#803: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Feb. 8th, 2020 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsThe hymnal suggests Rockingham Old (previously seen here) as an alternate tune for this text, but I'm much more familiar with this one, "Hamburg." A couple years ago my choir sang a more complex arrangement of that melody for this text, and it featured a whole lot of "transpose up by one between verses." Even I, who am surely on record as being a fan of "transpose up by one for the last verse" even when other people think it's cheesy, could agree that that was a little much.
This is another one by the prolific Isaac Watts. The wording that stands out is "present" in the last verse, used in the sense of "gift," like, if we could give a gift to God in celebration of all the great things Jesus has done for us. I feel like I've seen this tweaked for other wordings elsewhere, although it's not a translation and the text is pretty legible for the 1700s otherwise. (It's also possible I may have misremembered this!) At any rate, Lutherans are generally in favor of the imagery of giving God free presents (and, more importantly, vice versa) rather than an exchange or ransom.
Although I kind of think most deities would rather have the entire realm of nature as a gift, assuming it was mine and I could give it away, than one measly soul or life like mine! (Maybe that's his point, though?)
This is another one by the prolific Isaac Watts. The wording that stands out is "present" in the last verse, used in the sense of "gift," like, if we could give a gift to God in celebration of all the great things Jesus has done for us. I feel like I've seen this tweaked for other wordings elsewhere, although it's not a translation and the text is pretty legible for the 1700s otherwise. (It's also possible I may have misremembered this!) At any rate, Lutherans are generally in favor of the imagery of giving God free presents (and, more importantly, vice versa) rather than an exchange or ransom.
Although I kind of think most deities would rather have the entire realm of nature as a gift, assuming it was mine and I could give it away, than one measly soul or life like mine! (Maybe that's his point, though?)
