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#893: Before You, Lord, We Bow
Dec. 17th, 2019 10:01 pmWhy does this section even exist.
We've discussed this before, to no clear conclusion.
Okay. Why is this song in this section?
Let's see! Or rather, let's take a look at what other sections it could plausibly be in.
Praise/Thanksgiving: This seems like an obvious pick. "Our thanks we bring in joy and praise...May every tongue be tuned for praise."
Creation: "May every mountain height, each vale and forest green..."
Community in Christ: "may...every land...send forth a glorious band." This is probably the closest we get to it being about any nation in particular! Every land will send people to praise God. Which is nice, and a decent message, but sufficiently generic to go pretty much anywhere. So again, I ask, why is it in the "national songs" section?
Well, I think I have an answer. It's because the composer is famous for another thing. And the thing he's famous for is writing the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner." This is not a good song to include in a hymnal for several reasons. One, it has a large range so it's very difficult for a group to sing it in unison because they all have to get to the high and low pitches. Two, the first verse isn't particularly religious at all, it's "hey is our flag still up" "yes" "okay good." At least O Canada talks about asking God to keep their land glorious and free. Three, the other verses do have more mention of God, but they're also kind of...iffy. "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto—"In God is our Trust.""
So maybe it's a conspiracy theory, but I totally believe there was one or several meetings of the Lutheran hymnal committee that went "hey can we have the USA anthem in our hymnal" "no, for all the above reasons" "come on, that's such a feckless liberal thing to say, we want a concession in return" "in return...we will give you...another Francis Scott Key song to put in the national songs sections!" "yessssss, deal." Maybe I'm wrong. But this kind of speculation is how I've come to somewhat of an irreverent perspective on the hymnal.
Fortunately, that means we are done with this section. Praise/Thanksgiving is by some distance the longest, so from now on every "cycle" will end there. Back to Advent soon, fittingly!
We've discussed this before, to no clear conclusion.
Okay. Why is this song in this section?
Let's see! Or rather, let's take a look at what other sections it could plausibly be in.
Praise/Thanksgiving: This seems like an obvious pick. "Our thanks we bring in joy and praise...May every tongue be tuned for praise."
Creation: "May every mountain height, each vale and forest green..."
Community in Christ: "may...every land...send forth a glorious band." This is probably the closest we get to it being about any nation in particular! Every land will send people to praise God. Which is nice, and a decent message, but sufficiently generic to go pretty much anywhere. So again, I ask, why is it in the "national songs" section?
Well, I think I have an answer. It's because the composer is famous for another thing. And the thing he's famous for is writing the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner." This is not a good song to include in a hymnal for several reasons. One, it has a large range so it's very difficult for a group to sing it in unison because they all have to get to the high and low pitches. Two, the first verse isn't particularly religious at all, it's "hey is our flag still up" "yes" "okay good." At least O Canada talks about asking God to keep their land glorious and free. Three, the other verses do have more mention of God, but they're also kind of...iffy. "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto—"In God is our Trust.""
So maybe it's a conspiracy theory, but I totally believe there was one or several meetings of the Lutheran hymnal committee that went "hey can we have the USA anthem in our hymnal" "no, for all the above reasons" "come on, that's such a feckless liberal thing to say, we want a concession in return" "in return...we will give you...another Francis Scott Key song to put in the national songs sections!" "yessssss, deal." Maybe I'm wrong. But this kind of speculation is how I've come to somewhat of an irreverent perspective on the hymnal.
Fortunately, that means we are done with this section. Praise/Thanksgiving is by some distance the longest, so from now on every "cycle" will end there. Back to Advent soon, fittingly!
