The church's songs

Yesterday morning I sang a solo at a local Presbyterian church, which I do about every eight weeks when I am healthy and in full voice. This time I sang my own versification of Psalm 96, set to the Genevan tune. The congregation sang three hymns of note. Two of these were by Fanny Crosby, one of the most prolific hymn writers in history. The first was "Praise Him, Praise Him," and the second "To God Be the Glory." For the most part I am not a fan of American revival hymns, which tend towards sentimentality and a rather sticky form of piety. Nevertheless, I have always rather liked Fanny Crosby's hymns, the best of which transcend the shortcomings of revivalism. Perhaps the knowledge that she spent nearly all of her 95 years in blindness contributes to my admiration for her witness in song to God's grace.

We also sang a metrical paraphrase from the Scottish Psalter, "All Who the Name of Jesus Bear," a versification of Philippians 2:5-11.

Unfortunately the three texts were altered in such a way as to remove virtually all (male!) pronominal references to God, which makes them sound clunky in the extreme. Moreover, the continual repetition of the word "God" without any subsequent pronouns might lead the unsuspecting worshipper to think she was singing the praises of more than one deity. We shouldn't be surprised if such bowdlerized texts fail to catch on over the long term. They make bad poetry, in addition to being somewhat dubious theologically.