Wednesday, August 7, 2013

"The night becomes as day when from the heart we say, 'May Jesus Christ be praised!'"


Hymn: “When Morning Gilds the Skies” – from the Katholiches Gesangbuch
            Translated by Edward Caswall (1814-1878)
Typical Tune: LAUDES DOMINI

Albert Bierstadt - "Sunrise in the Sierras"

There is something about genuine praise of Christ that can most certainly make drastic changes in our demeanor. Praise which takes us out of the picture and places Christ-only at the center – praise which is so sincere that we can think of nothing else – praise which for a few moments carries us near to the heart of God: THIS is the kind of praise I’m talking about.

Whole-hearted praise can truly turn our darkness into light – our night into day – our less-than-happy days into times filled with joy.

In most hymnals, just before this hymn-line, at the end of the first stanza, we sing a strange phrase for 21st Century worshipers: “To Jesus I repair.” The word repair conjures up  thoughts of fixing something that is not working… to have car repaired, etc. For some of us, that may be exactly what we need to do – to make reparation of damaged territory between us.But the better use of the word here might be “to Jesus I resort”… or turn. A less-used definition of the word is simply go: “Let us repair to the parlor after dinner,” or (in courtroom talk) “As the lawyers repair to the judge’s chambers…”

On the heels of our singing about turning to or going to Jesus, the next line – today’s hymn-line – speaks of night turning to day when we resort to our Savior with overflowing hearts which desire nothing but expressing our praise for him.

I love that in the very next line of this hymn, the powers of darkness fear when the sweet sound of authentic praise arises! In the same way that God rejoices over us (Zephaniah 3:17) – even dances over us in some translations – the Evil One cowers and sticks his fingers in his ears because he cannot abide the attendant attitude of this kind of praise!

All of a sudden, today’s hymn-line has been defined by what we just sang (I go to Jesus) and by what we are about to sing (Satan won't like this!). It’s these brief kernels of faith-expressions which have prompted me to write this blog and post them most mornings. We are overlooking some richness of language by quickly passing through even the most-familiar songs in our hymnic vocabulary.

So that’s why I’m here most days when you open this site: I’m here to remind you to hear what your mouth is saying when you sing… and to let your heart respond accordingly.

Today, from your heart say (or sing) many, many times, “May Jesus Christ be praised!” See if maybe your night turns to daylight!

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Hymnlines - Hemlines: Get it?! :)

Hymnlines - Hemlines: Get it?! :)