Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I grew up in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, singing from the blue, hardcover Trinity Hymnal. My mother was the church organist and she practiced hard to play well at a good pace. I liked her playing, and I loved the hymns. While the Sunday morning service was considerably more formal, the evening service often included a time for congregants to choose favorite hymns and spiritual songs, and many folks at my church could say the first line of the hymn they wanted to sing and Mum (and others) would know the number without checking the contents pages in the back of the book. Amazing Grace was #402. Great Is Thy Faithfulness was #27. We always sang the Amen for the planned hymns, but not during the evening song service.

I knew many hymns by heart, and one occasion when they served me best was when Mum was dying of cancer. She was in the hospital, heavily medicated and often agitated. Due to her condition, she did not often know that I was visiting when I stopped by after school. During a number of my visits, Mum would become upset by the tubes and other paraphernalia attached to her and would try to pull them out of her arms and body. The only idea that came into my head at those moments was to sing a hymn to her, so that is what I did. She always calmed down right away, and I would continue singing, humming, or whistling as many tunes as I could recall for as long as I could. I sang the Amen to let her know one song was done before starting another one and to give me a couple of quick moments to think of the next hymn.

At her memorial service, we sang her favorite hymn, How Firm a Foundation. For several years afterward, I confused another hymn with the word “foundation” in it for Mum’s favorite, and found I could not sing it without choking up. Now there are two that do that to me, even 24 years later!

In 1990, the publishers of Trinity Hymnal released a revised collection of hymns, nicknamed “the red one” for the primary option for binding color. A number of new tunes were added and some less popular ones were subtracted. The key for many hymns was lowered as much as possible without making accompaniment more difficult, and guitar chords were added where possible. Some of the King Jamesian expressions were modernized (I still sing “thee, thou, thy, and ye” in most of the hymns, and How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place just does not work for me), and the Amens were removed. As an agitator for more upbeat and contemporary music in the church at that time, I was very pleased with a number of the changes. However, I was not happy that the Amen would no longer be sung. Naturally, the hymns were renumbered. Amazing Grace is #460, and Great Is Thy Faithfulness is #32.

One of my favorite inclusions is #455, And Can It Be That I Should Gain, though I must be utterly honest and say that I love the hymns so much that it is very difficult to pinpoint just one favorite, or even a top five. Still, the depth of theological riches on display in that hymn brings an aching joy to my soul, and to sing it with the throngs of God’s people to the praise of my Lord is to taste heaven itself. “Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee. Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God, shouldst die for me?”

As hard as it is to select my top five hymns, I think that what follows is a pretty good attempt. It Is Well with My Soul (#691) is another wonderful hymn, as are Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (#457), Jesus! What A Friend for Sinners! (#698), and All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (#297; Diadem).

I pray that when my life is done that I will have been faithful to God to the end. I pray that the truth of God’s redemption will be known in my life as expressed in that stanza above. And if I am called by him to endure illness before going home to glory, I pray that my soul and mind will be comforted by the hymns as Mum was those many years ago. I want these sung at my funeral, the ones from the revised Trinity Hymnal, but the Amen must be sung.

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