Oklahombres

hat can I say? I have been re-orienting priorities, and haven’t posted anything here since back in the fall. The Heidelberg posts were all set up to automatically post since the very beginning. I would like to have set up something similar for 2010, but it didn’t happen. The “Friday Photo” posts, although quite fun for me, took a good bit of time to produce, so they fell away before all blossoms had completely left our landscape. I am sorry about that, but other priorities had crept in, and something had to go. We may post some landscape photos from time to time this year, but don’t expect much, and you won’t be disappointed. We will see what happens.

If I ever get some free time in 2010, I would like to concentrate my posts on church music. Much of my thought has been provoked by posts this last year by Douglas Wilson on the subject. Rather than comment on his comments, here is a link to his category page on Musical Exhortation which lists all all of them, the first beginning in April of 2009. Start at the bottom (there are two pages at present) and work your way up for best results, although they can be read randomly with similar results. Much of what Wilson has to say will stretch your mind a good bit, but don’t shut him out just because he may step on your toes. He will make you think, and that’s good. I know many connected to leading and creating (and singing) church music don’t think so, but trust me, you will get use to it in time. It might do us all some good, eventually.

he hymn Man of Sorrows is atypical of the majority of hymns coming out of that period in American history defined as “revivalism,” that period making up the last half of the 19th century, and confined roughly to the northeastern part of the country. Man of Sorrows is so Christ centered. The Reformers and the Puritans put together couldn’t do much better. The hymn, tune and all, was written by Philip Bliss around 1875. It was one of the last hymns he wrote before he and his wife were tragically killed in a train accident caused by a bridge collapse in December of 1876. He was only 38 years old at the time of his death. I am not typically a huge fan of hymnody from this period, but Man of Sorrows is a bright exception.

In a discussion we were having the other day, my wife mentioned one of the lines of Man of Sorrows. Later that night I woke up and was unable to get back to sleep for a while, and the one line of verse was there in my thoughts. Soon I was singing in my head the whole hymn, which started me marveling at the fact that every line was quite scriptural. This is despite the fact that each line is simple and short and the rhyme pattern is uncomplicated. A few days later I copied the whole hymn and began to write down the Scripture references you see linked beside each line below, which only took me about fifteen minutes. There may be better references to some of these lines, but these were simply the first ones that came to mind. Click on the reference links below and the passage will pop up in a small window. You don’t even have to leave this post to view the Bible passages.

…psallam spiritu, psallam et mente. (1 Cor. 14:15)

Man of Sorrows! what a name (Isaiah 53:3)
For the Son of God, who came (Matthew 16:16)
Ruined sinners to reclaim: (Ephesians 2:12)
Hallelujah! what a Saviour! (Revelation 19:1)

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, (Matthew 27:39-44)
In my place condemned he stood, (1 Peter 3:18)
Sealed my pardon with his blood: (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Hallelujah! what a Saviour! (Revelation 19:1)

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we; (Romans 3:10-20; James 3:6; Matthew 9:36)
Spotless Lamb of God was he; (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19)
Full atonement! can it be? (Hebrews 9:26)
Hallelujah! what a Saviour! (Revelation 19:1)

Lifted up was he to die, (John 3:14)
“It is finished!” was his cry: (John 19:30)
Now in heav’n exalted high: (Ephesians 1:20-22)
Hallelujah! what a Saviour! (Revelation 19:1)

When he comes, our glorious King, (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 10)
All his ransomed home to bring, (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
Then anew this song we’ll sing: (Revelation 5:9)
Hallelujah! what a Saviour! (Revelation 19:1)

I heard it was in the works late last  year, so Monday I was surprised to read so soon that the new 2008 edition of the Baptist Hymnal was out. I don’t know why, but I figured that it would be more than a year before a new Baptist Hymnal saw the light of day, but no. The initial tip came from Michael Spencer, who merely pointed to the article with all the info by Isaiah Six. While quite informative overall, I was actually looking for just a few words, and there they were:

One of the main concerns the folks at LifeWay addressed in compiling this hymnal was the theological depth of the material. I’ve communicated here and elsewhere many times that the theological content of what we sing is so much more important than the style in which we sing it. The new hymnal weighs that thought heavily and makes theology a hallmark of the new publication.

Last fall I had read the initial announcement at Baptist Press, of the beginning of work on a new hymnal, encouraged by the section indicating that theology was going to be a more intentional priority than with past editions. I mentioned this to my pastor at the time, who replied “That’s what they said when they began working on the 1991 edition.” So, I was anxious for confirmation, more concrete news; news which I found in the article mentioned above. Excited about the prospect, I went to LifeWay’s website to purchase a copy, only to find that both the Baptist Hymnal and the Worship Hymnal (a generic version for non-baptist or stealth-baptist congregations) were listed in the online catalog but, alas, not in stock.

Now, isn’t that just like Christianity? When some Harry Potter novel comes out you can order it ahead from Amazon or some such, so that it is shipped the day the book is released. But if it is something to do with Christianity, just because it has a release date doesn’t mean you can actually buy one any time soon.

So I guess I will have to wait some more to see if this new Baptist Hymnal pays more attention to theology. And then if it does, there’s a whole new concern: whose theology? But that should be a whole different post.

One thing I discovered in all of this is that this new hymn is not just a new hymn book, it’s a project. LifeWay has dubbed it the Worship Project in which all kinds of resources are available online that are connected to the new Baptist Hymnal. One little resource that I found interesting was a free-to-download pdf of a content comparison of the four most recent Baptist Hymnals, so that you can see what got added and what got dropped (and what got added again).

Go check it all out, but don’t order a new Baptist Hymnal. It might slow down the arrival of mine.

ow this may offend some of you Praise-n-Worship brothers, but think about it before you write it off as an old crank who dislikes contemporary worship styles. This illustration was not totally my idea. I have to tip my hat to the crew over at The Whitehorse Inn—from the August 10th episode—for providing the seed for this. That particular podcast had so many priceless gems scattered throughout it you will be doing yourself a favor by finding it and listening to it. Well, here goes.

The Praise-n-Worship philosophy of worship is “Don’t just sit there. Do something.” Where can we find an example of this in Scriptures?

Exodus 32:17-19

The orthodox philosophy of worship is “Don’t just do something. Sit there…and worship.” And where might you find an object lesson for this position?

Luke 10:38-42

What do you think? I know this wouldn’t pass for solid argumentation, but maybe the parody value will make you stop and ask yourself some serious questions. The problem I have is that I can’t seem to get that scene out of my head where Charlton Heston plays Moses and the children of Israel are all tom-cattin’ around that golden calf, and the fact that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33), and that he says “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

Like I said, before you write it all off, think about what you do in a “worship” service, and ask your self why you do what you do, the way you do it. Is it because that is what you like, or is it because you believe it best honors God?

ometimes the force of a quotation is delivered as much by who made it as what it was they said. Here is a good example.

“With music one can seduce men to every error—and every truth.”

—Friedrich Nietszche

My lands, if an atheist understands the power of music, how is it that the church does not?

So, pastor and/or song leader:

• What is your philosophy of the role of music in your church service?
• Is the preaching of the word of God central to your service, or is the music the main attraction?
• Do you coordinate the music in your service to compliment the preaching of God’s word?
• Do the words you sing build the body of Christ up in the same way as the preached word (Colossians 3:16), or is it just for entertainment value?
• To what are you seducing your congregation: truth or error?

he congregational singing where my wife and I worship is better than most. A good number in the congregation actually sing. We mostly sing hymns from the Baptist Hymnal on Sunday mornings, with more modern “praise choruses” mostly sung on Sunday evenings. Though it is far from the best, the Baptist Hymnal still contains many priceless gems. The title to this post comes from the first verse of one of those faithful, God-centered hymns that we sang this past Sunday morning; “Come, Christians, Join to Sing” (#231). This hymn was cradled on one side by “Praise Him! Praise Him!” (#227), and on the other by “When Morning Gilds the Sky” (#221). This is how a worship service should begin, with a call to worship, and with hymns comprising more than the insipid and nondescript “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Praise you, praise you, praise you, ohhhhh Lord.”

I haven’t seen very many posts around on the topic of congregational singing, at least not until the past week or so, and now just in the past couple of weeks there are four or five. Maybe this is a sign that some are beginning to connect the dots between the “shrinkage” problems that we now face in the SBC and the trajectory choices we have been making over the past half century in the area of congregational singing.

I first stumbled across The slow death of congregational singing in a post by Jonathan Leeman over at Church Matters. The approach to this article on congregational singing by Michael Raiter is uncommonly practical; it doesn’t criticize music style so much as it criticizes the philosophy of praise bands. Raiter argues that by its very nature praise bands drown out the congregation, and at the same time provide an atmosphere of performance, both of which discourages congregational participation. If I had to pick a one-sentence quote to sum up the whole article—which I believe defines at least one of the major problems of a praise-team approach—it would be “All the microphone does is make someone a very loud singer.”

I ran across the same article just a few days ago when the iMonk (aka Michael Spencer) used it as a spring board to his own post on hymnal congregational singing. To top that, a couple of weeks later he posted a second post, featuring a comment from his previous post. I’m not going to comment on the comment of a post of a post; well not much. These two posts pretty much say it all; well almost. My purpose here is to link you to some excellent arguments for traditional congregational singing (without a performance on stage). Spencer’s argument rightly begins with the subject of musical content:

I like a lot of contemporary worship music, but as a whole the content is different than the best older music. It’s designed for expressive presentation and not as much for edification through musical teaching or mutual encouragement. So you can have a lot of “You are holy!” and “I will worship,” as opposed to four or five verses describing the incarnation or considerations of the meaning of salvation.

Notice that Spencer is not arguing against style of music, but rather he is arguing from the angle of content; what information the song is delivering. In Spencer’s second post, his commenter, Tom Schwegler, cites five areas that make singing praise choruses more difficult, which I have abbreviated as 1) complexity of rhythms, 2) multiple “bridges” and ad-lib repeats, 3) the lack of a prominent melody to follow, 4) the lack of advance information about the music, and  5) a less precise oral transmission of music. Admittedly, this argument is based on style, but in a practical way, showing the liabilities inherently brought to congregational singing.

Now to represent the other side of the argument, at 12 Witnesses I found a link to this post called the controversial organ, in which Dan Kimball gives the history of the controversy of bringing the organ into church worship, followed by a couple of set-up scenarios. A set-up scenario, usually found in the form of a letter of complaint is one of those devices that draws an opponent in because it sounds like the crank in your church that is always complaining about the new praise song, only to find out that the letters were written well over a hundred years ago about traditional hymns you hold near and dear. In this case the device backfired because the second commenter to the post responded that he agreed with the criticisms of the two “old” hymns:

In the 19th century, there was an explosion of these kinds of sappy and sentimental songs that were lacking theologically and artistically shallow. This was the result of a confluence of a few things: 1) the feminization of the church, 2) Pietistic revivalism that sought to use music as a tool to create an emotional mood to bring about “repentance”, and 3) a turning away from traditionalism in favor of making the church mimic popular culture.

Now, I admit there is quite a bit of historical background to digest there, as well as in the rest of the brother’s comment, but all would benefit from a brief education in nineteenth-century Christianity in America. The best place to start is to familiarize yourself with the central figure of revivalism, Charles Finney. I can think of no better article expounding Finney than this article by Michael Horton. Another place to go would be to read Finney’s own Systematic Theology. There is a lot there so just read Finney’s view of justification, and if you rightly understand the gospel, you will see about what I and the above commenter am concerned. Finney influenced a multitude in his day, including many, many hymn writers.

I read somewhere the saying “We sing the faith into our hearts.” I ask you as I close, how much do you think about the content of what you sing? What is it teaching you and those around you about the truths of the faith? What faith are you singing into your and your fellow congregant’s hearts? What faith are you singing into your childrens’ hearts? Is it the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)? We have a mandate from Colossians 3:16 to teach and admonish one another by use of faithful Christian music, as well to use that medium to sing back to God the truths about himself as a means to praise. How faithful are we to “preach” the whole council of God (Acts 20:27) as we sing in church, not just what we feel like? Do we even sing at all? Look around you this next Sunday and see.

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Psalm 22:3 (KJV)

Does God inhabit the praises of the assembly where you worship?

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. . . . By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:8, 11 - ESV

Here’s a new(ish) song I heard the other day that tells part of the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. Careful, it’ll make you cry. If it doesn’t, you’re probably not regenerate. But then maybe the tune was a factor when I heard it, so just reading the words may not do you like it did me the other day when I heard it sung. The tune is one of those lonesome Irish/Celtic type tunes. The author/artist is Andrew Peterson and you can find the song at the iTunes Store, where you can hear a short sample for free and buy the song for ninety-nine cents; it’s called Canaan Bound. Here’s the words:

Sarah, take me by my arm
Tomorrow we are Canaan bound
Where westward sails the golden sun
And Hebron’s hills are amber crowned

So bid your troubled heart be still
The grass, they say, is soft and green
The trees are tall and honey-filled
So, Sarah, come and walk with me

Like the stars across the heavens flung
Like water in the desert sprung
Like the grains of sand, our many sons
Oh, Sarah, fair and barren one
Come to Canaan, come

I trembled at the voice of God
A voice of love and thunder deep
With love He means to save us all
And Love has chosen you and me

Long after we are dead and gone
A thousand years our tale be sung
How faith compelled and bore us on
How barren Sarah bore a son
So come to Canaan, come

Where westward sails the golden sun
And Hebron’s hills are amber crowned
Oh, Sarah, take me by my arm
Tomorrow we are Canaan Bound

Good stuff, huh? It made me think of our relationship to Abraham, and how we are part of that blessing of being sons and daughters of Abraham by faith, the same kind of faith that they had all those many, many years ago.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

Romans 4:16-18 - ESV