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FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MUSIC: THREE CHRIST HYMNS FOR LENT
Greetings, dear friends! As part of my Lenten discipline and renewal, I find inspiration and illumination in the words of great hymns. I share with you this month three hymns which survey the life of Jesus from birth to death to life. Many of you will know these texts, which we sing with some regularity. WMcC
O SING A SONG OF BETHLEHEM (Glory to God #159)
O sing a song of Bethlehem, Of shepherds watching there,
And of the news that came to them From angels in the air:
The light that shone on Bethlehem Fills all the world today;
Of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth The angels sing always.
O sing a song of Nazareth, Of sunny days of joy,
O sing of fragrant flowers, breath, And of the sinless boy:
For now the flow’rs of Nazareth In every heart may grow;
Now spreads the fame of his dear name
On all the winds that blow.
O sing a song of Galilee, Of lake and woods and hill,
Of him who walked upon the sea And bade the waves be still:
For thought, like waves on Galilee, Dark seas of trouble roil,
When faith has heard the master’s word, Falls peace upon the soul.
O sing a song of Calvary, Its glory and dismay;
Of him who hung upon the tree, And took our sins away:
For he who died on Calvary Is risen from the grave,
And Christ our Lord, by heav’n adored, Is mighty now to sve.
--------Words (1899): Louis Fitzgerald Benson (1855-1930). This text is in the Public Domain.
Philadelphia-born Louis Benson, who wrote this vivid poetic portrayal of the life of Christ, abandoned the practice of law to pursue the (Presbyterian) ministry. He became editor of a number of Presbyterian hymnals, taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, and wrote several books on hymnody. His words have been immortalized in at least 60 hymnals, set to the tune “Kingsfold,” an English country song melody adapted by the great British musician, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) for The English Hymnal (1906).
MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN (Glory to God #209)
My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be.
O who am I, That for my sake,
My Lord should take Frail flesh, and die?
He came from His blest throne, Salvation to bestow,
But men made strange, and none The longed-for Christ would know;
But oh, my Friend, My Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.
Sometimes they strew His way, And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!: Is all their breath,
And for His death They thirst and cry.
They rise and needs will have My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save, The Prince of life they slay.
Yet cheerful He To suffering goes,
That He His foes From thence might free.
Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King, Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, In whose sweet praise
I all my days Could gladly spend.
-------Words (1664): Samuel Crossman (1624-1683). This text is in the Public Domain.
This extraordinary text, especially appropriate for Palm Sunday, is by the English poet, Samuel Crossman, known for the personal devotional character of his hymns. This hymn appears in over 100 hymnals, paired with a number of tunes. Without a doubt the best marriage of text and tune is with the melody “Love Unknown,” composed in 1918 for this text by the British musician/composer/teacher, John Ireland (1879-1962). I have encountered many hymn-writers who regard this as one of the finest hymns ever written.
A STABLE LAMP IS LIGHTED (Glory to God #160)
A stable lamp is lighted whose glow shall wake the sky:
the stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, and straw like gold shall shine;
a barn shall harbor heaven a stall become a shrine.
This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by;
the palm shall strew its branches, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, though heavy, dull, and dumb,
and lie within the roadway to pave his kingdom come.
Yet he shall be forsaken, and yielded up to die,
the sky shall groan and darken, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, for hearts made hard by sin:
God’s blood upon the spearhead, God’s love refused again.
But now, as at the ending, the low is lifted high;
the stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, in praises of the child
by whose descent among us the worlds are reconciled.
-------Words (1958): Richard Wilbur.
© 1961, ren. 1981 Richard Wilbur (admin. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company)
This wondrous text, by the great poet Richard Wilbur (1921-2017), Poet Laureate of the United States (and father of my college classmate, Nathan), was written in 1958 for the Christmas Vespers service at Wesleyan College (Middletown, CT), where Wilbur was writer-in-residence. Published in 1961 with the title “A Christmas Hymn,” it is often used at Christmas to broaden that celebration to acknowledge the link of nativity to crucifixion. The hymn is, of course, strikingly appropriate for Palm Sunday, as well. Of several musical settings, the undisputed best is the tune “Andujar,” composed in 1983 for this text by David Hurd (b. 1950), distinguished American composer and church musician.
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