“No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,
how can I keep from singing?” (1)
How can I keep from singing? I am sure we all have memories of those songs our parents, or we ourselves, sang to us, to our children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, etc. I can still hear my mum singing: “Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light, like a little candle burning in the night” – to my three children in the desperate attempt to induce them to go to sleep, or so it sometimes felt in those long evenings! But the music did calm the ‘savage beast’, and they would fall asleep in mum’s arms. My song for sleep was Mayenziwe ’ntando yakho (thy will be done on earth O Lord) from an Iona song book (3), slower and slower until both of us were dropping off. Music, it has the ability to touch our souls: “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?” It can bring out emotions we try to hide, it can inspire us, and send us out refreshed and strong: “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?” And so we sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. As Paul says: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts”(2) – to glorify God here in Zurich. Which is a little ironic as Zwingli, the Protestant reformer most influential in this city, refused to allow singing in churches!
But music is more than just a call on the emotions – which is precisely what Zwingli objected to. The words we use, the tunes we put them to, help tell the story of Christ, of God, and of our faith. Just think of your favourite hymns: My song is love unknown tells of Jesus’ birth, his journey to the cross and the reactions of the people to him: “sometimes they strew his way, and his sweet praises sing…. Then crucify is all their breath and for his death they thirst and cry.” (4i) The hymns can express deeper truths in their poetry. We have just sung “I danced in the morning when the world was begun” (4ii), a beautiful, familiar hymn that uses the dance of God in creation and the world to express salvation. “They cut me down and I leapt up high, I am the life that’ll never, never die, I’ll live in you if you live in me, I am the Lord of the dance said he.” Last week was Trinity Sunday and that hymn speaks of the dance of the Trinity: God there at the beginning of time: “I danced in the morning when the world was begun:” incarnate, here amongst us: and “I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth”; sharing our lives, dying and rising for us and living on in us through the Spirit. Music helps us to understand the words of God, and can express how we feel, what we believe: “I was glad when they said to me we will go in to the house of the Lord” is made more emphatic through the anthem by Parry: I was glad, glad when they said unto me.. And the haunting melody of ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’ expresses our faith and belief beautifully.
And music in worship fulfils more than this. It can help us address difficult times. “What though my joys and comforts die, I know my Saviour liveth. What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth.” And of course, the beautiful words of Psalm 23 sung to the tune Crimond: “The Lord’s my shepherd I’ll not want” (4iii). Of course, the psalms were the first songs of Ancient Israel, and used by the Israelites to speak of their relationship with God, of God’s message: ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’, our Psalm today tells us. Psalm 150, which the choir sang on Tuesday, tells us to “praise God in his holiness, praise him upon the lute and harp”, …in the cymbals and dances. “Let everything that hath breath, Praise the Lord.“
Music helps us in our lives – we all have favourite songs, musicians. And it helps us in our faith – again, we all have favourite hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. Music helps us to worship – in the liturgy it guides us through the stages of the service: a bright opening, a thoughtful preparation for the Gospel, a contemplative lead to communion and then a triumphal sending out, knowing we are loved and inspired by God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing! All things are mine since I am his! How can I keep from singing?” Through music we express our faith and deepen our understanding of the story and meaning of that faith. And music gives us a message from that meaning, inspires us to act as faithful people of God: “Here I am Lord, is it I Lord, I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart” (4iv). A favourite of many called to ministry. “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?” (4v) “Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale, yet will I fear no ill.” These familiar words put to familiar tunes help us, inspire us, guide us, and send us out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to God’s praise and glory. They bring the message of God to us in ways that reach inside us. They bring God to us and allow us to express our love, our faith in God in. So, don’t just listen to hymns, psalms and spiritual songs, with the mind, listen with your mind, heart, soul and strength and let them deepen your faith, your understanding, and your relationship with God, and let them inspire you to respond to God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength so that you can go in peace to love and serve the Lord. After all, “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?”
Amen.
Revd Jackie Sellin
References and “How can I keep from singing?”
(1) How can I keep from singing:Source: Voices Together #605
https://hymnary.org/text/my_life_flows_on_in_endless_song_above
(2) Colossians 3:16
(3) Mayenziwe, from Bell J L and Maule G (1990) “Many and Great” Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow
(4) Hymns from Anglican Hymns Old and New
i. 521 My song is love unknown
ii. 329 I danced in the morning
iii. 723 The Lord’s my shepherd
iv. 337 I the Lord of sea and sky
v. 834 Will you come and follow me
How can I keep from singing:Source: Voices Together #605
https://hymnary.org/text/my_life_flows_on_in_endless_song_above
My life flows on in endless song,
above earth’s lamentation.
I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Refrain:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]
What though my joys and comforts die,
I know my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth. [Refrain]
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]