159 & 530 both use "the great I Am"

530 A Glad New Song

Soon I shall sing the glad, new song,

Of Moses and the Lamb,

With all the sainted hosts above,

Before the great I Am.

159 Wondrous Love

To God and to the Lamb,

I will sing; I will sing;

Who is the great I Am,

While millions join the theme,

I will sing.

These "I AM" uses appear to me to have a double reference. First, to God's name as given to Moses on the mountain, from the burning bush (not familiar with this? pick up a Bible and start reading Exodus -- some spots are a bit hard but overall it's a ripping good story)
Exodus 3:14
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (kjv)

So, in this case, I AM is a translation/explanation of the divine name. The Hebrew could also be rendered into English as: I am who I am, I am what I am, I will be who/what I will be, I will be whatever I will be!

I'm afraid I've loaned out my Jewish Torah commentary (Torah = first five books of the Judeo/Christian scripture; Exodus is book two.) so I can't give you the fuller treatment of this.

So on to second reference: picking up on the name of God, the writers of these songs doubtless also thought of Jesus and the "I am" saying given to us in John's Gospel, e.g. "I am the door", "I am the true vine", "I am the good shepherd", etc

(... also "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." Interesting to me that even the most literalist of Bible interpreters do not imagine that Jesus was made of wood and had a handle, or had roots and leaves and you could pick grapes from him, yet the thought that this statement might also be metaphorical is seen as gravest heresy. For the record, it is my experience and belief that Jesus is indeed the way, and countless Buddhists, Hindus, aboriginal peoples, etc are faithfully following in the way without the least thought of Jesus. Thankfully, God is not limited by our logic.)

ask questions about the Sacred Harp texts

Just a reminder, this blog needs your questions. Click the comment link and ask away. No guarantees I'll be able to give a good answer, but I will definitely try!

34b St. Thomas (169 Dartmouth) -- Where does the name "Jehovah" come from?

Jehovah is the sov’reign God,

The universal King.

"Jehovah" is used, as the name of God, here in 34b St. Thomas (the same words also appear in 169 Dartmouth with an additional verse) and with eight other tunes in the 91 revision.

These are words by Isaac Watts. "Jehovah" appears first in the 16th century, in latin and spelled then "Ihouah" This is the form that appears in the Geneva Bible; the King James has shifted the spelling to "Jehovah."

And it's all a mistake.

So here's the deal -- the Hebrew Bible gives us the consonants for the name of God, usually transliterated as YHWH. This is the sacred 'tetragrammaton' -- so sacred that ultra-orthodox Jews would never type it into a computer because anyone reading this and hitting the delete button would violate a duty to preserve every writing of this name. But it's only the consonants. For many centuries Hebrew writing only recorded consonants, not vowels. Later, a system of 'pointing,' small marks added around the consonants, was devised to record the vowels. But long before this, the name of God had become far too sacred to pronounce out loud. Instead, one would substitute the word adonai (lord). So... to remind readers of this, the vowels for adonai were put with the letters of the sacred name.

Jerome, translating scripture into Latin (the Vulgate) understood this and put in Adonai, but then later, western Christian scholars didn't get it, and assumed the vowels belonged to the name of God. Reading them together produced the name "Jehovah" (the J standing in for Latin I representing the Hebrew sound of Y).

Today, most scholars accept the conjecture that the name of God would have been something like "Yahweh"  Some of us old sticks-in-the-mud still prefer to say "Adonai."

31t Ninety-Third Psalm -- what is 'the topmost stone'

Grace all the work shall crown

Through everlasting days;

It lays in heav’n the topmost stone,

And well deserves our praise.

What is "the topmost stone"?  I don't know. I'm not quickly thinking of any specific Bible verses, and a search of the KJV doesn't find 'topmost' or 'top most' (and I haven't scanned the 417 matches to 'stone.')

So, just thinking about it, it makes one think of either a keystone in an arch -- the topmost stone that allows the arch to stand and be strong -- or just the capstone or highest bit of a building. Note that 'grace' is not itself the topmost stone, but rather it is grace that places the topmost stone in heaven. The fulfillment of heaven is the work of grace. So, anyone want to point out a reference or meaning that I'm missing?

When singing this song, I invite you to ponder that grace is always scandalous -- it is defined by people getting some good they don't deserve.

Philip Doddridge was a non-conformist minister, a contemporary of Isaac Watts. Ten tunes in the 1991 book have words by him. His 400 some hymns were mostly written to put the content of his sermons into singable form, to immediately reinforce the message he was bringing to his congregants--a wise teacher.

I'm not seeing any particular connection between these words and the 93rd Psalm of the tune name (the words precede the tune), but here's the Psalm if anyone wants to look for themselves:

Psalm 93

¹The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall never be moved;

²your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.

³The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.

⁴More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea, majestic on high is the Lord!

⁵Your decrees are very sure; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.

30b Prospect "What tim'rous worms"

Why should we start and fear to die?
What tim’rous worms we mortals are!
Death is the gate to endless joy,
And yet we dread to enter there.

These words (vs.1) and vs.3 are also used in 111b and 275b, in each case with a new chorus added.

Don't you just love 'timorous worms'?

The Biblical references I find seem to use worms as objects of disgust and worthlessness rather than a character type. (see below).

The gist of these verses from Watts is that death is terrifying, even though we're supposed to know better (it's the 'gate to endless joy'). But this terror may be eased, banished in fact, by a direct experience of the presence of Jesus (O if my Lord would come and meet...).

Certainly this had a powerful literal meaning in a time that did not deny, hide, and hide from death in the way we do today in this country. It's also not at all bad in a more daily, metaphoric sense -- even though in our heads we may know and believe in the joy of letting go of ego, 'dying to self' we still draw back from it. Only concrete, direct experiences of grace seem to coax us, step by step, into the fulness of life connected to all creation and not limited by our own pettiness.

Job 25.6:

How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

Psalm 22.6:

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Isaiah 41.14:

Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Testing new blog editor

Okay, good intentions didn't get very far last time, but who knows? I certainly was a bit frustrated by the process I was using, so maybe this editor I'm trying out will encourage me to get back to this blog.

30t a bit about Charles Wesley

30t Love Divine

Words: Charles Wesley, 1747

Love divine, all love excelling -- this is a very well known hymn (to a different tune) in mainstream protestant churches.

A few words about Charles Wesley, author of words set to 28 tunes in the 91 revision (far fewer than Watts, but more than anyone else. A quick look at our UCC hymnal shows 10 tunes with Charles Wesley words -- which puts him among the handful of most represented hymn writers there.)

Born December 18, 1707
Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
Died March 29, 1788 (aged 80)

Charles was the younger brother of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism (a reform/revitalization movement originally within the Church of England though eventually leading to a distinct denomination). Though very much a part of the Methodist movement, Charles maintained his faithfulness to the Church of England in which both he and his brother (and their father) were ordained. Two of his children were composers and musicians.

In these words, Wesley is equating Jesus with love that will make its home in us. Among the scriptural sources one might think of:

John 14.23:
Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

John 17.26: /Jesus is praying to God/
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

1 John 4.8:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4.12:
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

lost comments

Hey all,

It's come to my attention that at least one comment sent to this blog has disappeared into the ether(net?).

I do have this set to moderate all comments, but I have posted every comment that has come through. If you responded but don't see your comment, please try again and/or contact me separately.

David

78 Stafford What's up with "env'ous Jews"?

34t What is the Gospel pool?

34t The Gospel Pool 

"Beside the gospel pool

appointed for the poor"

Thanks for the question, Dorothy.

The gospel pool refers to John 5.2-12:   

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew  Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk

The man is waiting for the water to be stirred because that was thought to be a sign of the presence of the healing Spirit -- if you could get into the pool at that moment you would be cured. The writer, John Newton--of Amazing Grace, is using the literal pool of the miracle story as an analogy or image for the healing power of the gospel message, the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Another layer of this meaning also comes from John 9:7, another healing story in which Jesus spits to make mud, puts it on a blind man's eyes, then sends him to the pool of Siloam to wash -- and he is healed.

29t Fairfield 'I can but perish'

Here in vs 3 is yet another implicit understanding of death and eternal life. (Are there, perhaps, a dozen songs in this book that don't talk about death?)

The singer has resolved to go to Jesus despite his or her conviction of sinfulness. The outcome may be simply death, "I can but perish if I go" but the alternative, not going to Jesus, definitely leads to death, "If I stay away, I know, I must forever die." I find it interesting that the two outcomes are just death or, presumably, life eternal with Jesus. Punishment/hell is not mentioned here. The text is dated 1787.

I must say I find this a wonderful text. I've always felt a (hopelessly romantic, I suppose) resonance with stories of people recognizing they are in desperate circumstances and so finding the resolve to strike out on the path of hope however unlikely to succeed. (Lord of the Rings readers, think Aragorn leading a paltry force against the gates of Mordor because their only hope lies in convincing Sauron that they have the ring with them, and so distracting him from his real peril, Frodo sneaking in the back way.) Is this our lot in a post-modern world, where every hope is open to suspicion, if not outright derision, and yet to live as human beings we must choose to hope, no matter what.

28b Wells "What does 'the lamp' refer to?"

“While the lamp holds out to burn”
The lamp image here draws on a parable of Jesus:

‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:1-13(NRSV)

The parable stresses readiness. In the last hundred plus years or so this has been read as be ready for “the second coming of Jesus.” The Watts text refers to what I believe is a more long-standing reading: be ready because we cannot know when we’ll die. The lamp refers to each of our lives—while we live we can repent.

The third verse is very interesting in that it seems to say the dead are not yet in heaven; they are just dead. “Their memory and their sense is gone, Alike unknowing and unknown” presumably awaiting the “day of grace” of verse 2 and the all-at-once resurrection of the dead back to life. When did we acquire the notion of the soul going immediately from the body 'up' to face St. Peter at the pearly gate (to be let in, or sent 'below')?

28t Aylesbury "here below/above the sky"

Not too much jumps out at me here. This is another Isaac Watts text.
“…our God while here below, And ours above the sky.”
The date is given as 1719. This is 176 years after Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) in the year of his death, 1543. That work is seen as the start of a radical shift in cosmology that has moved the earth from the center of everything to an unimaginably tiny place in an unimaginably vast universe. Watts’ imagery draws on the Biblical cosmology that understood heaven to be a physical place, literally above the earth.

“Beyond the pomp that charms the eye And rites adorned with gold.”
I suspect that, as a non-conformist, Watts here is taking a little poke at both the Roman Catholic and Church of England “smells and bells” liturgies.

Lord revive us, Lord revive us! back at the blog

Friends, after a too-long absence, I hope and intend another fairly regular round of posts to this blog. 

Again a reminder, if you have any questions about the imagery/references/meanings of texts in the Sacred Harp, hit the Comments link to post a comment and let me know.  (comments are moderated -- so don't worry if it doesn't show up in the blog for a day or two.)

During these past months, some of you have asked me questions when we've been talking. They were great questions. I didn't write them down. Do us all a favor and post them here. Thanks.

While waiting for those particular questions, I'll continue working through the book with things that happen to strike me. If anything in my posts happens to strike you, please post a comment.

27 Who are "the Lamb" and "the Dove"?

That leads me to the Lamb!

(the Lamb occurs 34 times in 29 verses in 27 songs)

Return Oh holy Dove, return

(this meaning of Dove only occurs in two other songs)

27 Bethel

"The Lamb" is Jesus Christ, e.g.
John 1:29 (KJV)
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Revelation 22:1 (KJV)
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

"the Dove" is the Holy Spirit, e.g.
Matthew 3:16 (KJV)
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.

(It looks like the four references to Jesus' baptism in the four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - are the only places where this association is made. It has been a very common subject for artists.)

*
Okay, this may seem a bit too basic -- if so I invite you to reflect on how many people now are growing up without even the most basic knowledge of Biblical stories, the stuff needed just to understand and appreciate great swathes of European/western culture. After 25 years of preaching I am still caught off balance by what people haven't been exposed to in any helpful way.

569b Who was Manasseh?

And Mary’s or Manasseh’s stains

569b Sacred Throne

Manasseh in the Bible refers to: 1) Joseph's eldest son, 2) to his descendants - the tribe of Manasseh, and 3) to King Manasseh. It is this third reference that we see in this song.

King Manasseh ruled the southern kingdom, Judah, from about 686 to 642 BCE (This is well after the northern kingdom has been overrun and annexed into Assyria.) The writer(s) of 2nd Kings clearly consider him the most evil in the line of kings of Judah.

2 Kings 21:9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

Among the evils mentioned in 2 Kings 21 are: worship of other gods, e.g. of Baal and Asherah -- erecting altars and sacred poles (phallic symbols - these are fertility cults) and statues (graven images - forbidden in 10 commandments), putting these even in the courtyards of the Temple built as a house of God by Solomon. He "made his son pass through fire" apparently a reference to worship rites associated with Moloch, rites which included child sacrifice. He "practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards." (all of these are forbidden) And "Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."

Quite a collection of stains.

I would guess that the Mary refered to is Mary Magdalene, who in the west is seen in a conflation of three Biblical characters (recognized as separate individuals in the Eastern Christian churches): 1) Mary from the village of Magdala (Luke 8 tells us Jesus drove seven devils out of her; Matthew 15 puts her as one of the witnesses of the cruxifiction; John 20 presents her as the first witness to the resurrected Jesus); 2) Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus; and 3) the woman, "a sinner," who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair (Luke 7) of whom Jesus said, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much."


***
Manesseh, Joseph's eldest son, e.g.
Genesis 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.

Manasseh, the tribe, e.g.
Numbers 1:35 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.


Thanks Dorothy for the question.

26, (& 107) Isaac Watts / Where is Samaria?

My spirit looks to God alone	26 Samaria
	107 Russia

These words are by Isaac Watts. Samaria's two verses appear to encompass four original verses; Russia only uses the first two.

I've been singing hymns by Isaac Watts as long as I can remember. His words are found in many (possibly all) protestant hymnals. (Our current UCC hymnal has 14 Watts pieces. The Pilgrim Hymnal I grew up with had 18, the just published Lutheran (ELCA) hymnal has 10).

Unless I lost count, the 1991 Edition has Watts words to 144 tunes -- I have no idea how many of these are separate hymns and how many are multiple uses of the same words.

Isaac Watts
English Nonconformist pastor and hymnwriter
Born	July 17,1674 Southampton, England
Died	November 25,1748

"Samaria" So far, Google has led me to four or five towns named Samaria. Perhaps others existed in the past, or perhaps the name refers directly to the Biblical Samaria.

Samaria is the region that was the Northern Kingdom of Israel (after the reign of king Solomon the Israelites divided into two kingdoms.) When that kingdom was overrun (721 BCE), many of the people were deported, and Assyrians settled there, but they continued a form of worship based on the Torah (the first five books of the bible) as their sacred text. Over time their religion became more and more separated from that of Judah, the southern kingdom (itself overrun 135 years later.) So the Samaritans and the Jews in the time of Jesus had a mutual dislike -- the intense bad feelings that only estranged family can create. The point of the parable of the "Good Samaritan" is not that we should be helpful people, but that the Samaritan is neighbor and "Love your neighbor as yourself" applies even to those you despise. (Luke 10.25-37)

Commending the section "MUSIC" pg.9

Not yet being flooded with questions, I thought I'd start looking from the front of the book. Doing that, I realized I'd never read Ruth Denson Edwards comments on Music (page 9 counting back from the Rudiments on page 13, the first numbered page in the 1991 edition.)

I recommend it to you. She offers a number of scripture citations conveying the long-standing importance of music, and a lovely reflection on music in nature.

The dating of Jubal to 3875 BCE I believe is based on Bishop Usher's chronology of the Bible that puts creation at 4004 before Christ -- though I think the dating of Jubal must rely on some general notion of years per generation. Jubal is one of the great, great, great, great grandsons of Cain. I'm not seeing a setting out of the years and generation of this line such as Genesis 5 gives for the descendants of Seth (Adam and Eve's third son -- good crossword name.)

Oh, anyone out there getting worried that I'm going to be terribly literal about everything in the Bible? Don't worry. Actually, no one is a literalist -- I've never heard anyone suggest that when Jesus says he is the door he's telling us he's made of wood with a brass knob (or glass and metal with a crashbar for that matter.) We all recognize some things as metaphor, mostly a question of which things and how much of the Bible we read that way. In this instance, for example, my own faith does not compel me to accept a literalist understanding of the creation stories in the Bible -- quite the contrary in fact. But it may often be easier in talking about the words of Sacred Harp to not be hedging things around with qualifications and caveats all the time. If you're curious about my understanding of some particular point, feel free to ask.

155, 299 What is "the third heaven"

From the third heaven, where God resides

155 Northfield

299 New Jerusalem

The only biblical reference I'm finding is from Paul, speaking third person about himself (a not uncommon literary device.)
2 Corinthians 12:4 (KJV)
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

I suspect that somewhere out there one might find some esoteric cosmology connected with this, but in my limited library I'm just seeing the pretty plain sense of the words. And I think this is what would have been evident and important to the hymn writer also.

One standard commentary (Barclay) says of the third heaven "He simply means that his spirit rose to an unsurpassable ecstasy in its nearness to God."

My study bible notes that according to vs. 4, the "third heaven" is where paradise is located. (It goes on to note that heavenly journeys were a popular means of claiming divine authentication and were apparently used by Paul's opponents for this purpose.)

All of this suggests that the hymn writer got it right:
From the third heaven where God resides, that holy happy place
The new Jerusalem comes down adorned with shining grace.

The "new Jerusalem" coming down takes us back to Revelation 21:2 (KJV)
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.


Thank you Mary Mac for this question (and I'm not forgetting your second question about nature imagery)

Call for Questions

So Sacred Harp Singers, please think of this blog as a resource for you. Next time you're singing and are puzzled or curious about something in the words, make a note of it, get to a computer, and respond to this post to let me know your question. I'll see what I can do.

In the meantime, unless I'm flooded with questions, I may just start working my way through the book looking for something of interest in every song.

179 Who was (is/will be?) "Apollyon"?

Apollyon, with all his powerful forces, In Thy name and Thy strength shall soon put to flight.

179 The Christian Warfare

This is the name that launched the idea for this blog. I've lost count of how many times when we've sung 179 someone will ask "Who was Apollyon?" So here it is:

The reference is to Revelation 9:11
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. (KJV)

The "they" over whom he is king is a vast horde of supernaturally nasty locusts (see the description Rev.9:3-10) With the opening of the 5th seal the bottomless pit is opened and they are released to torment people for 5 months.

So this is a good occasion to make a few very short observations about the book of Revelation, perhaps the most misunderstood and misused book of the Bible.

First: Don't read it as a code to reveal events of the end times. Folks have been trying this for about 1900 years now, with predictions of the date of the second coming beyond counting. No one's been right yet. This is not what it's given to us for.

Second: It is full of dazzling, splendid poetic imagery. Let yourself be carried away by both the terrifying and beautiful pictures it paints. If your life is pretty good, pretty easy, you might as well just stop here with Revelation, because...

Third: It was written by and for people who were struggling just to survive under terrible persecution. The existing order (the Roman Empire) was crushing them. Justice and hope looked to them like standing the existing order on its head. Revelation depicts this on a cosmic scale. Perhap, perhaps, try reading it in this light when you've lost your job, when your family turns against you, when you deeply come to grips with our complicity in war in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, ecological catastrophe around the world.

Okay, out of the pulpit.

Getting started: what this is all about

This is my first entry into blogging, so your patience will be appreciated.

I often hear questions raised about some of the more or less obscure names and references in the texts of the Sacred Harp. Those questions tend to get directed to me because I'm an ordained minister (in the United Church of Christ -- ucc.org), seminary trained, and I guess I'm supposed to know this stuff.

So I hope to use this blog to explain and offer my own commentary on some aspects of the texts found in the Sacred Harp (primarily 1991 Edition - Denson Revision).

I expect soon I'll put up a post explaining the name of this blog. And I expect I'll also formally solicit questions you'd like me to try answering. Right now I believe I have this set up to accept moderated comments.

Glad you're here. Check back soon.