In my last post, I discussed a number of hymns whose meaning is often lost on those who sing them and how that lost meaning is too often not even noticed. Over the next few posts, I'll share some more selections of oft-song, seldom-understood lines from the hymnal.
Perhaps some of the hardest hymns to follow are those with allusions to lesser known Bible phrases or stories. Some hymns have lyrics that are so dense that even the most keen singer might be at a loss to explain their meaning.
Take, for instance, Nearer, My God, to Thee (Sarah Flower Adams, 1841). The first stanza is easy to understand, and these lines have likely served as the hook that have kept this hymn in modern hymnals. (In all fairness, this was an extremely popular song in the 1800's and early 1900's; it was famously played as the Titanic sank). The song is a prayer expressing the worshipper's desire to draw near to God at all cost. If drawing near to God demands dying to one's self on the cross of self-denial, so be it.
Once you've finished that stanza, though, the lyrics get very dense. The next three stanzas contain multiple references to the story involving Jacob's ladder. If you don't know the story well or understand the devotional connection the hymnwriter is making, you're at a near total loss in following the song.
In Genesis 28:10-22, Jacob is wandering on a long journey through barren territory, spending the nights under the open sky. One night he was in such a barren spot that all could find for a pillow was a rock ("my rest a stone"). But in that barren place God gave him an assuring vision of His special promise to him and his family ("Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, My God, to Thee").
Jacob made a memorial in that place and named the locale "Bethel" (house of God), a place which would later become one of Israel's more important cities. Though he was in a seemingly barren place, the vision he received assured him that God was uniquely with him.
The song writer's intent in making these allusions is to teach that the Christian, like Jacob in the wilderness, is able to draw close to God in even the most desolate situations of life. The point being made is valid, though we should quickly acknowledge that Jacob's experience was unique in redemptive history. The story in Genesis is not intended to be a template for the way God interacts with all His children but to demonstrate how God preserved His unique covenantal promise to Abraham and his descendents even when they seemed so very unpromising themselves. I think it's legitimate to make some parallels between Jacob and the New Covenant believer, but it would be easy to misapply this imagery in well-intended but unbiblical ways.
Now to my main point. The meaning of these stanzas is so strung out over many dense lines of poetry that it's not likely that many (most times, any) in the pews are really edified by them. In a previous day when more people were versed in reading poetry, that was likely not the case. But nowadays the amount of time needed to explain the lyrics might outweigh the benefit derived from singing it afterwards. For these reasons, I usually only lead the congregation in singing the first stanza.
And I won't even touch on the Unitarian-Universalist orientation of the hymn writer.
