I gave myself a treat this spring and attended the I Cantori di Carmel Choral concert thanks to the Don Trout, who gave me tickets.  Then I heard Camerata Singers concert at San Carlos Cathedral.  One of the selections that John Koza, our music director, chose for the concert was three poems of Langston Hughes that were set to music.  Hughes is one of those names I have known for a long time, but whose work I had not explored, I am sad to say.  He was a black writer of the early 20^th Century who was part of that pantheon of Harlem intellectuals and artists who brought so much to our culture.  Here is the poem that grabbed me:

Rocks and the firm roots of trees.

The rising shafts of mountains.

Something strong to put my hands on.

            Sing, O Lord Jesus!

            Song is a strong thing.

            I heard my mother singing

            When life hurt her:

Gonna ride in my chariot some day!

            The branches rise

            From the firm roots of trees

            The mountains rise

            From the solid lap of earth.

            The waves rise

            From the dead weight of sea

Sing, O black mother!

Song is a strong thing.

             “My mother sang when life hurt her, song is a strong thing.”  I could hear and see her singing to her son in my mind’s eye, finding strength for herself and for him in order to overcome life’s hurts.  Song is one of God’s gifts to enable us to overcome hurt and hardship.

Remember what Paul and Silas did when they were beaten with rods and locked in stocks in the town dungeon of Philippi?  They were praying and singing hymns to God at midnight when a violent earthquake broke them and the others loose from the stocks, and throwing open the doors of the jail.  The jailer awoke, saw the situation and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped and knowing that if they did he would be executed.  But Paul called out, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here.”  The jailer called for lights and rushed in and fell down at Paul’s and Silas’ feet and asked them: “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:25-20)  Songs of praise to God in the night from the lips of men unjustly imprisoned and beaten and their concern for their captor were strong enough to convert that jailer to faith in Jesus Christ.  Song is a strong thing.

Not only when life hurts us do we sing, but when life is good and God’s bounty and blessings flow freely.  Think of those wonderful Thanksgiving hymns that we love to sing: “Now thank we all our God;” “We Gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing.”  That holiday would not be complete without them.  And can you imagine Christmas without the glad carols announcing the birth of Christ? As I said two week ago, during the Cultural Revolution when the plight of Christians in China was especially grim, they would gather on Christmas Eve outside their churches that had been turned into warehouses and sing Christmas carols with their children.  Song is a strong thing.

Whether we can match pitch or not, we all know that feeling of song waiting to burst forth from our hearts when we realize that God is with us in good times and bad.  Have you noticed how children sing all the time?  I just returned from three days with our grandsons and they sing about everything. They are full of joy, of enthusiasm, a word  which comes from two Greek words which mean God in us.  It is sad to think that our culture somehow silences the songs of children by the time they reach adolescence.  Is it by telling them they are off key or by us adults not setting an example of singing that we do this?  One of the things I really like about Italy is that adolescents sing in public spontaneously and enthusiastically.  They may not be singing sacred songs, more likely it will be opera, but there is something sacred about singing itself it seems to me, something healthy and life-giving. 

Psalm 96:1 is but one of scores of calls to sing to God.  But this verse along with Psalm 33:3, 144:9; 149:1  adds an interesting twist to the call to sing God’s praise.  Sing to the Lord a new song.  A new song, not the same old song, the same fixed repertoire, but a new song is what God wants to hear.  Why? Because God is making all things new, doing new things in our world, and new songs of praise and thanks are called for because they  show that we are paying attention to the mercies of God which are fresh every morning, even as Jeremiah said in the most unlikely of places: his collection of Lamentations. (Lamentations 3:23)

That insight of Jeremiah’s seems to square with the experience of the author of Psalm 40, who said: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. (Ps. 40:1-3)

Of course, we sing the old songs, as we should for they remind us of God’s mercies to us in the past.  But new songs should be issuing forth.  After all, God made us to be creative, and when we use our creativity to praise God it gives God and us pleasure.  Two weeks back Linda Thompson and Pat Banta collaborated on lyrics and music respectively, on a song linked to the Scripture passage for the day in which Jesus says, “The things that I do, you will do, and greater things will you do because I go to the father.” (John 14:12)  It is a terrific song on a passage of Scripture for which I had never seen a song.  Two weeks before that the youth of our church composed a song as they led us in worship.  I was delighted to see liturgy, the work of the people, springing forth from our congregation. What we need is a publisher and publicist to get these and other songs Pat Banta has written offered to the wider church.  Her songs are superior to most of the contemporary songs I hear these days.

I believe it was Martin Luther who said that song was the purest form of prayer.  And I know that the congregations of Geneva during the time of John Calvin drew great strength from chanting the Psalms together.  During the Wesleyan revival in 18^th Century England and America his brother, Charles, wrote 7,000 hymns and often wed them to toe tapping secular tunes, which offended some in the religious community.  But John Wesley asked, “Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?”  The Salvation Army began in the depressed and drug addled East Side of London in the late 19^th Century, and singing was and is central to their ministry and message of salvation.  The Taizé Community in France, found a way to lead the very secular and jaded youth of Europe to pray by composing songs of praise and prayer that are beautiful and yet simple to sing and soon weave their way into your soul.  Week after week all summer long five thousand young persons make their way to Taizé to worship and sing with the brothers there morning, noon, and night. Song is a strong thing.

Moses summed it up best when his people passed miraculously through the Red Sea and the Egyptian chariots bogged down in the mud and the waters closed in upon them.  Moses sang, “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Exod. 15:2)  God is the giver and the focus of our songs.  The best songs are about God or directed to God, who is the strength of our life.   

Permit me to offer some suggestions that might transform what I am saying from mere musing to more music pouring into and out of us.  If you can’t carry a tune, you can listen and affirm the lyrics of songs in your heart.  You can read aloud the Psalms, which are songs of faith.  I have a friend who is going through tough times and the reading aloud of a few psalms each day is keeping him spiritually alive.  He is in good company; millions of people over thousands of years have found strength from these songs from God.  As you listen you may find yourself in proximity to someone who is a good singer.  Try to follow that singer, drafting on him or her much as cyclists do during road races.  I always sing better in proximity to good singers, and I thank God for our choir and praise band who lead they way for us as we sing.

Support good singing through your presence at worship and your affirmation for those who write and sing songs.  Never use a song without permission of the author or paying royalties to the one who worked hard to give it birth.  Attend sacred concerts and support those who produce them.  How can we expect great music if we do not support those who make it?

Broaden your exposure to different kinds of sacred music.  Appreciate that the God who has fostered a panorama of cultures and expressions of praise, means for there to be a variety of musical idioms through which all the people of earth may praise God.  Savor the variety of plainsong and chant, anthem and chorale, praise songs and lament, Gospel and lyric ballad.  Why only choose vanilla when there are so many flavors out there waiting to be tasted? Song has many colors and textures appropriate to every people and circumstance.  “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” Ps. 96:1) Song is a strong thing.