Sing a Hymn at Satan By Rev. Joshua Ulm
Our Lutheran hymnals are full of beautiful
chorales and rich, faithful hymns. Flipping through your hymnal will give you a glance at over a thousand years of the Church’s song, with hymns going back to the early days of the Church. You will find incredible anthems addressed to God the Father such as “O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth.” You will find hymns in praise of the work of God the Son such as “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing.” You will find hymns invoking the Holy Spirit such as “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest.” We expect to find hymns to the Holy Trinity in a Lutheran hymnal, but if you look closely, you will find several hymn stanzas addressed to…the devil himself. Don’t believe me? Keep reading. H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 10
Before we look at the times in our hymnal where we sing to or at the devil, let’s first take a crash course in what the Bible tells us about him. The devil, or Satan, is a popular Halloween costume. Even unbelievers are familiar with the red-skinned, pointy-eared devil who has a cheesy goatee and carries a pitchfork. Unsurprisingly, the world’s narrative about the devil fails to capture
what we read in Scripture. Scripture presents the devil as the accuser of humanity and specifically the accuser of Christians. In the book of Job, Satan stands before God and calls Job’s faithfulness into question. In Revelation, he is presented as the one who “accuses [our brothers] day and night before our God.” We also see Satan presented as the tempter. He tempted Jesus in
