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Stories of the Hymns - 10/22/2017

Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Stories of the Hymns
Sunday October 22, 2017
Page numbers reference the blue Presbyterian Hymnal

O Worship the King #476
This hymn was written by Sir Robert Grant, a Scottish Anglicanwho was born in India in 1779.  Robert’s father, Charles Grant supported Wilberforce, an early and effective opponent of slavery. Both father and son served as members of Parliament and directors of the East India Company.  Robert wrote this hymn in 1833, a year before being appointed Governor of Bombay, a position that he held until his death. This hymn was inspired by a 16th century hymn by William Kethe — a hymn that was, in turn, inspired by Psalm 104.  If you read Psalm 104 alongside the words of this hymn, you will find several similarities For instance: The psalm (v. 2) speaks of God as “wrapped in light as with a garment,” and the hymn speaks of God “whose robe is the light.” The psalm (v. 2) says, “You stretch out the heavens like a tent,” and the hymn uses the phrase, “whose canopy space.” The psalm (v. 3) says, “You make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind.”  The hymn says, “His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.” The first two verses of the hymn celebrate God’s glory.  The last two verses celebrate God’s love and providence.  God’s greatness and God’s loving providence—go together.  God’s power makes it possible for him to provide for us “frail children of dust” (v. 4.). The tune LYONS, named after the French city, was composed by Joseph Martin Kraus, (1756-1792) sometimes referred to as “The Swedish Mozart” who is quoted as saying “Should not church music be mostly for the heart?” Under Gustav III, he was appointed vice-Kapellmeister of the Royal Swedish Opera and eventually director of the Royal Academy of Music.

Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated, Lord #391
Frances Havergal (1836-1879) was an unusual woman.  The daughter of a minister, she mastered Greek and Hebrew to read the scriptures in their original languages.  Having grown up in England, she traveled in Europe and enjoyed skiing in the Swiss Alps––an unusual recreation in the nineteenth century.  She was also an accomplished singer who sometimes sang with the Philharmonic. Havergal was a Christian all her life, but at age 36 experienced what we might describe as a conversion experience.  A little book entitled All for Jesus made her aware of the incompleteness of her own devotion, and she rededicated her life to Christ. Soon thereafter, she spent five days with a small group of people, some of whom were not Christians, and others of whom were lukewarm.  She spent those five days witnessing to them and praying for them, and was delighted to see her prayers answered.  By the end of that week, all ten people had devoted themselves to Christ.  That night, too excited to sleep, Havergal sat up writing this hymn, "Take My Life and Let It Be."  Her devotion to Christ took many shapes.  For one, she quit singing in secular venues and devoted herself to Christian music. For another, she donated her collection of jewelry to a missionary society to raise money for mission endeavors.  But those were merely minor notes in the symphony of devotion that was Frances Havergal's life.  ~Richard Niell Donovan2007 The tune is HENDON, composed in 1827 by H.A. César Malan (1787-1864) known widely as the originator of the modern hymn movement in the French Reformed Church.

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee #464
Henry Jackson Van Dyke (1852-1933) served as a professor of English literature at Princeton and an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors. He chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, He wrote the lyrics to the popular hymn, "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" in 1907. The all-encompassing text is meant to show the interplay between the joy given to God by His creation, and the joy we receive through this creation. The third verse is especially poignant in that it directs our attention from creation to Christ, and reminds us that our joy means nothing if we do not live out of that joy in love of one another. We have all heard this line again and again: we rush through life too quickly to stop and be filled with joy. And more so than anything, even when it seems to be crumbling around us, it’s a world redeemed by Christ. What can we raise to our Savior but this outburst of joy? Neale Donovan.  The tune ODE TO JOY or HYMN TO JOY is the adaptation of Beethoven’s famous final movement of his Ninth Symphony into a melody fit for congregational singing. It is a tune of grandeur and, fittingly, joy. The only point of contention about this tune revolves around one note. In Beethoven’s symphony, there is a “pick-up note” into the third line. Paul Westermeyer argues that using this syncopated rhythm allows the congregation to sing music “in its integrity” (Let the People Sing, 202). Austin Lovelace, however, in the same article, argues that this “syncopation is a stumbling block to congregational singing and does nothing to make the hymn easier to sing or understand”. Our hymnal agrees with the first opinion above and uses the eager ‘jump ahead’ syncopation into the third line!

Partial Bibliography for these Hymn Stories: primarily from http://www.hymnary.org,