYH #69) is a song based on the Magnificat. The song appears in Lift Up Your Hearts as “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout” and is set to STAR OF COUNTY DOWN. (A sample is here.) It’s a great song, which we sang this past advent, but it isn’t Psalm 75. PFAS actually includes a canticle section that includes four settings of the Magnifcat; another is included as part of “A Service of Evening Prayer.” I don’t understand this choice.

“Hear the Fool” is the only song in the Psalm 53 section of  Psalms for All Seasons. The Psalm 14 section includes “Oh, That Your Salvation and Your Rescue” (PFAS #14A), which is in 5/8 time, making it unsuitable for congregational singing.

The responsorial setting is “Prone to Wander, Lord, I Feel It” (PFAS #14B), a line from “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (LUYH #521/PH87 #486/PH57 #314/PH34 #330/HFW #104) set to BEACH SPRING. (Psalm 14 is used twice in the lectionary, including as a response to the story of David and Bathsheba.) PFAS also includes “A Prayer of Confession” (PFAS #14C).

All the settings for these four psalms in the gray Psalter Hymnal are original versifications by Marie Post (14/53) or Helen Otte (52/75): “The Foolish in their Hearts Deny” (PH87 #14) set to MAPLE AVENUE, “Mighty Mortal, Boasting Evil” (PH87 #52) set MADILL, “The Foolish in Their Hearts Exclaim” (PH87 #53) set to BRISTOL, and “We Give Our Thanks to You, O God” (PH87 #75) set to WEYMOUTH.

The earlier Psalter Hymnals include five settings of the four psalms, four of which (all those in the 1934 Psalter Hymnal) are from the 1912 Psalter. The Psalm 14 settings are “The God Who Sits Enthroned on High” (PH34 #20) and “How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me” (PH57 #18). The Psalm 52 setting is “O Mighty Man, Why Wilt Thou Boast” (PH57 #97/PH34 #104). The Psalm 53 setting is “Fools in Their Heart Have Said” (PH57 #98/PH34 #105). The Psalm 75 setting is “To Thee, O God, We Render Thanks” (PH57 #143/PH34 #151).

My new Sunday school class with Andrew Friend, “Exploring our Hymnals,” kicked off earlier this month with a look at Lift Up Your Heart’s section on Teaching and Miracles.

Lift Up Your Hearts is organized into two divisions: The Story of Creation and Redemption and Worshipping the Trinune God. The latter has sections of hymns running through an order of worship: Opening of Worship, Called to Be Holy, Hearing the Word, Confessing Our Faith, Receiving the Sacraments, Living Our Baptism and Sent Out (each with subsections). The Story of Creation and Redemption division wraps the liturgical calendar into the larger story of God and his people. The sections are: Old Testament Life and Witness, Advent Expectation, Christ’s Life, Christ’s Passion and Exaltation, Joining in the Spirit’s Work, Trusting in the Triune God, and Hope for Things to Come.

The Christ’s Life section has six sub-sections: Christmas, Epiphany, Baptism of Our Lord, Teaching and Miracles, and Transfiguration and Lenten Journey. We chose Teaching and Miracles as our starting point because it is one of just four subsections we haven’t sung from at all since adopting the hymnal last year.

Of the 14 hymns in Teaching and Miracles, five can be found in Sing! A New Creation and eight are in Singing the New Testament, a Faith Alive hymnal of songs derived directly from specific New Testament passages. Of its 260 hymns, only nine (!) were included in Lift Up Your Hearts (according to this great spreadsheet). Among our discussion topics Sunday were why these sort of hymns are so unpopular and how to use them during a worship service (other than the obvious use as response to one of the source passages).

Jesus Calling Disciples and their Response

“Tú has venido a la orilla/You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore” (LUYH #116/SNC #269) was composed by Cesáreo Gabarain, a Spanish priest involved in post-Vatican II liturgical renewal, following a visit to the Sea of Galilee. We used to sing it regularly from Sing! A New Creation, usually as a closing hymn. The song is from the perspective of a fisherman being called to be Jesus’ disciple. Here’s the refrain:

O Lord, you have looked down into my eyes;
kindly smiling, you‘ve called out my name.
On the sand I have abandoned my small boat;
now with you I will seek other seas.

In my view (which was not held by everyone in the class) the tune (sample here) is extremely boring.

“Jesus Calls Us, O‘er the Tumult” (LUYH #121/PH87 #553/PH57 #459/PH34 #443), a better song about Jesus calling disciples, is one of the 70-some perennial  hymns to appear in all four main CRC hymnals. It was written by Cecil Alexander for St. Andrew‘s Day (1852). [Alexander also wrote “Once in David’s Royal City” (PH87 #346), but has no other hymns in LUYH.] The earlier hymnals had four stanzas, but LUYH adds a fifth (“Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world’s golden store…”). The tune is GALILEE.

Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult
of our life’s wild, restless sea,
day by day his voice is sounding,
saying, “Christian, follow me.”

“Come to Me, O Weary Traveler“ (LUYH #123/SNT #56) was written  in 1991 by Sylvia Dunstan, a prison chaplain, “on a commuter bus [in 1991] after a particularly bad day (visiting inmates) at the jail” and is based on Matthew  11:28-30 (“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened…”). [Her other compositions include “You, Lord, Are Both Lamb and Shepherd” (LUYH #225), “All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly” (LUYH #534) and “Go to the World” (LUYH #925).] The tune is AUSTIN.

“Somlandela”/“We Will Follow” (LUYH #129) is a traditional Zulu hymn that we agreed would make a lively closing song. It’s a response to Jesus’ call, promising to follow him “through the valleys,” “to the mountains,” “in the city,” “in our classroom,” and “in our calling.”

“I Heard the Voice of Jesus Calling” (LUYH #128) is an Iona Community hymn that reports various things Jesus said. Here is stanza 1:

I heard the voice of Jesus calling;
here’s what he said to me:
If you don’t let me wash your feet,
I can’t your Savior be; no, I can’t your Savior be.

Subsequent stanzas have Jesus saying “All that you do for the least of these—that’s what you do to me”; If you have ears to hear, then hear; if you have eyes, then see”; “This is my body, given for you—why don’t you taste and see?” et cetera (there are seven total stanzas). Why these particular sayings were chosen is unclear to me. The song could be used as an offertory or elsewhere depending on the choice of stanzas.

Jesus’ Parables

I’m going to write another post on parable hymns once I start posting Naomi’s artwork from our parables class. We sang parable songs in that class (usually with guitar); most were either from Singing the New Testament or Selah Publishing’s And Jesus Said, a collection of 55 parable songs. Only four parable songs made it into Lift Up Your Hearts.

“The Kingdom of Our God Is Like” (LUYH #118/SNT #34) is based on the five parables from Matthew 13: the Hidden Treasure, Mustard Seed, Yeast, Pearl of Great Price and Net. The lyrics are by Christopher Webber. The tune (DOVE OF PEACE) is from Southern Harmony (1835).

“Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” (LUYH #119/SNT #47) is a great African American spiritual based on an image from the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. I’m skeptical that our congregation could sing it in the style it should be.

“Far from Home We Run, Rebellious” (LUYH #122/SNT #40) is one of only two songs from And Jesus Said to be included in Lift Up Your Hearts, but with a different tune. The lyrics, by Herman Stuempfle, put the singer in the position of the prodigal son.

Far from home we run rebellious,
seeking cities bright with dreams
casting loose from love that claims us,
craving life that glitters, gleams.

And Jesus Said sets the song to RESTORATION. Singing the New Testament and Lift Up Your Hearts uses GOTT WILL’S MACHEN by Johann Ludwig Steiner (1723). Steiner’s minor mode melody is used for the first three stanzas, about the experience of the prodigal in rebellion. Norma de Waal Malefyt wrote a major alternative for the final three stanzas, about the father’s greeting. The final stanza (about “bread and wine for celebration” make this a fine communion song . It could also be used for our confession/assurance of pardon section.

“A Sower’s Seed Fell on a Path” (LUYH #124/SNT #33), also by Herman Stuempfle, has four stanzas for each of the four places the seed falls in the Parable of the Sower. It is set to MORNING SONG, the mostly commonly used tune (five times) in Lift Up Your Hearts. It would be good song for illumination before the message because of its refrain: “Lord, give us ears to hear your Word and hearts where seed can grow.”

Sermon on the Mount/Jesus’ “I Am” Statements

“Blest Are They” (LUYH #117/SNC #122/SNT #19) is David Haas’ versification of the beatitudes, which we were were familiar with from Sing! A New Creation. [Eight hymns by Haas are in Lift Up Your Hearts, including the short Psalm 27 song “The LORD Is My Light and My Salvation” (PFAS #885/PFAS #27H/SNC #206)]. A sample is here. This excellent humn could be used as a response to our confession/assurance section, among other place in the liturgy.

“Look and Learn” (LUYH #120/SNC #186/SNT #24/SWM #110), based on Matthew 6:23-24, is a Korean hymn by Nah Young-Soo, translated and adopted by John Bell for the Iona Community. A sample is here. This is another good song that could work as a response to our confession/pardon section. Here is the first stanza:

Look and learn from the birds of the air,
flying high above worry and fear;
neither sowing nor harvesting seed,
yet they’re given whatever they need.
If the God of earth and heaven
cares for birds as much as this,
won’t he care much more for you,
when you put your trust in him?

“Jesus the Lord Said, “I Am the Bread” (LUYH #125/SNC #121/SNT #27) is an Urdu hymn versifying Jesus’ seven “I am” statements in John. Giving a verse to each statements, it’s very repetitive. The tune is here.

Jesus’ Miracles

“Jesus Heard with Deep Compassion” (LUYH #127/SNC #124) has modern lyrics by Joy Patterson set to PLEADING SAVIOR from J. Leavitt’s Christian Lyre (1830) [the tune used for “As We Gather at Your Table” (SNC #245) in Sing! A New Creation]. Despite  the section’s title “Teaching and Miracles,” I believe this is the only one to focus on Jesus’ miracles. The first two stanzas address Jesus’ treatment of “outcasts, weak or sinful, scornful or poor.” The third calls for us to do the same. Here is the first stanza:

Jesus heard with deep compassion pleas for
healing, cries of pain;
cured the lame and cleansed the leper, gave the
blind their sight again.
At his voice, tormenting spirits fled a madman’s
tortured mind;
clothed and healed, he went rejoicing, home and
family to find.

Singing the New Testament includes 15 hymns in its Christ’s Miracles section, none of which I’ve heard of.

 Psalm 49

“Come, One and All” (LUYH #126/PFAS #49B)) is a Psalm 49 setting that is in this section of Lift Up Your Hearts for some reason. Because the title sounds like something Jesus would say? The tune, KIÚ-JĪ-IT, is a very catchy Asian melody; the performance notes recommend that it “should not be sung forcefully, but gently, as a wise bard sharing ancient proverbs.” The lyrics, by Martin Leckebusch, capture the main ideas of the psalm, which addresses the folly of those who put their trust in wealth, which can’t save them from death. Here is the first stanza:

Come, one and all, from near and far,
to share the insights I have found:
a heart which has been taught by faith
informs the wisdom I expound.

I like the song, but I’m not sure when we’d sing it. The Revised Common Lectionary assigns Psalm 49 only once, as part of the alternate stream in Year C. I suppose it could be a response to a message related to Jesus’ teaching on money.

Since it’s unlikely we’ll ever have full a class on Psalm 49, I’m going to use this occasion to do a brief overview of the other Psalm 49 settings in CRC hymnals.

“Let Not the Wise” (PFAS #49C) is the other hymn setting in Psalms for All Seasons. It consists of a short stanza (“Let not the wise glory in their wisdom. Let not the mighty glory in their might. Let not the rich glory in their riches, let those who glory, glory in the LORD.”) and two spoken parts, based on vv. 1-3 and vv. 10-12.

The PFAS responsorial is “Teach Us, Lord, the Measure of Our Days” (PFAS #49A).

The gray Psalter Hymnal’s Psalm 49 setting is “Listen, All People Who Live in This World” (PH87 #49), another original (non-rhyming) versification by Helen Otte. It is set to JULIUS. The earlier Psalter Hymnals have two settings from the 1912 Psalter: “Hear This, All Ye People, Hear” (PH57 #90/PH34 #96), set to FISK, and “Dust to Dust, the Mortal Dies” (PH57 #91/PH34 #97), set to WATCHMAN.