PSALMS,
HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS
SEPTEMBER 21, 2008
Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle
In
last week’s message entitled FINDING YOUR PRAYING STYLE, we explored the many
and different ways that people pray and I tried to provide as many examples as I
could -all with the underlying premise that each of us needs to find a style
that is our own AND with an assumption, I think, that is good to be open to a
variety of ways of praying. Now, if you missed that sermon, I’m not going to
bore you by re-preaching it. Heck,
I can bore you with a brand new sermon instead!
Seriously, if you weren’t here, I’d suggest that you either check
last week’s sermon out on our web site or by picking up a copy on our back
table here this morning.
Now,
last week we indicated that among the MANY ways that people pray, praying
THROUGH music and praying through singing means a lot to a lot of people. And so
then we turn to this week’s topic in this TEACH US TO PRAY series, this sermon
entitled PSALMS, HYMNS, and SPIRITUAL SONGS. You know, it’s interesting-
Francis of Assisi back in the 12th century once coined this cute
little phrase in which he said that ‘ Singing is like praying twice.’ It’s
an interesting phrase, but, in deference to Francis, I have to say that the
first thing we need to wrap our minds around is the fact that MUSIC IS PRAYER.
It sounds so simple, but it’s also so easy for us to see choir anthems or the
hymns we sing as enhancing worship, that is, enlivening it and giving us a break
from spoken word after spoken word and providing an uplifting reprieve even when
the sermon doesn’t tickle our fancy, so easy that we can readily forget that
the act of listening to a choir or singing a hymn ourselves is no more and no
less than a powerful act of worship IN ITS OWN RIGHT and UNDER ITS OWN POWER! When
you are singing in church, if your mind and heart are where your mind and heart
ought to be...YOU ARE PRAYING!
So,
this morning, then, let’s talk about music as prayer and for those of you who
want to go into even more detail, I’d be happy to provide you with copies of a
Sermon Series I did years ago entitled THE HYMNS WE SING. Many of you may
remember that and for those who do, I guarantee that what I’ll say today is
not merely a repeat of that series, but rather an attempt to focus all of us,
right here and right now, on the relationship between what we hear and what we
sing and our deepest spiritual relationship, this relationship with our God.
For, at the heart of ALL prayer, spoken or sung is this relationship, this
relationship with God!
I’d
like to start here by suggesting that those three Bible passages we heard a
while back point to the importance of music in the early development and history
of Christianity. In one reading, we see Paul and Silas in prison and singing
hymns at night. Think about this: They are IN PRISON and singing hymns. I
remember reading how Martin Luther King did that too and when faced with
imprisonment marched joined with others in
singing those words of the Bible: I SHALL NOT BE, I SHALL NOT BE MOVED (
2x)...JUST LIKE A TREE THAT’S PLANTED BY THE WATER, I SHALL NOT BE MOVED. In
another, we read of the night before Jesus died and how after they shared the
bread and cup of what we now call Communion, those who were with Jesus did what?
They SANG...with Him as He prepared to be killed1They sang because singing and
praying were so deeply imbedded in their religious culture, so much a part that
we read those famous words in Colossians addressed to followers of Jesus that
with gratitude in our hearts ( remember what we have said about praise and
thanks?), with gratitude in our hearts , we are to sing ‘psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs’ to God. You see, making music before God was part of the
culture in which Jesus was raised and it has remained an integral part of the
living tapestry that is the Christian church ever since.
Many,
many years ago, the late songwriter Jim Croce composed and recorded these famous
lines:
‘
Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong, so I had to say I
love you...with a song.’
Our
ancestors understood this and right here in this book we can find 150 incredible
pieces of work, many of which were composed for the specific purpose of being
set to music, whose writers’ emotions could ONLY be fully expressed IF they
were set to music! I’m talking, of course, about the book of Psalms. It’s
these Psalms that Jesus prayed and we can presume that Jesus sang. It is these
Psalms that have been set to music in many varied ways throughout the different
cultures in which the Christian faith has grown, many of us here familiar with
the Scottish Psalter or Anglican chant. Thus, the tradition of joining in song,
in praying to God through song, goes back a LONG WAY and it goes right through
Jesus.
As
Christianity grew, another use of music developed as people began the act of
LISTENING to choirs perform. What choirs would sing would be variations on those
ancient Psalms as well as parts of what we call the liturgy, in other words the
order of Christian worship. A glimpse at the old Pilgrim Hymnal turns up some
curious Latin phrases from those European days of yore- SANCTUS, AGNUS DEI,
KYRIE, GLORIA PATRI....Look it up! Talented composers would construct original
melodies that would be performed by these choirs. Many within the church,
however, concerned that merely listening was not enough, developed musical
chants for the entire congregation to sing. Even back in those days when the
worship of virtually the entire church was in Latin, the language of the Roman
Empire, it was not enough to just sit back and let the priest do the Mass. Thus,
some of the phrases we have come to associate with worship have their roots in
these attempts to make worship more participatory.
‘ The Lord Be with You/ And Also with You/ Peace Be With You/ And also
with you.’
One
could argue though that the greatest development in church music really happened
after Martin Luther tacked those 95 Theses on the cathedral door in Wittenberg,
triggering that series of events known as the REFORMATION. One of the great
effects of the Reformation, as we know, was to forge a new emphasis on
CONGREGATIONAL SINGING which led to an incredible explosion of original hymns
,hundreds, thousands written since 1517, in different languages with melodies
unique to their cultures( from the tavern song of Luther’s A MIGHTY FORTRESS
to the Latin sound of PESCADOR DE HOMBRES to South Africa’s MARCHING IN THE
LIGHT OF GOD) hymns based on the
Bible and inspired by the Bible, but containing within them unique personal
interpretations and using words not just from the Bible, but drawn from the
experience of those who wrote the hymns. As example, just turn to the hymn
AMAZING GRACE , # 202, BLUE HYMNAL- Now, note the Biblical reference from Jn
9:25 ‘ This much I know, I once was blind, but now I see’, then go to the
song----SAY WORDS- See how the
composer , John Newton, weaves words, of personal experience and faith, using
phrases from the Bible, but also outside of the Bible ( ‘ Through many
dangers, toils and snares, I have already come) thus creating a hymn that has
the power and capacity to speak to the experience of faith of generations not
yet born at the time of Newton’s writing.
We
have become the beneficiaries of this incredible movement that started with the
Reformation as through our worshiping lives, we have sung hymns that have the
capacity to provide powerful moments of prayer for us. This hymn writing and
hymn singing flurry, unleashed by the Reformation, continues to this day and
Catholics, who once shied away from this singing of ‘ Protestant hymns’
joyfully sing ‘ How Great Thou Art’ and ‘ Amazing Grace’ at their
Masses, at the same time that new creative hymns by Catholic composers are
embraced by Protestant congregations, ‘ Here I am, Lord’, most likely
example # 1. Those ancient chants, dated from the 9th century, have
taken on fresh meaning in the 21st and Protestants and Catholics ,
alike and together, will close their eyes and bow their heads, VENI, SANCTE
SPIRITUS coming forth from their lips.
My
friends, the point in all of this is simple: Through the music we sing and hear,
we can express our love for God, we can say to God I LOVE YOU...WITH A
SONG.....Through this music, we do what those composers of the Psalms did so
long ago: We express our deepest hopes! We release our darkest fears.......In
short, dear friends, through our music, our precious songs and those hymns and
spiritual songs that take on new expressions as years roll by, through our
MUSIC, God is glorified..... and through our MUSIC, WE PRAY!
AMEN+
The
congregation is now invited to suggest hymns for singing that are PRAYERFUL to
them---