My school is a Presbyterian School. By that, I mean that Grove City's statement of faith adheres to the Presbyterian doctrine. And our Sunday night services follow some of the patterns of Presbyterian services. One tradition that we follow in particular is with our hymn-singing. We sing every verse of every hymn, whether there be 4, 7 or 38 verses (okay, no hymn actually has 38 verses, but some of them sure feel like they do). Sometimes, this tradition irks me. Why every verse? And why must we play the entire hymn through before we sing the first verse? Is it against some law of Christianity to sing only 4 of the five verses? If we skip verse 3, will Fanny Crosby or Charles Wesley roll over in their graves? Do we miss the meaning of the whole hymn if we don’t sing all the verses? I like hymns, don't get me wrong. But every verse, every time?
Wow. Sorry. I got a little carried away there. And that was not where I was headed, exactly.
Onto my point. I was sitting in Vespers, the Sunday night service on campus (well, standing actually…we always stand to sing) and we were on verse three of six in hymn number 390. Around this time, I decided that instead of singing this hymn routinely and 'suffering' through the singing of every verse, I'd actually check out the words, and see if I meant what I was saying.
As I was reading through the lyrics, I was struck by the words of this poem. It's a prayer. A deep, heartfelt prayer from the poet that she might be entirely and solely Christ-like. If I prayed these words as I sang them, instead of simply going through the motions of yet another 6-versed hymn, how much more meaningful would my worship become as I truly sought God's face and desired to be in His presence?
This was Kate Wilkinson's prayer:
May the mind of Christ my Savior
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and pow'r controlling
All I do and say.
*Shouldn't this be what I seek? That the words, thoughts and prayers of Christ would be my words? That His love would control and lead my actions and behavior?
May the Word of Christ dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His pow'r.
*Ah, that this would be true of me - that the Word of God, the Spoken Truth, would be near to my thoughts each hour, each day - and for a purpose! That Christ would be glorified through my actions! (Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men that they might see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.")
May the peace of Christ my Savior
Rule my life in every thing,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
*Trials are gonna come. They are. They will be in my life and in the lives of others. May the overwhelming peace of God not only give me confidence and hope in my life, but allow me to have the strength and sight to comfort others.
May the love of Jesus fill me,
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.
*That would be a victory indeed!! They will know we are Christians by our love - but not 'our' love, but the love of Jesus that spills out of me…a love that I am not capable of on my own.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
*Faith. This verse is a pleading for faith. Faith in the future grace of Jesus to give me courage and endurance. Faith to look only at Christ and not be distracted by the sin and pleasures of this world. Faith that through the strength of God I will run with excellence the race He has set before me.
May His beauty rest upon me
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
*Indeed. May His grace be all they see.May His words be all they hear. May His mercy fill their lives. May they "taste and see that He is good" (Psalm 34:8).
Here's to six-verse hymns that point to the Gospel, speak to our hearts and take up a good seven minutes of the service. May we sing them joyfully, thoughtfully and prayerfully.
4 comments:
Woah, I just came across this hymn this week myself (and it just so happens to be 390 in our hymnals too....weird) I'm thinking about reteaching it here and encouraging people to really think about what it says. Would you mind if I read some of this stuff that you wrote here? I could basically use this post as a song story, but since you're not here I would just have to say it for you.
yeah, you can use it. that's fine.
what a coincidence that we were both thinking about the same hymn. weird. :)
em . . i could post a comment on every one of your blogs . most times the tears prevent me from writing as i thank God for the special gift you are . . .but this blog had me laughing and smiling at the end . . how good God is to allow us to learn more about Him from all sorts of sources and in all manner of places .. including 6 verse hymns! i love you!
Thanks, Mom. :)
Gabrielle and I sang hymns today in the chapel while I played the piano - we did that hymn - All of the verses. Just because we could.
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