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Monthly column on hymns and songsThe Lord's dayShut in with thee, far, far above Many of us have sung these words by Alexander Stewart, from his hymn 'Lord Jesus Christ, we seek thy face'. He wrote it in the 1870s, but very little has been discovered about the man or his work. In this verse he has crystallised a classic 'Free Church' spirituality of what happens on the Lord's Day. We turn our backs on the restless world to concentrate on and enjoy the presence of God. In a different mode, it lies behind 'Turn your eyes upon Jesus'; when we do that, 'the things of earth will grow strangely dim', and it would be an odd Christian who did not sometimes identify with that experience. So far as it goes, this has both nonconformist pedigree and biblical warrant. Isaac Watts wrote: 'We are a garden walled around, chosen and made peculiar ground'. In his day, dissent was a dangerous label, and the gathered flock was understandably anxious and vulnerable. To meet was to escape into the heavenlies, as anyone reading Colossians 3 would understand. But here's the snag. Sometimes opening prayers and well-intentioned sermons push this part of the truth so far that it overshadows another part. We find ourselves being told quite often that we must empty our minds of yesterday, not yet fill them with tomorrow, and shut out all thoughts of the outside world in order to hear God's word today, now. Sounds good? DrawbacksBut this attitude has some fatal drawbacks. It is a guilt-inducing counsel of perfection. Unless they are in a trance-like state of ecstasy, no Christians can possibly forget the highs and lows of last week, the concerns of family and neighbours in the next. That job interview, that hospital appointment, that awkward meeting, that school visit, that birthday party... How can we possibly shut them out of our minds? More to the point, why on earth should we? Animals, we assume, think of one thing at a time and do not dwell much on the past or the future. It is the glory of humans that we are not so limited. And the glory of Christians to know that our heavenly Father is concerned for Monday to Saturday as well as Sunday. Our hymns, like prayers and sermons, are free to reflect such a generous God. It is not guilty to bring these into our congregational devotions; it is glorious! It is easier to do what Mr. Stewart has done than to write hymns reflecting the wider world. Some who try to put specific everyday needs into verse (the shopping, the lifts, the giro, the buses) succeed only in being banal and ephemeral. Great modelBut, as ever, we have a great model in the Psalms. We need not sing only what David sang, but we can learn from what he sang about. Friends and enemies, families and children, tears and laughter, waking and sleeping, food and drink, hills and valleys, animals and birds, whales and beetles, rain and sunshine, moon and stars, ships at sea, leaders in church and state, war and peace, sickness and health; it may be a good idea to check through your church's hymn book to see that all these are represented at least somewhere. Scripture shows that our minds can be occupied with all such things even as we praise God. Because God is concerned for these things even as he cares for us. The things of earth are then not so much dimmed as transformed by exposure to the Word of God and the glory of heaven. Christopher Idle© Evangelicals Now - May 2003 |