Canticles:
A field guide to the Songs of Scripture
By Naaman Wood
Foreward by Bruce Benedict
Canticles:
A field guide to the Songs of Scripture By Naaman Wood
Foreward by Bruce Benedict
Cardiphonia Press
Canticles: A Field Guide to the Songs of Scripture published by Cardiphonia Press Copyright (c) 2013 Cardiphonia Written by Naaman Wood, Bruce Benedict Art work and design by Erik Newby Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this publication are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America ISBN
CONTENTS Foreward...................................................................................................................5 Introduction.............................................................................................................6 1. The Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-18)...............................................................8 2. The Second Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-43)......................................12 3. The First Song of Isaiah (Isaiah 12:1-6)............................................................17 4. The Second Song of Isaiah (Isaiah 55:6-11).....................................................20 5. The Third Song of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:1-19)........................................................23 6. The Psalm of Jonah (Jonah 2:2-9)......................................................................26 7. The Prayer of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3:2-19)...................................................29 8. The Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55)......................................................................33 9. The Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79).............................................................37 10. The Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32)................................................................40 11. The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb (Revelation 15:3-4)............42 12. Conclusion.........................................................................................................46 Appendix 1- List of Biblical Canticles from Book of Common Prayer............49 Bibliography (resources for further study, music, and prayer)............................51
fieldnotes
Foreward: This short book is a companion piece to a collection of songs that Cardiphonia released in late 2013 meditating on a selection of biblical canticles (songs from scripture). This exploration of the biblical songs is the first we hope in a series of short practical books engaging various topics relevant to worship leaders written by various practicing artists. We are calling them “field guides.” A field guide is an imminently practical resource for the amateur, or developing professional to use while in the thick of their work. Since so many of us come to this calling of music and ‘worship’ leading first through practical gifting’s and then over time through wisdom and theological formation we think these guides should be a true gift to the church. This particular one should be helpful on two fronts. ONE – it addresses the inspired songs of scripture itself! Many of us aspire to be writers of new songs to/for God and it would benefit us greatly to spend some time meditating on “the” new songs of scripture - their authors, their contexts, and how God used them to proclaim the gospel in such a wide variety of situations. TWO – in our research on the canticles we could not find a single resource that gathered them together under one binding and treated them as a coherent collection. There are various scholarly and ecclesial reasons for this, which are beyond the treatment of this short guide, but nonetheless we think it is really valuable that you have this beginning exploration. For each canticle we have included three sections to guide you. One, a brief introduction to the biblical context. Two, important theological reflections; and three, some liturgical suggestions including song ideas and resources for using these texts connected to various planning schema (thematic, lectionary, church calendar). There is room on the sides of the pages for notes, and also space at the end of each song to write a prayer or lyrics of your own. We have included a lengthy bibliography at the end for further study but here are two resources to read alongside we found particularly helpful. Douglas O’Donnell God’s Lyrics - Rediscovering Worship Through Old Testament Song (Crossway, 2011) James W Watts. Psalm and Story: Inset Hymns in Hebrew Narrative (JSOTSup 139, 1992)
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fieldnotes
Introduction While some 21st century evangelical churches have retuned hymns, composed new songs, rediscovered liturgy, and found new voices for contemporary hymnody, we have not considered the songs of Scripture—the biblical canticles—as providing a resource for public worship. Before turning to any specific canticle or what they might mean for evangelical churches today, some introduction to the canticles are in order. The canticles are songs, psalms, and prayers scattered throughout Scripture that exist outside of the book of Psalms. While the term canticles might be thought of as a term to describe a genre of biblical texts, it is far more important to note who thinks of these texts as a group. It is the church who gathered, treasured, and passed on a group of disperse biblical texts. Because the church gathered these texts into its worshiping life, I want to suggest we should think about canticles at the intersection their biblical context and churchly use. As opposed to the majority of the Psalms, canticles are poems typically nestles into the fabric of biblical dramas. When God defeated Egypt at the Red Sea, Moses and Israel sang about God’s deliverance. While Habakkuk waited for God to undo the evil around him, the prophet sang a psalm of praise. Because biblical narratives are diverse, there is no singular function these songs serve. Sometimes they advance the story. Other times they serve as characterization. Sometimes they raise dramatic expectations. At other times, they bring dramatic sequences to a close. The canticles, however, have one thing in common, they are human responses to God. Turning from biblical to the liturgical context of the canticles, historians do not know much about how the early church first used these text; but, there is strong evidence concerning where they settled and remain to the present day. The first collection of canticles appeared in an early 5th CE biblical manuscript. The collection followed the Psalms and included the Songs of Moses and Hannah, Isaiah’s Hymn of Victory, the Psalms of Jonah and Habbakuk, the Prayer of Azariah and the four Songs from Luke. Because the early church gathered this group of songs as related to but distinct from the Psalms, these texts exhibit both similarities and differences from the Psalms. For example, Benedictine monks chanted the psalter in its entirety every week, but they typically reserved the canticles as responses to Scripture readings. Where the psalms serve as the backbone of prayers and songs of God’s people, canticles served as the monks’ response to God word. Over the centuries the canticles have all but fallen out of use in most protestant churches. Most of these songs disappeared around the time of the Reformation, probably since the songs resided in daily prayer offices, offices that most protestants rejected. Interestingly enough, John Calvin retained Simeon’s Song for his communion liturgy, and Luther included many of them in his early songbooks. Eventually, Calvin altered his liturgy and dropped the canticle, and Luther’s followers seldom sang the canticles in practice. Today, the canticles reside in most rites of daily prayer, including, the Roman
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fieldnotes Breviary, the Orthodox Matins service, the Book of Common Prayer, and the contemporary text Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Given this brief overview of the biblical and liturgical context of the canticles, there appears to be one singular and important thread: when Christians have prayed and/or sung a canticle after readings of Scripture, that responsive act participates in the dramatic logic of the canticles in scripture. Therefore, if a church wants to follow scripture in its use of the canticles, then that church will likely place the canticles as responses to God’s word and work, perhaps in response to biblical readings, the sacraments, or the sermon. Likewise, if a church wants to follow the tradition in its use of the canticles, then that church will likewise place the canticles as responses to God’s word and work, perhaps in response to biblical readings, the sacraments, or the sermon. If both the bible and the tradition are in agreement on this matter, I want to offer a tentative theological definition for the canticles. The canticles serve as exemplars of human language appropriate to God’s word and work. If churches used the canticles in public worship as responsive language, then the church may learn how to rightfully respond to who God is and what God does in its daily life. However, as with any liturgical act, Christians need to approach these songs with attention to their biblical context, theological import, and their potential misuse in the life of the church. In order to illustrate of what this attention might look like, I want to offer some reflections on two contemporary songs that take their cue from biblical canticles. For the sake of space, this booklet will focus on eleven canticles: the two Songs of Moses, the three Songs of Isaiah, the Psalms of Jonah and Habakkuk, the three Songs from Luke, and Revelation’s Song of Moses and of the Lamb. Furthermore, it will situate them in their biblical context, offer some theological reflections, and suggest a few uses for our liturgical gatherings. In conclusion, this piece will offer a few synthetic remarks, specifically dealing with portraits of God, and poetic issues of parallelism, reversals, and time.
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fieldnotes
The Song of Moses and Miriam Exodus 15:1-18
15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. 4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. 7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. 8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ 10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. 14 The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
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fieldnotes the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.” 19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
The Song of Moses and Miriam Biblical Context This first song of Moses is the first biblical canticle in the canon and might be the most popular traditional Old Testament song. The song unfolds in response to God’s work at the Red Sea. Trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea, the Jews lashed out at Moses: “There weren’t enough graves in Egypt; you had to bring us out here to kill us? Didn’t we say to you that it was better to be slaves to the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:1112, author’s paraphrase)? Moses told the people not to fear and to believe. He lifted his staff and the Jews passed through the darkness of night and the abyss of the sea, camped on the edge of the Red Sea, woke in the morning, and they saw Pharaoh, the son of the sun god and the army of the greatest superpower in the world washed on the shore of the sea. They believed that I AM was I AM, and Moses was his servant. The Jews left a strange people and land and language, and entered into the presence of God, the God who defeated all other gods, all other politics, all other military powers. Having this new reality of freedom and liberation dawn upon them, Moses and the people sang to God. The song opens describing God’s work at the Red Sea, and the singer articulates words of faith as statement affection and possession. “The Lord is my strength … my song … this is my God … my father’s God.” The singer also describes this God as a God “of war”, as one who is so powerful that he can throw the greatest military technologies into to sea as easily as one “throws” an arrow from a bow (Exodus 15:1-3). The singer then recounts God’s deeds but invests them with interpretive and poetic richness. For example, the chariots and officers descend to the depths “like a stone.” Though God defeated Egypt with water, God’s military action is a fire that “consumes them like stubble.” God breathes wind from his nostrils and piles the waters in a heap, perhaps like wheat in a storehouse (vv. 4-10). Next, the singer turns to rhetorical questions and compares the defeated gods of Egypt to God’s “holiness … deeds … [and] wonders.” Perhaps equating the fate of the gods with the fate of Egypt’s defeated army, the singer claims that “the earth swallowed” the gods at God’s right hand (vv. 11-12). The singer concludes speaking as though the future has already arrived. Fear seizes the surrounding nations from the time they heard about the Red Sea to the present. But in this future,
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fieldnotes entry into the land is still some time away, “[God] will” plant the Jews on God’s mountain (vv. 13-18). Theological Reflections While the Song of Moses is a song of thanksgiving, it acts like a short burst of thanks after long period of oppression and suffering, particularly multi-generational oppression. This economy of long suffering and brief thanks problematizes cheap or easy words of thanks. After years of pain and abuse, these words of joy may not words easily uttered for those still healing from the wounds of oppression. Additionally, the singers addressed the song to God, with Moses listed first. This detail might imply that sometimes, perhaps after long suffering, perhaps when it is difficult to give thanks or we have forgotten how to give thanks, we need people to lead us into thanksgiving. In such circumstances, the leader has a responsibility to be a credible singer of thanks. Unless a leader is willing to utter “fear not and believe” (Exodus 14:13) during a time of suffering, that leader might not have the credibility to utter, “I will sing unto the Lord” (Exodus 15:1b) Praise after suffering also poses some potential problems. As James Davison Hunter points out, many American evangelicals experience fear and resentment toward the world of progressive politics, and, in so doing, tend to attach those features to their Christian identity.1 In such a climate, evangelicals might be tempted to sing the Song of Moses in a way unbecoming to Christian identity. In some cases, we may be acting more like Egypt and less like Israel. Additionally, while the song rightly names God as a the ruler of war and justice, it is important to remember that this nomenclature is only one facet of God’s character, and must be held together with Christ’s strange victory over the world’s powers, suffering, and death. Finally, the Song of Moses provides several tools to nurture contemporary songwriting and liturgy. As a song of thanks, the Song of Moses clearly recounts details, but the song does not present them as a mere laundry list. Rather, it expands upon God’s work with interpretive and poetic language. While God’s deeds are clear at times, their clarity does not rule out the possibility of interpretation. The Song of Moses invites us to invest the details of God’s action with poetic richness. A metaphor like, “the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea” could nurture a biblical imagination in such a way that the church could describe the world with truer words that mere description.
1. see James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) pp. 200-210.)
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fieldnotes Liturgical Resources: Music: My Strength, My Song, My Salvation – Douglas O’Donnell Liturgy: Easter Vigil Baptism Contemporary worship tends to avoid songs of praise for deliverance that focus on aspects of God’s character. In this way, the singing the song of Moses might allow the church to imagine their deliverance from sin and death as continuative of God’s identity. Furthermore, the text and song appears in the Easter Vigil, contextualizing God’s work at the Red Sea with Christ’s redeeming salvation on the cross. Singing at least part of this song during a baptism might also underscore the association of water with salvation. Prayer/Poetry:
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The Second Song of Moses Deuteronomy 32:1-43
32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2 May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. 3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! 4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. 5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you? 7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 10 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, 12 the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places
of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. 14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 “The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. 20 And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them; 24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. 26 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,” 27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Lord who did all this.”’ 28 “For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. 29 If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end! 30 How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves. 32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter; 33 their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps. 34 “‘Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries? 35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’ 36 For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. 37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! 39 “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, 41 if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh— with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’ 43 “Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”
fieldnotes
The Second Song of Moses Biblical Context The Book of Deuteronomy serves, in part, as a witness to Israel to live life according to Torah: to love God and to love others. Torah represents God’s description of what a good, long life in the land looks like. However, Moses gives God’s Torah to a people who will fail to keep it, who will live in exile, and who will experience God’s curse (Deuteronomy 30:1-5). Instead of life, Israel will choose death (Deuteronomy 30:15). Having given Torah to a people bound for death, Moses sings to them, and he sings to them their own story. Moses opens his song asking the heavens and the earth to bear witness. Although he sings the song “in the ears” of Israel, Moses’ address to the heavens and earth likely functions as a witness against his audience. Moses then evokes an extended metaphor: he describes the words he is about to utter as life-giving water to delicate and fragile plants. While Moses’ words will indict Israel, this evocation implies that his song is life-giving, and understands that his audience is as fragile as “tender grass” and “the herb” (Deuteronomy 32:1-3). Next, Moses turns to an overview of God’s character, the establishment of Israel, and Israel’s corruption. Where God’s work is perfect and just and God’s character is faithful and upright, Israel is corrupt, blemished, crooked, and senseless. Furthermore, Israel’s identity is at stake in this description; they are “no longer his children.” Despite this description, Moses insists that God’s creation of Israel is special. Although God established all the nations, God created Jacob as a father and as God’s own heritage (vv. 4-9). Next, Moses recounts Israel’s story, its past and future. Perhaps a reference to Israel’s wilderness wanderings, Moses reminds his hearers that God found Israel vulnerable in the desert. Like an eagle, God protected and carried Israel. God also provided remarkable sustenance for Israel: honey, oil, livestock, wheat, and wine, but Israel became fat and sleek and scoffed against God. They sacrificed to demons and forgot the God who “gave [them] birth” (vv. 10-18). In response, God spurned and turned his face from Israel. Exacting symmetrical recompense, God declares that he will make Israel jealous and angry just as Israel kindled God’s jealousy and anger. Disasters, hunger, plague, beasts, sword, and terrors will fall upon Israel. (vv. 19-27) Moses describes Israel as a nation “void of counsel … [and] understanding.” They are like a vine of Sodom and Gomorrah; they produce grapes of poison and wine of venom (vv. 28-33). Furthermore, Moses warns Israel that God will take his vengeance and that Israel’s doom is at hand (vv. 34-35). Despite the “day of calamity”, God promises vindication, compassion, and freedom once Israel realizes she is powerless and the gods they worshipped have not protected her (vv. 36-38). God issues a reminder to Israel: “There is no god beside me.” Evoking war images, God not only makes things live but God also kills with sword and arrow; God’s arrows drink blood and God’s sword devours flesh (vv. 39-42). Moses completes his song with a benediction that mirrors the beginning. He invites the heavens to rejoice with God, because God avenges his children and cleanses the land (v. 43).
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fieldnotes Theological Reflections As something like a prophetic oracle2, Moses includes elements typical of biblical prophetic literature: narrative, recounting of Israel’s harried past, and, perhaps most importantly, words of both judgment and salvation. There is also a piling up of metaphors in this song that mirrors the piling up of actions God will take against his enemies. The presence of this oracle in the canticles opens up the possibility for prophetic critique as an aspect of congregational song and/or liturgical language. Like Moses’ hope, such a critique might be taken to heart in order that a congregation might teach prophetic critique to their children (Deuteronomy 32:46). Prophetic critiques require vigilance on several fronts. Two possible extremes include over-confidence in one’s critique and fear leading to produces silence. While arrogance often couples itself with charisma or a cult of personality, immobility may be caused by the financial and political arrangements of contemporary churches. Leaders, quite bluntly, may find it difficult to critique those people who pay their salaries. Similarly, prophetic messages typically deploy both a message of judgment and a note of salvation. Missing either one of these features neglects the biblical economy at work in most prophetic utterances. This Song of Moses offers at least two potential resources for language in contemporary worship. One of the most glaring oversights of evangelical worship is our failure to tell our story as part of God’s story, in the way, for example, Psalm 136 does. In this case, a prophetic critique might tell the story of a particular congregation, a denomination, or national church as one of failure and brokenness over and against God’s faithfulness. In addition, American Christianity has exhibited the tendency to act like Israel. In many ways we have consumed God’s blessings of safety, security, food, and wine and have grown fat and kicked against God in them. Israel’s story of exile and return suggests that the only cure for Israel’s hardness of heart is a broken heart. American churches may need to consider what a broken heart might look like.
2. Through this text, I will use the term “oracle” to describe types of prophetic speech. In my experience, most evangelicals simply avoid technical language of this kind in favor of a phrase like “Isaiah said,” or Jeremiah prophesied.” I think this term, however, helps us attend to two important matters. First, it helps us recognize the vast diversity of speech in the prophetic books. Sometimes the prophets record narrative interactions, letters, dialogues, prophetic acts, and other occasion oracles. In the same way Christians have found it helpful to note the interaction between Jesus’ parables and Jesus’ healings, I have found terms like prophetic acts and oracles helps me read the prophets more closely and carefully. Furthermore, the term oracle helps me realize that there are many kinds of oracles in the prophets: woe oracles, oracles of consolation, oracles against the nations, and so on. The terms help me make more sense of the text in front of me. Second, the term oracle helps keep the Bible situated in a world in which prophecies of all kinds took place. In the ancient world, gods, prophets, prophetic utterances, and governments all existed in a fierce and competitive free market of deities. The “Oracles at Delphi” existed alongside many other temples, priests, and oracular utterances. The term oracles, then, helps us see more clearly the similarities and differences between the false prophets and the Hebrew prophets. All prophets dispense oracles. Isaiah and Jeremiah, however, utter oracles from the God of Abraham, Isaac and, Jacob, from the God who made the heavens and the earth.
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fieldnotes Liturgical Resources Music: Ascribe (Give Ear, O Heaven) - Luke Brawner Give ear, O earth, attend my songs – Calvin Seerveld Why Should You Not Now Adore Him – Douglas O’Donnell Liturgy: Lent During the season of Lent, the song might function as a helpful way for a congregation to enter into a time of contrition and repentance. Perhaps most daringly, a church might use the text as exploration of prophetic song, a place in which a congregation can safely express disappointment over its own failures and weaknesses. Prayer/Poetry:
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fieldnotes
The First Song of Isaiah Isaiah 12:1-6
12 You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
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fieldnotes
The First Song of Isaiah Biblical Context Isaiah 7-12 may have been written against Judah’s King Ahaz and his radical political uncertainty, particularly regarding Israel and Syria’s attacks on Judah and the rise of the Neo-Assyrians (see 2 Kings 16 and its parallels in Isaiah 7-8). The oracles that Isaiah utters describe Judah’s future political salvation. In addition to a host God’s judgments and the return of a remnant, Isaiah describes a boy called Immanuel, the birth of a child, and the branch of Jesse. These images describe God’s redemption of his people and land. Not only will the “shoot of Jesse’s stump” serve as judge and king, but the earth will experience an inversion of its natural order, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb … and the little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). On that day, Isaiah’s audience will sing. Isaiah opens the song with the singular pronoun, “you.” While his “you” is not necessarily clear from the context, the song articulates a clear motivation for thanksgiving: though God was angry with the singer, now God comforts (Isaiah 12:1). Quoting the opening of Exodus’ Song of Moses, God’s comfort has changed the singer’s fear, lack of trust in God, and lack of salvation. It is as though a new Exodus has dawned (v. 2). Shifting back to Isaiah’s voice, he now turns to the plural “you.” In the day of salvation, “you” express thanks in articulating God’s work among the nations (Isaiah 12:4). The voice of the plural “you” continues, but the voice now addresses the singular “inhabitant of Zion.” The inhabitant should sing, shout, and make God known, for “the Holy One of Israel” is great in her midst (vv. 5-6). Once the song has ended, Isaiah turns to prophecies against the nations. Theological Reflections Within the context of Isaiah, this song appears to be a liturgical song functioning as a literary transition between Isaiah 7-12 and the oracles against the nations that follow. That is, the song gathers up the themes of God’s redemptive work for Judah (Isaiah 12:1-2) and prefigures God’s work among the surrounding nations (v. 3). The song also engages in a liturgical interplay between the corporate and personal. It not only speaks to an individual or individuals, but it also addresses a community. Given that Isaiah 12 aims to comfort Judah in the midst of intense insecurity, churches might benefit if they speak Isaianic comfort with great care. While God does promises the perseverance of God’s people in eternal security, Israel, Judah, and the in-grafted Church have regularly experienced short-term insecurity, suffering, and even death. Conversely, the American evangelical church might violate Isaiah’s economy of comfort if it attempts to comfort itself in only mild or negligible suffering. In fact, the American church might frequently behave more like the nations against which Isaiah speaks rather than Isaiah’s insecure Judah. Given these warnings, Isaiah 12 might offer churches liturgical sensitivity to transitions, theological-poetic definitions, and allusions as resources for public worship. Whether used in a low or high church setting, Isaiah 12 offers a theological transition in liturgical language. Churches often sing or speak without much reflection on transitions, but churches would do well to guide congregations through their liturgy with
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fieldnotes both theological summaries and previews. Such transitions might help congregants connect their bodily and emotional experience with a more robust cognitive understanding. Similarly, this song provides theological definitions in poetic form, particularly through parallelism. Parallelism describes a common biblical poetic device in which the poet develops one element through some form of repetition. Consider Isaiah 6:4b. The poet draws a parallel between “Give thanks to the Lord,” and “make known his deeds among the peoples,” For Isaiah, it appears that giving thanks to God includes international proclamation. The song also presents God “salvation” as a multi-faceted work of God that includes comfort, strength, and singing. In these instances, parallelism opens up unexpected and interested definitions of words we tend to take for granted, words that “thanksgiving” and “salvation.” Whether through new songs or liturgical speech, churches might experiment with applying such poetic definitions to other theological concepts like adoption, kenosis (God’s self-emptying in Christ), or eschatology. Finally, the song offers allusions to other biblical passages as a way to describe the present in terms of the past. In this case, Isaiah describes God’s deliverance of Judah from exile as an Exodus-like event. Such analogous thinking appears part and parcel of a biblical imagination. Liturgical Resources Music: Zion (So Give Thanks to the Lord) - Redemption Hill Hark the Glad Sound – Zac Hicks (text: Philip Doddridge) Liturgy: Advent A good text to use in multiple places during Advent. As a focus for a particular Sunday or as a reading for a Lessons and Carols service. Many worship leaders struggle with transitions, and this canticle might serve as a model for transitions of all sorts. In addition, the text appears in the lectionary during Advent and Easter Vigil, so singing the text might offer avenues to explore the ways in which a congregation might anticipate or make sense of an exodus-like event in their own lives. Prayer/Poetry:
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fieldnotes
The Second Song of Isaiah Isaiah 55:6-11
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
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fieldnotes
The Second Song of Isaiah Biblical Context Where most of Isaiah intermingles words of judgment with words of salvation, almost the entirety of Isaiah 40-55 is comprised of oracles of consolation. Isaiah 45 declares that the pagan King Cyrus is, in fact, God’s anointed messiah, and that Israel will experience restoration through him. Intermingling extended consolations with the servant songs, Isaiah 55 functions as a conclusion to the consolations. As counter-intuitive as calling Cyrus God’s messiah is, the consolation of Isaiah 55 begins with a woe oracle (unfortunately muted in the ESV and NIV). Announcing woe to those who hunger and thirst, Isaiah describes the complete reordering of his audience’s economic world. In the renewed Israel, water, wine, milk, and bread are all free. Through rhetorical questions, however, the economic reordering of the world transforms into a re-envisioning of the covenant. God will covenant with the people as though they are David himself. This new covenant will invert the political order of the day. Israel will command the peoples and nations, and they will do so because God, “the Holy One of Israel”, has glorified them (Isaiah 55:1-5). The song then turns to an exhortation and promise. Because God will do this great work in the future, Isaiah’s audience should seek God now and turn from their wickedness. Although it might sound counterintuitive that God would have mercy on them, God’s mind outpaces and confounds human understanding (vv. 6-9). Next, Isaiah deploys an extended metaphor of assurance. Just as water gives life to plants and wheat, such is the potency of God’s renewed covenant and mercy (vv. 10-11). Finally, the song ends with a promise of salvation. The promise of mercy, joy and peace will lead the renewed Israel into a creation that worships God. The natural world will also sing and clap, because God replaced even the smallest forces of destruction—thorns and briars— with abundant life (vv. 12-13). After the song, Isaiah envisions that God will extend the covenant to all those who obey, even salvation for the Gentiles.
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fieldnotes Theological Reflections Where the previous songs all basically adhered to a single type of oracle, this song appears to have a mixture of at least two: woe and promise, and this mixing of oracles appears to be the means the prophet describes the God’s unfathomable work. As to the oddity of mixed oracles, consider how odd it might be to write or sing a song of lament and a praise song. In this canticle, however, Isaiah seems to find conflating woe and promise as the means to describe God refersals. New songs and liturgies might experiment with mixed modes of speech and song as a means of displaying thoughts unthinkable to humans, namely God’s mercy that inverts the present order. Many psalms and prophets speak at length about the destruction of powerful governments or enemies falling into their own pits. In the case of Isaiah 55, the reversals are almost too much to bear: a pagan king is God’s messiah, woe is a path to blessing, and the curses in Genesis 3 are undone. Thinking about reversal, however, is not without its dangers. If composed poorly, such speech might downplay the terror of woe and, as a result, cheapen the grace of God. Nevertheless, liturgical language should responsibly and faithfully speak forth those words that humans consider unthinkable. In God’s good future, God will invert all human orders. Liturgical Suggestions Music: Seek Ye the Lord While He May Be Found - Greg Wilbur
Liturgy: Lectionary In the lectionary, this text appears at the Easter Vigil, Epiphany, and Lent. Because of the complexity of singing the complete song leaders will want to provide some detailed attention as to the text’s biblical and liturgical context. The text might also prove useful in a Lessons and Carols service. Prayer/Poetry:
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The Third Song of Isaiah Isaiah 60:1-19
1Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. 5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 6 A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. 7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. 8 Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? 9 For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. 10 Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. 11 Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.
12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. 13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. 14 The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. 16 You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. 17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness. 18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. 19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
fieldnotes
The Third Song of Isaiah Biblical Context The final movement of the book, Isaiah 56-66 includes oracles both of judgment and consolation. In terms of judgment, Isaiah 56-59 critiques its audience for not observing Sabbath rightly, for engaging in for idolatry mixed with sexual sin, and for wrongheaded fasting. Isaiah’s consolation in these chapters is comprised of rather surprising inclusion of those who are excluded, particularly foreigners, eunuchs, and the humble. God not only accepts the outcast, he enacts justice, redeems Israel, covenants with Israel, and puts his Spirit permanently in their mouths. Having accomplished all this, Isaiah turns to another oracle of consolation. Following an opening exhortation, Isaiah addresses a reversal of Israel’s exile, Israel’s international political relations, God’s interaction with Israel, and the entire cosmos. First, Isaiah exhorts his audience: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Isaiah implies that this light is God’s glory upon Israel, a light that will dawn upon the darkness of international politics (Isaiah 60:1-3). Next, Isaiah turns to the reversal of Israel’s exile. Instead of people and resources being forcibly taken from the land - sons, daughters, riches, livestock will all flow into Zion. This reversal will take place to help Israel’s true worship and glorification of God (vv. 4-9). In addition, God will reverse Israel’s political relationship with other nations. Other nations will serve Israel, not merely through labor and service, but also by bringing their natural resources as gifts. Far from representing coercion and false peace, Zion will be a center of international peace and stability. And all of this will transpire so that Israel will know God is her redeemer (vv. 10-16). Third, Isaiah describes the reversal of God’s interaction with Israel. Emphasizing the overabundance of his material wealth, God will give Israel gold instead of bronze. Instead of Babylonian overseers, God will make peace and righteousness their “overseers”. And no one will hear violence and destruction in the land (vv. 17-18). Finally, God reverses—or, more accurately, realigns— the order of the cosmos. Instead of the sun and moon, God will be Israel’s light, and he will make Israel a righteous people who possess the land forever. Ultimately, “the smallest one” will be “a mighty nation” (vv. 17-18). Theological Reflections If churches used this song’s exhortations and reversals as a resource in its liturgical life, they might consider several potential missteps. In regard to the historical context of Isaiah 60, some scholars speculate that this section of Isaiah addressed a post-exilic community before the Second Temple is completed. As Ezra and Nehemiah witnessed, this community experienced disillusion and division from within and threats from the surrounding communities. Given the stark differences between the vulnerable postexilic community and the relative security of many 21st-Century American churches, contemporary Christians might unwittingly trivialize the emotional economy in Isaiah 60. Thoughtless use of this text might provide cheap comfort to comfortable people. Furthermore, because the song is explicitly political, international, and with Israel at its center, the church should consider taking great care to avoid using Scripture to underwrite its own political agendas, be they liberal or conservative. Finally, churches might
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fieldnotes be tempted to think that God’s promises to Israel no longer apply, or that the church has replaced Israel in God’s covenantal history. When churches sing Isaiah 60, it is important to remember Paul’s analysis of Gentile inclusion. Christians experience salvation because God grafted the church into Israel. Singing Isaiah 60 rightly means that we understand ourselves as those Gentile nations who bring good gifts to Israel. Through the work of Christ and the power of the Spirit, God sees Christian Gentiles as though we were the God’s chosen Jewish people. Given these warnings, Isaiah 60 offers at least one important resource for contemporary public worship: the language of reversals. Arguably, the reversals like the ones found in Isaiah 60 bear a strong family resemblance to reversals found in many other parts of Scripture. Given that the New Testament makes regular use of Isaiah, it should not be surprising that Jesus appears to take up the inner logic of the kind of reversal typical of Isaiah 60 and deploy them in his own prophetic ministry. As Christians, it is not unreasonable to assume a strong continuity between the spirit of Jesus’ phrase, “So the last will be first and the first last” (Matthew 20:16) and that of Isaiah’s, “The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation” (Isaiah 60:22). If these reversals comprise an important part of Scripture’s eschatological and gospel imagination, then churches might explore such language as appropriate to public worship. In Christ, God will reverse the natural and political status quo and will do it to elevate the weak and oppressed. Liturgical Resources Music: God Will be Your Glory - Jess Alldredge Arise and Look to the Skies - Craig Harris Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come - Jered McKenna Arise, Your Light is Come - Ruth Duck Liturgy: Epiphany The lectionary places the first several verses of Isaiah 60 during Epiphany, and usually accompanies the text with Matthew 2:12, the adoration of the Magi. In singing the canticle, a church may want to emphasize their own pagan-ness, like that of the Magi, and God’s grace in calling those outside of Israel to worship Israel’s God. Prayer/Poetry:
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fieldnotes
The Song of Jonah Jonah 2:2-9
2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
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fieldnotes
The Psalm of Jonah Biblical Context Fleeing from God’s presence, a storm overcomes Jonah’s boat, and, he convinces the crew to throw him overboard. God calls a fish to save Jonah, and in response, the prophet sings a psalm, and his song unfolds in at least two parts. First, Jonah recounting the past with distinct interplay between the pronouns “I” and “you,” referring to Jonah and God respectively. Jonah called to God and God answered. God cast Jonah into the deep, and Jonah sank. However, after Jonah remembers God’s temple, the song deploys a short series of reversals. Although Jonah sank into the depths, God raised him up. As Jonah was dying, his prayer rose to God in his temple (Jonah 2:2-7). Second, Jonah turns to declarations and his future life. He affirms that idols betray those who trust, hope in, and love them. In contrast, Jonah affirms that he will return to God’s temple to offer thanksgiving and right worship (vv. 8-9). Once the fish regurgitates the prophet, Jonah speaks to the Ninevites, they repent, and God saves the pagan city. The book ends as Jonah expresses his discontent that God showed mercy to the city. The Song of Jonah was used in the worship of the early church with its persecutions, and Matthew 12:40 gives us a glimpse that this canticle was early on associated with the death and rising of Christ. Hughes Oliphant Old elaborates, “Because the church very early in its life saw the experience of Jonah as a sign of Christ’s burial, the canticle was interpreted typologically to concern his burial.” Theological Reflections Reflection on this text for liturgy and public worship should not shy away from the book’s considerable complexity. Through explicit and implicit use of dramatic language, the book presents Jonah as an unlikeable and problematic prophetic figure. Not only does the prophet initially refuse God’s command, but he also does not want God to show mercy to pagans. Furthermore, Jonah would rather commit suicide than go to Nineveh. That is, when Jonah convinces the sailors throw him overboard, he uses his own death to secure damnation to pagans . As he sank into the ocean depths, the song suggests that Jonah regretted his choice. He cried out to God, and God used the fish to save him. Given these details, some scholars suggest that the book might be satirical in nature. The book, therefore, serves as a warning to people who people of faith who want to horde God’s mercy. They can utter hymns of thanksgiving in utter hypocrisy. American evangelicals can be like Jonah too. We can experience God’s mercy, deny it to those we hate, and praise God at the same time. In light of Jonah’s unchanging heart, churches should aim to share the grace God bestowed on us. The psalm of Jonah offers at least three resources for liturgical language. First is its context. Jonah sings his song of thanksgiving at a curious point in the narrative. He sings after God has saved him, but before he reaches returns to the temple or even reaches dry land. That is, Jonah appears comfortable praising God in an apparently ambiguous context. While it may be difficult to do, the book of Jonah suggests that praise remains a fitting mode of public discourse even in complex moments of individual and communal suffering. Next, Jonah’s psalm interweaves details of suffering with ancient Near Eastern cosmology. When Jonah says that he sinks to the roots of the earth, he
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fieldnotes imagines himself descending down past the lower waters into the depth of Sheol. This is not necessarily to say that, as contemporary Christians, we need to adopt ancient cosmologies, but it might suggest that we not neglect God’s work in and through the lives of the ancient beliefs of God’s people. How we translate these cosmologies to our own is an ongoing process. Nevertheless, God remains God of those places and spaces too, and our praise should acknowledge that reality. Thirdly, the book of Jonah, as it is used by Christ in the Gospel of Mathew, offers us the possibility of typology as an avenue to connect our singing of this canticle with devotion to Christ.3 Hughes Oliphant Old elaborates, ““Because the church very early in its life saw the experience of Jonah as a sign of Christ’s burial, the canticle was interpreted typologically to concern his burial.”4 Liturgical Resources Music: Alas! The Lord My Life is Gone - Karl Digerness and Brian T. Murphy (Text: Gadsby #953) I Called to God - Patrick Schlabs Jonah’s Song - Jeff Bourque Liturgy: Lent and Holy Week During Lent and Holy Week, the song of Jonah might allow a congregation space to repent of their sins and look forward to living in the presence of their God. More specifically, singing or reciting this song during the Easter Vigil (Holy Saturday) might present opportunities to develop baptismal themes. Prayer/Poetry:
3.Matthew 12:30 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 4.Hughes Oliphant Old, Praying the Bible. p.32
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The Prayer of Habakkuk Habakkuk 3:2-19
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. 6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. 13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 15 You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. 16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
fieldnotes
The Psalm of Habakkuk Biblical Context The brief but powerful oracle of Habakkuk unfolds in three main parts. First, the book opens with Habakkuk rebuking God for the violence and suffering surround him. His rebuke is so strong and forceful that the book gives the prophet a dramatic posture, perhaps expressing anxiety or dread. Habakkuk posts himself as watchman “to look and see what [God] will say to me” (Habakkuk 2:1). Next comes God’s response to Habakkuk in the form of an eschatological vision. The prophet sees that those same people who suffer violence experience God’s vindication and speak against the oppressors. Finally, the prophet utters a psalm of response. Habakkuk opens the psalm recounting that he has witnessed revelation in the voice of the oppressed. Like God on Mt Sinai, God descends from on high, covered in light, and dressed like a warrior. All the earth quakes in fear, because God has defeated the wicked (Habakkuk 3:1-15). The prophet then recounts his reaction the vision of God. Like the earth, Habakkuk trembles, but he “will quietly wait for the day of trouble”, the day when God will defeat Habakkuk’s enemies (v. 16). Ultimately, Habakkuk resolves to praise God, though he has not yet experienced God’s salvation. “Though the fig tree should not blossom,” pines the prophet, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord”(vv. 17-19). (c.f. Matthew and Luke 13) Theological Reflections Like many of the psalms, Habakkuk’s psalm includes victory and liturgical language, though the context of the book might challenge some contemporary reflections on victory and liturgy. As a psalm of victory, Habakkuk 3 articulates God’s military might, his ruling power over nature, and his defeat of his enemies. As liturgical discourse, the psalm is addressed to “the choirmaster”, and instructs the individual to deploy musical accompaniment. These details might suggest that the psalm is one that the whole congregation sings. If a congregation follows the text of Habakkuk, the song may prove a productive way for a congregation to deal with suffering, death, and loss. Though a psalm of victory, Habakkuk’s dramatic structure connects his discourse of victory to his accusations against God. In the face of severe suffering, the path to some psalms of victory need be laid through accusations against God. Furthermore, liturgical life need not deny the intense complexity of waiting in the midst of suffering. Contemporary churches might consider keeping accusation, victory, and waiting together as a single liturgical utterance. Divorcing them might very well lead to triumphalism on one hand or to disillusionment on the other. Habakkuk’s psalms suggest theophany and waiting as language appropriate to the liturgy. When Habakkuk deploys theophany, or his vision of God, it includes at least two aspects. A God revelation is apocalyptic in nature; normal everyday speech appears inadequate for Habakkuk’s task. God’s arrival turns the world inside out: hills sink into the depths, heavenly bodies stand still, the waters cry out. God also appears to accomplish a specific purpose: justice for his suffering people. Additionally, Habakkuk offers church waiting as an appropriate liturgical posture. As a victory psalm, Habakkuk’s psalm praises God for victory yet to come. In the in-between time, the prophet appears
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fieldnotes to accept waiting and doing so with a host of physiological expressions normally absent in contemporary church life: trembling, quivering, rotting bones, and shaky legs. Habakkuk does not necessarily suggest that all of the church’s waiting should look like this, but it might, at the very least, give the church this option in the midst of its suffering. Liturgical Resources Music: Habakkuk’s Prayer (Still I Will Rejoice) - Caroline Cobb Sometimes a Light Surprises - William Cowper
Liturgy: Holy Week (Holy Saturday) Because Habakkuk addresses issues of theodicy, the text appears on Holy Saturday. It might also feature prominently in a sermon series on suffering. At the end of the day, any discussion of theodicy often finds its most profound weight in the life of a church during a funeral or memorial service. While Habakkuk might not be appropriate for such services, the book, treated with careful attention in the life of the liturgy, might provide a congregation language appropriate to the most horrific of circumstances. Prayer/Poetry:
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fieldnotes INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT CANTICLES The most famous of the canticles are the collection that Luke gives us in his gospel. Often referred to as the Incarnation Canticles, they include the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), or Magnificat (Latin for “[my soul] magnifies [the Lord]”); the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:67-79), or Benedictus (“blessed be [the God of Israel]”); the Angels’ Song (Luke 2:14), or Gloria in Excelsis Deo (“glory to God in the highest”); and finally the Song of Simeon (Luke 2:28-32), or Nunc Dimittis (“now depart [in peace]”). So why do these songs cram the narrative of Luke’s early telling of the good news of Christ? We are not even two chapters in and we have four recorded pieces of poetic utterance! Most scholars simply state the obvious that these songs are the true “New Song” that the Old Testament has been prophesying for generations: that in Christ all of the hopes and fears of Israel would be fulfilled and redeemed. (e.g. Psalm 33:3;40:3;96:1;98:1;144:9;149:1) It is also the case that in dramatic moments of God’s presence and deliverance the heavens and earth break forth into song. Remember how so many of the canticles we examined in the Old Testament serve to focus the narrative and to emphasize themes that we as the reader and spiritual participant are supposed to hone in on. Luke here doesn’t want us to miss what is truly unfolding in the realms of heaven and earth. In Mary’s song, we are reminded that God cares for and has given promises to the weak and humble in remarkable parallel to Hannah’s song from 2 Samuel. In the song of Zechariah, the weight of two thousand years of Old Testament prophecy comes pouring in around us: God has not forgotten his people, nor his covenant promises. In the Angels’ Song, the praise of heaven breaks through: this child will be Immanuel, very God with us. In the swan song of Simeon, full of the Spirit of God, we are reminded that this promised coming is not for Israel only, but for all the world. It will be “a light for revelation to the gentiles.”
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fieldnotes
Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificat Luke 1:46-55
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.�
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The Song of Mary Biblical Context To a young girl named Mary, the angel Gabriel announces that God’s Spirit would come upon her, and she would conceive. Giving her word of submission—her fiat or her “let it be”—Mary rushes to her cousin Elizabeth. Hearing Mary’s voice, God fills Elizabeth with the Spirit, and Mary hears that God has blessed her. In response, Mary sings. In her preamble, Mary rejoices and magnifies God because God has seen her and her lowly state. She also reaffirms Elizabeth’s claim that generations will bless her (Luke 1:46-50). Perhaps echoing the spirit of the reversals present in Hannah’s song (see 1 Samuel 2) or Psalms 103 and 113, Mary describes the great things God has done in and through her body. Mary concludes her song focusing on God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel. In seeing Mary and upending the present order, God proves faithful to Abraham (vv. 54-55). Theological Reflections Because Mary’s song rests in strong continuity with the Old Testament in general and prophetic tradition in particular, much that has been said above applies to her song. For example, like the Song of Moses, Mary enumerates God’s work as a means of praise, and she presents God as a military figure, as one who shows “strength in his arm.” She also presents God as one who is merciful, especially to the weak and vulnerable. Like the third song of Isaiah, Mary identifies God’s work in reversals. Building on the prophetic literature, Mary’s song offers the liturgy language of the world turned upside down, but now focuses that language on Jesus Christ. That is, when churches speak of Christ, reversals become one key way of announcing his work. Within the larger context of Luke’s gospel, Mary’s song brings several important theological features to the foreground, including the identity of God in Christ and Luke’s emphasis on women. As Luke unfolds, it becomes clear that Mary’s song functions as a poetic preview of the book. For example, Jesus will send the away a rich young ruler, (Luke 18:18-23), but he will feed thousands who are hungry (Luke 9:1017).5 Because Christ performs the actions that Mary attributes to God, Mary’s song also functions as a poetic preview of the character of God manifest in the actions of Christ. When Christ feeds the hungry or rejects the rich, he is expressing God’s full identity and character. Mary’s song urges us to think that who God is cannot be divorced from what Christ does. In Luke’s imagination, these actions are just as integral to God’s identity as Jesus’ death and resurrection. Luke urges us to hold all those together in Christ, and bringing Mary’s song to the liturgy urges us to do the same.
5. Consider also the more complex and unusual ways God fulfills Mary’s word. For example, Luke uses Mary’s word “mighty” (θρόνων thrónon) in reference to the Ethiopian eunuch. God does bring down the mighty, but he brings him down from his chariot into the waters of baptism (Acts 8:27). Likewise, Luke gives Mary’s word “exalted” (ὑψωθεὶς hypsosein) to Peter’s in his Pentecost description of Christ. God exalted T=the one who was humiliated in crucifixion and death to the throne room of God (Acts 2:33).
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fieldnotes Luke also draws attention God’s identity in the economic poverty of Jesus’ family. When Luke depicts Joseph, Mary, and Jesus’ time of purification, he includes the detail that the family brought two doves. Levitical law stipulates that doves were an appropriate sacrifice only for the poorest Jews. Therefore, Luke communicates the economic poverty of the family. In Christological terms, this detail suggests that when God becomes human, God identifies with the poor and becomes one of them; he is not a wealthy or powerful family. To know God is to know Christ; to know Christ is to know poverty; in Luke’s imagination, it seems difficult for those who do not know poverty to know Christ.6 Furthermore, Luke places considerable emphasis on women in his text. In the early first century, women experienced considerable subjugation. Their bodies were often treated as sexual objects, easily put away or divorced. Women had little or no economic, social, or political standing. Women could not even serve as witnesses in many courts of law. Space prohibits a full exploration of Luke’s writings on women, but a few examples should illustrate the point. In Luke’s gospel, God’s Spirit comes upon women first, particularly Mary and Elizabeth. Where Mary believes Gabriel’s message, Luke appears to present Zechariah as her foil. Zechariah does not believe at first, and cannot speak, but Mary believes and bursts into song. Luke also represents women as the first evangelists. The prophetess Anna is the first figure to speak publically about Jesus. After Jesus’ resurrection, the women are the first to hear, believe, and announce the good news of resurrection to the unbelieving male disciples. What churches make of this evidence remains a complex matter, but these examples might press churches to prioritize the voice of those who are most vulnerable. That is to say, if God sees fit to choose those people first-century society deemed as poor weak and unreliable witnesses perhaps churches might reconsider which voices count as suitable to be heard in the liturgy.
6. For Luke’s most important exception, see the response of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).
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fieldnotes Liturgical Resources Music: Canticle of the Turning – Rory Cooney He Has Done Great Things – Eric Gilbert In Remembrance of His Mercy - Wen Reagan Magnificat - Evan Mazunik Magnify - Tom Wuest Mary’s Song - Ordinary Time Music My Soul Magnifies the Lord - Andrew Rottner My Soul Proclaims – Warren and Idle My Soul Will Magnify the Lord – Getty and Townend Sing Out My Soul - Brian Moss Tell Out My Soul - Timothy Dudley-Smith / tune: WOODLANDS) Liturgy: Advent and Christmas Seasons The Song of Mary (Magnificat can be used as a sermon topic or musical option during the advent and Christmas seasons. You can find many different versions of the magnificent in a multitude of styles and options. Prayer/Poetry: Daily Prayer The Song of Mary features prominently in the Morning Prayer liturgy of daily prayer. In addition, it is important to remember that Mary was likely a young girl who had just entered childbearing years, perhaps even as young as 14 years old. This historical probability provides an opportunity to present the fullness of the biblical story. For example, it might be appropriate for a young girl in the congregation to read on that Sunday, or better yet, sing Mary’s song to the congregation. Such embodiment is important to the liturgy and the life of the church.
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The Song of Zechariah: The Benedictus Luke 1:68-79
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.�
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The Song of Zechariah Biblical Context When Gabriel announces to Zechariah the priest that he and his barren wife will conceive and bear a son, Zechariah does not believe. The angel therefore strikes Zechariah mute and deaf until it is time to name the son. The priest names his son John, according to the angel’s word, and in doing so, expresses his belief. Immediately, the Spirit comes upon Zechariah and he sings. Unfolding in two parts, Zechariah song tells of God’s promise and fulfillment to Israel and articulates the relationship between John and Jesus. In believing that John will prepare the Lord’s way, Zechariah declares the already completed work of God’s through Israel’s Messiah. Keeping God’s promise to David, God has redeemed Israel through a figure of strength, to save Israel from her enemies. Similarly, God has kept his promise to Abraham, God would liberate Israel from fear so that she might serve God (Luke 1:68-75). Having declared God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel, the priest addresses his son, John. Expanding upon the angel’s message, Zechariah claims that John will bring Israel into right knowledge of God and do so through a specific mechanism, the forgiveness of sin. He then draws upon Isaianic imagery, claiming that God’s mercy will be light. God will eliminate the darkness of death and violence (vv. 76-79). Theological Reflections If Mary’s song of praise emphasizes the reversals internal to God’s work in the world, Zechariah’s song of praise likely emphasizes Israel’s political and spiritual deliverance as continuous with God’s covenant to Israel. The priest exemplifies the significance of God’s identity in Christ, and he claims that the covenant God made with David and Abraham means that Jesus’ strength will deliver Israel from her enemies. That is, when God visits Israel in Jesus, God’s people will finally experience liberation from their enemies. Zechariah claims that the purpose of this liberation: Jesus will deliver Israel so she might be in right relations with God, that she “might serve [God] without fear.” Picking up on Gabriel’s reference to Malachi 4:6, Zechariah fills out John’s calling with the prophetic tradition of light images (see Isaiah 60 and Malachi 4). Through Jesus, God shows his divine light to Israel and to the Gentiles. As with all the other canticles, bringing Zechariah’s language into the liturgy might require churches to anticipate some misuse of the text. If American evangelical churches claim that in Christ God has “saved [us] from … the hand of all who hate us,” we need to utter these words with care. Unlike first-century Israel, we are not presently occupied by an overwhelming military superpower. In fact, American evangelical churches might sometimes act more like Rome than we would like to think. We might explore the possibility that we might need to see ourselves as enemies or as those who hate the oppressed. God’s peace and light might very well come at our expense. With these features in mind, the song of Zechariah offers at least two important features to contemporary liturgy. First, it suggests that the Old Testament offers vital language to understand God’s identity in Christ. For Luke, the poetic explanation of Jesus takes place through Old Testament images, history, and discourse. Zechariah does not seem to think that Jesus is comprehensible independent of the Old Testament.
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fieldnotes Rather, Jesus makes sense through a solid understanding of it. Second, the song offers a completely counterintuitive explanation for God’s freedom. As opposed to contemporary notions of being free, Luke’s freedom does not seem to function as a good in and of itself. It is not freedom from as much as it is freedom for. Rather, freedom is for worship. The term Luke uses here is λατρεύειν (latreuōein), and the term tends to mean one of two things: either to serve for hire or engage in ritual worship. Both meanings serve as a strong witness to American evangelicals notions of freedom. The life and the pursuit of happiness may not constitute a biblical or Christian purpose of what we Americans call liberty. Liturgical Resources Music: Dawning Light of Our Salvation - Wendell Kimbrough Set Us Free - Phil Majorins Blessed be the God of Israel – Carl Daw / tune: FOREST GREEN Canticle of Zechariah – Matt Maher Now bless the God of Israel – Ruth Duck Liturgy: Advent While the Song of Zechariah also appears regularly in daily prayer, it might also prove especially fitting for the Advent season, not only leading up to Christ’s birth but also to sing of the light that shines during long winter nights. Because the song draws on Davidic and Isaianic images, it might also prove a helpful text for Christ the King Sundays. Prayer/Poetry: Daily Prayer The Song of Zechariah is a regular fixture in morning prayer
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The Song of Simeon: Nunc Dimittis Luke 2:22-35 22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and whenthe parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law,28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
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The Song of Simeon Biblical Context Luke introduces Simeon as a devout, upstanding, observant, and Spirit-filled Jew. Through the power, consolation, and revelation of the Spirit, God assured Simeon that he would see Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.7 When he saw Jesus, Simeon held his infant body and sang. Singing to God, Simeon claims that God’s promise to him is now fulfilled and he can finally die in peace and satisfaction. This weak, newborn flesh upon which Simeon gazed was the Almighty’s salvation of Israel. Extending God’s work outside of Israel, Simeon notes how God has performed this work “in the presence” of the nations of the world. Israel’s salvation, therefore, simultaneously illuminates the Gentiles and glorifies Israel. Simeon closes his song and blesses the family, but he informs Mary that Israel’s salvation will prove costly: Many will rise and fall, because Jesus will reveal human hearts. Jesus’ work will also prove devastating to Mary; it will be as if a sword pierced her soul. Theological Reflections The intimate details of Simeon’s story highlight the deeply personal nature of his prayer. While some personal prayers churches make public can veer to into self-absorbed prayers, Simeon’s prayer subordinates his own experience to the larger contexts of God’s plan for the whole world. Simeon’s prayerful humility offers at least one way to help churches avoid self-centeredness: to individually and corporately think and pray about our own death. On this matter, Simeon’s prayer also exhibits appropriate humility, because his death does not thwart God’s salvation. American evangelical churches might do well to consider whether the same is true about their own deaths. In addition, Simeon’s song offers at least two resources for contemporary public worship. First, the song opens with a euphemism for the poet’s death, “depart in peace.” Written with care, euphemisms can offer churches a way to talk about sensitive or troubling matters with sensitivity, discretion, and without treating the matter frivolously. Second, Simeon’s song connects the public and the private, the personal and the corporate. One of the most curious and overlooked phrases in the song is when Simeon claims that God has prepared salvation in the “presence of all people.” The Greek term usually translated as “presence” is πρόσωπον (prósopon), a term that literally means “face”, or “in front of ”. The term clarifies the parallelism Simeon deploys. Accordingly, what God has done before Simeon’s face both privately and personally constitutes the same act of salvation God has performed publically and corporately, in front of the faces of the nations. Simeon’s language might encourage churches to see themselves and God as connected to the world in and through Christ. Simeon’s linking of personal and corporate may suggest an imaginative and poetic manner in which churches can occupy the task of being in the world but not of it.
7. Wayne Grudem and Thomas R. Scheiner note that Luke’s messianic language of salvation (2:30), the forgiveness of sins (1:77), and rescuing the lost (19:10) corresponds to Isaiah’s messianic descriptions (Isa. 40:1; 49:13; 51:3; 57:18; 61:2). See ESV Study Bible (Crossway: Wheaton IL, 2001), 1949.
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fieldnotes The continuing words of Simeon in vv. 34-35 also seem to make a clear connection with the events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. Reading this passage, we can’t help but be transported through the Gospel of Luke from the moment of Christ’s presentation at the temple to his rending of the temple veil. This gospel-arcing song speaks to his consistent presence in the song of the church from its inception from the pen of Luke. Some scholars have noted a connection between Psalm 67 and the Song of Simeon, and it’s not hard to see why. There is a very similar train of thought: that the God of Israel would bless and shine his light on all the nations. Liturgical Resources Music: Simeon’s Song (tune: CONSOLATION) - Bruce Benedict You Send Your Servant Forth in Peace - Steve Thorngate Lord God Now Let Your Servant Depart in Peace – Greg Scheer Song of Simeon – Eric Gilbert Lord Bid Your Servant Go in Peace – by James Quinn, SJ (tune: LAND OF REST) Simeon’s Song – Ordinary Time Music Liturgy: Christmas or Epiphany The Song of Simeon is the fourth of the Lukan Canticles and could be used as part of an advent series, or even better during the Sundays of Christmas or Epiphany. Communion In addition, Calvin used this song immediately following the Lord’s Supper liturgy, perhaps as a way of articulating the complete satisfaction and faithfulness the Eucharist offers to God’s people. In the Supper, God’s people become like Simeon, seeing the fullness of God’s promise fulfilled. Similarly, the song might make a strong choice for a closing hymn to any service or, perhaps, may be used during a funeral or memorial service. Prayer/Poetry: Daily Prayer It has been used at Compline or at Vespers throughout the Church from very early times, being mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions (written at the end of the third century, at the latest) as an evening canticle. Psalms 67, 117 42
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The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb Revelation 15:3-4
3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
The Song of Moses and the Lamb Biblical Context Commentaries tend to presume that John composed His apocalypse during the late first century Domitian persecution. If this is the case, then the book might have aimed to bolster the resolve of the seven churches to endure these sufferings. John reminds his audience on several occasion, for “he who overcomes,” God will provide. Revelation 15:3-4 also unfolds in the more focused context of Revelation 15-16. These chapters comprise the third and final cycle of “portents.” Following the seven seals and the seven trumpets, Revelation 15-16 describes seven bowls or plagues. Before John witnesses the seven plagues, he sees those who conquered the beast standing beside a sea of glass and fire. These saints “sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,” (Revelation 15:3a NRSV). Given these allusions to plagues, the seaside setting, and the act of singing a song of Moses, the text evokes the Exodus tradition. Similarly, the Revelation canticle bears at least a few structural similarities to Exodus’. First, John’s Song of Moses opens describing God’s acts and character. John describes God’s deeds and ways as great, amazing, just, and pure and God’s identity as Lord, Almighty, and King of nations (or ages). Second, like Exodus, Revelation engages in a rhetorical question, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?” Finally, the song concludes describing the response of the nations to God’s work. In Revelation, the nations worship God, because they have witnessed God’s holiness and righteous acts. After the song, the angels pour out the bowls of wrath.
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fieldnotes Theological Reflections Having alluded to the Exodus tradition in several ways, John makes a strange and remarkable textual move: he avoids any verbal links to Exodus’ Song of Moses. Rather, John alludes to a range of other biblical texts, including the LXX Psalm 85:8-10, Jeremiah 10:7, and various references to Amos. In refusing clear verbal links to the Song of Moses, he also avoids some of its themes. For example, where Exodus spends considerable space detailing and expanding upon God’s defeat of Pharaoh’s army, John never once mentions enemies of any kind. Furthermore, Exodus implies a clear demarcation between Israel and the surrounding nations. John however refuses any us/them distinctions. The lack does not necessarily form a critique of Exodus, but it does highlight the eschatological significance of the Revelation song. If churches aim to live in the present according to God’s good future, American evangelical worship may want to consider removing any hint of gleeful gloating over its perceived enemies. Rather, when Moses and Christ sing, they meditate on God’s work and identity. Similarly, the Exodus song makes a great deal of the personal possessive nature of the singer’s relationship to God. In Revelation, however, all the nations worship God. It is not only Israel or Christian churches who take up the proper posture of fear and glorification of God, but a worshipping posture is also the posture appropriate for the peoples of the nations. Regarding positive language, John’s Song of Moses offers churches allusions and an alternative view of time. Like other allusions within scripture, this song’s allusion to Exodus attempts to use the contours of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt as the basis by which to understand God’s final and ultimate eschatological deliverance. Where other allusions use the past to describe the present, John uses the past to describe the future. Pivotal scenes from the past—scenes like Creation, Exodus, Exile, Cross, Resurrection—become the reality out of which the church rightly describes its present and future. Additionally, John’s Song of Moses offers an alternative view of time. As John implicitly offers this heavenly song to the church on earth, it suggests that worship in the present participates in both the past and the future. That is, when contemporary churches sing the Songs of Moses, they identify, name, remember, and take as their own both God’s past work of liberation of Israel and God’s consummation of that liberation in the eschaton. Worship enables the present-day churches to rightfully occupy Israel’s Exodus as though it is our reality in the present and God’s eschaton as though it is our reality in the present. Churches can both wait for liberation and celebrate its reality, because God has accomplished it, though its fullness is veiled from our eyes in the present.
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fieldnotes Liturgical Suggestions: Music: The Song of Moses – Aaron Keyes, et al For You Alone - Naaman Wood Song of Moses and the Lamb - Brady Toops You Alone are Holy - Peter LaGrand Liturgy: In conjunction with either of the OT Songs of Moses (Exodus 15,32) Prayer/Poetry:
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Conclusion A synthesis of the canticles points to several themes throughout them, including portraits of God, parallelism, reversals, and time. While the canticles all make great effort to portray God’s character, they present considerable diversity in their descriptors and views of God. The Old Testament Songs of Moses and the Psalm of Habakkuk characterize God as a warrior (Exodus 15, Habakkuk 3, Deuteronomy 32). God possesses and displays his military power in defeating armies and dispensing weapons of war against the enemy. God commands swords and arrows to destroy the might. The First and Second Songs of Isaiah present God as the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 12, Isaiah 60). Perhaps developing the Old Testament theme of God’s electric, dangerous, and uncontainable holiness, these songs seem to present God’s unique holiness as attached to a particular people and land and as cause for praise, honor, worship, and fear. Other songs include other portraits of God. The Second Song of Isaiah and the Song of Mary mention God’s mercy (Isaiah 55, Luke 1:46-55). According to these two songs, God shows mercy to those persons who, wicked or otherwise, turn to God in fear. The Song of Zechariah focuses on God’s covenantal faithfulness (Luke 1:67-79). For some reason inexplicable to humans, God chose to love and show faithfulness to the earth through a singular people, Israel. In Christ, God illustrates that covenant faithfulness to rescue and save Israel. Of all the canticles, the Song of Moses and the Lamb present God as King (Revelation 15). Maximizing the political involvement of God, John envisions that God’s royal power will cause all political states to worship God, because God is the rightful ruler of all political establishments. Finally, the Psalm of Jonah and the Song of Simeon present complex personal relationship with God (Jonah 2, Luke 2:29-32). In their narrative context, both songs reveal that canticles are not simply reserved for those who are “good Christians.” Rather, these songs are for those who also refuse to extend God mercy to people we despise. In addition to these portraits of God, the canticles draw on several typical poetic devices and themes. Perhaps the most common poetic device in all of scripture is parallelism. To reiterate, parallelism is a device whereby the poet uses similarity in structure to expand, reinforce, or otherwise embellish a particular idea. The format might be expressed abstractly as, “Not only ¬¬____, but also ____.” Consider this example from the First Song of Moses: Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:4)
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fieldnotes Not only were Pharaoh’s chariots and army destroyed, but God also destroyed those who were Pharaoh’s officers. Not only did God throw them into the sea, but God also drowned them in a particular place, the Red Sea. Such structures, common throughout the Bible, serve to amplify the subject at hand. Consider also another form of parallelism, this time from Revelation 15:3b, Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. In describing the fullness of God’s action, John accumulates descriptive language in layers of parallel phrases: great runs parallel to justice; marvelous to truth. The text might therefore encourage us to think of one of these terms as rightly associated with the others. To claim that God’s works are great, John wants his audience to think of them as also necessarily just. Furthermore, John both specifies and expands the title “Lord God Almighty.” For John, it appears that for God to be rightfully almighty, God must also be king of all political entities. Reversals also constitute an important motif in the canticles. The Second Song of Isaiah claims that a pagan king is God’s messiah, uses woe as a path to blessing; and foresees the undoing of the curses on the earth in Genesis 3. Isaiah’s Third Song envisions the reversal of Israel’s exile in which other nations will pour into Israel. The text also sees that God’s work of making Israel mighty begins with the weak, the least and the smallest. In Jonah’s song, he sinks into the depths of the earth, but God raises him from the pit of death. Finally, Mary’s song employs several reversals: God scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, lifted the lowly, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty. Reversals of this kind not only litter scripture, but they also comprise the heart of the gospel: God, by the power of the Spirit, lifted Jesus from everlasting death to everlasting life. Churches do well to not overlook reversals as an integral part of a Christian imagination in all their poetic, hermeneutic, theological, and political ramifications. In parts of the canticles, texts do not always correspond to chronological time. Rather, they speak of acts that are yet to occur as though they have already transpired. Although God’s defeat of Egypt had just occurred, the song of Moses claims that the nations have already heard of God’s mighty works and are already fearful. Similarly, Habakkuk praises God for the future day of the Lord, but he described it all in the past tense, as though the vision has already come to pass. The same mode of presenting future events as though they exist in the past occurs in Luke. Mary claims that in her pregnancy, God has already accomplished all the good works for which she praises God: scattering the proud, lifting up the lowly, etc. Zechariah speaks as if all of God’s promises have already come to pass, though nothing on the surface of his life has changed. He claims that God has already shown mercy, remembered the covenant, and rescued Israel. And Simeon claims that he has seen the salvation of Israel, though the country still remains under Roman occupation. The theological point of these past tense verbs may suggest that all these poets sing in faith. They sing as though God’s 47
fieldnotes good future is so certain as to speak of it as though it already exists. The canticles provide ways that the church’s songs, liturgy, and prayer can more fully inhabit scripture. These songs not only offer appropriate language to respond to who God is and what God does, but they also can help shape the church’s biblical imagination and challenge the destructive features of our cultural mooring. Furthermore, when contemporary churches pray, sing, and speak with the canticles and following the canticles, the church prays, sings, and speaks with the same voice as those characters in scripture. The practice of incorporating canticles into church life unifies the present church with the whole host of heavenly saints who forever sing praise to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
τέλειος
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APPENDIX 1: List of Biblical Canticles Here is a fairly exhaustive list of biblical canticles taken from the Book of Common Prayer. Old Testament Canticles The Song of Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15) A Song of the Rock (Deuteronomy 32) A Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2) A Song of David (1 Chronicles 29) A Song of Solomon (cf Song of Solomon 8) A Song of Peace (Isaiah 2) A Song of the Messiah (Isaiah 9) A Song of God’s Chosen One (Isaiah 11) A Song of Deliverance (Isaiah 12) A Song of Trust (Isaiah 26) A Song of the Wilderness (Isaiah 35) A Song of God’s Herald (Isaiah 40) A Song of the Covenant (Isaiah 42) A Song of the New Creation (Isaiah 43) A Song of the Word of the Lord (Isaiah 55) A Song of the New Jerusalem (Isaiah 60) A Song of the Lord’s Anointed (Isaiah 61) A Song of the Bride (Isaiah 61) A Song of the Lord’s Gracious Deeds (Isaiah 63) A Song of Jerusalem our Mother (Isaiah 66) A Song of Lamentation (Lamentations 1, 3) A Song of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36) A Song of Humility (Hosea 6) A Song of Jonah (Jonah 2) The Prayer of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3)
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New Testament Canticles Magnificat (The Song of Mary) (Luke 1) Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah) (Luke 1) Nunc Dimittis (The Song of Simeon) (Luke 2) A Song of the Justified (Romans 4, 5) A Song of God’s Children (Romans 8) A Song of Divine Love (1 Corinthians 13) A Song of God’s Grace (Ephesians 1) The Song of Christ’s Glory (Philippians 2) A Song of Redemption (Colossians 1) A Song of Christ’s Appearing (1 Timothy 3, 6) A Song of God’s Assembled (Hebrews 12) A Song of Faith (1 Peter 1) A Song of Christ the Servant (1 Peter 2) A Song of Repentance (1 John 1) A Song of God’s Love (1 John 4) A Song of Praise, also known as Glory and Honour (Revelation 4, 5) A Song of the Redeemed (Revelation 7) The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb (Revelation 15) A Song of the Lamb (Revelation 19) A Song of the Holy City (Revelation 21) A Song of the Heavenly City (Revelation 21, 22) A Song of the Spirit (Revelation 22) The Easter Anthems (Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 5, 15) Extra-Biblical Canticles Popular in the Practice of the Church Benedicite - A Song of Creation (Song of the Three) Daniel 3 Phos Hilaron - A Song of the Light Te Deum Laudamus - A Song of the Church Veni Sanctus Spiritus - Come, Holy Spirit
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fieldnotes
Bibliography Avenary, Hanoch. “Formal Structure of Psalms and Canticles in Early Jewish and Christian Chant.” Musica Disciplina 7, (1953): 1-13. Bradshaw, Paul F. The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Bradshaw, Paul F., Maxwell E. Johnson and L. Edward Phillips. Studia Liturgica Diversa: Studies in Church Music and Liturgy: Essays in Honor of Paul F. Bradshaw. Portland, OR: Pastoral Press, 2004. Doriani, Daniel, Phillip Ryken, and Phillips, The Incarnation in the Gospels, P&R Publishing, 2008. Dugmore, C.W. “Canonical Hours.” In The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. Edited by J. G. Davies. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986. 140-147. Foley, Edward. Foundations of Christian Music: The Music of Pre-Constantinian Christianity. Vol. 22-23. Bramcote, Nottingham: Grove Books, 1992. Hurtado, Larry W. At the Origins of Christian Worship: The Context and Character of Earliest Christian Devotion. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2000. Hustad, Donald P. “175: Music in the Worship for the Old Testament,” “176: Music in the Worship of the New Testament,” and “177: Music in the Worship of the Early Church” In The Complete Library of Christian Worship. Vol 4, Music and the Arts in Christian Worship, Book 1. Edited by Robert E. Webber. Nashville, TN: Star Song Pub. Group, 1993. 188-198. Hall, A.C.A, The Gospel Canticles and the Te Deum, James Pott and Co, New York, 1887. Jeanes, Gordon. “Canticles.” In The New Scm Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. Edited by Paul F. Bradshaw. London: SCM Press, 2002. 95. Kennedy, Michael and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. The Oxford Dictionary of Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Lang, Jovian. Dictionary of the Liturgy. New York: Catholic Book Pub. Co, 1989. 82-85. Leaver, Robin. Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007. 51
fieldnotes Macbeth, Rev. John, Notes on the Book of Common Prayer, Dublin, William McGee, 1897. Mearns, James. The Canticles of the Christian Church: eastern and western, in early and medieval times, 1914. Reprint from University of Michigan Press. Miloš, Velimirović, Steiner Ruth, Falconer Keith, and Temperley Nicholas. “Canticle.” Grove Music Online. O’Donnell, Douglas. God’s Lyrics - Rediscovering Worship Through Old Testament Songs, Crossway Publishers, Chicago, 2011. Old, Hughes Oliphant. The Prayer that is According to Scripture (2009 revision of Praying with the Bible), unpublished manuscript. Proby, Rev. W.H.B. The Ten Canticles of the Old Testament Canon, Rivingtons, London, 1875. Smith, John Arthur. “Musical Aspects of Old Testament Canticles in Their Biblical Setting.” Early Music History 17, (1998): 221-264. Steiner, Vernon. “Celebration in Song and Dance: Reflections on Exodus 15:1-21,” Miqra Journal: Miqra 12.1 (Winter 2013), Lincoln, Nebraska. Watts, James W. Psalm and Story: Inset Hymns in Hebrew Narrative. JSOTSup 139. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992. Westermeyer, Paul. Te Deum : The Church and Music: A Textbook, a Reference, a History, an Essay. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Weitzman, Steven, Song and Story in Biblical Narrative: The History of a Literary Convention in Ancient Israel. Bloomington: Indiana Univ Pres, 1998.
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fieldnotes Text and Tune Resources: The Canticles: A Faithful and Inclusive Rendering from the Hebrew and the Greek into Contemporary English Poetry, Intended Primarily for Communal Song and recitation Hardcover. by International Committee on English. Linda Ekstrom (Illustrator). Liturgy Training Pubs., 1996 The Psalter: Songs and Canticles for Singing Paperback, by Westminster John Knox Press, 1993. Sing Scripture: New Scripture Songs and Paraphrases in Meter. The Church of Scotland, 2012. Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship. Martin Tel, Joyce Borger, John D Witvliet, Faith Alive Christian Resources; 2012. Lift Up Your Hearts: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. Faith Alive Christian Resources. 2013. Daily Prayer Resources: Daily Prayer (Supplemental Liturgical Resource), Westminster John Knox Press; 1987 Church of England Website http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/canticles/canticlesbcp. aspx Book of Common Prayer (online) http://www.bcponline.org/DailyOffice/mp2.html
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CANTICLES
an album of songs from scripture Canticles - from the Song of Moses in Exodus 15 to the Song of Moses and the Lamb in Revelation 15 God has given voice to his people’s response in poetic praise throughout the story of scripture. He has given poetic song as an embodied way for his people to corporately gather their spirits together and offer praise, thanksgiving, lament, and covenant proclamation. The canticles typically refer to songs in scripture that habitate outside the psalms. Listen or Purchase here: www.cardiphonia.bandcamp.com/album/canticles
Performers and Tracklist DISC 1 1. Philip Majorins - Set Us Free (Luke 1:68-79) 2. Luke Brawner - Ascribe (Deut. 32:1-43) 3. Jered McKenna - Arise, Shine, For Your Light Has Come (Isaiah 60:1-19) 4. Wen Reagan - He Has Come (Luke 1:46-55) 5. Jason Morrell - In the Night (Isaiah 26:9-20) 6. The Gentle Wolves (Richard Kentopp) - Canticle of the Turning (Luke 1:46-55) 7. Patrick Schlabs - I Called to God (Jonah 2:2-9) 8. Stephen Wozny - Zion (Isaiah 12:1-6) 9. Craig Harris - Arise and Look to the Skies (Isaiah 60:1-19) 10. Wendell Kimbrough - Dawning Light of Our Salvation (Luke 1:68-79) 11. Steve Thorngate - You Send Your Servant Forth in Peace (Luke 2:29-33) 12. Naaman Wood - For You Alone (Revelation 15:3-4) 13. Paul Van der Bijl - My Strength, My Song, My Salvation (Ex.15:1-18) DISC 2 14. Andrew Rottner - My Soul Magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46-55) 15. Jess Alldredge - God Will Be Your Glory (Isaiah 60:1-19) 16. Mark Ribera and Katie Tracy - In Our Distress We Sought the Lord (Isaiah 26:9-20) 17. Karl Digerness and Brian T. Murphy - Alas! The Lord My Life is Gone (Jonah 2) 18. Brian Moss - Sing Out My Soul (Luke 1:46-55) 19. Caroline Cobb - Habakkuk’s Prayer (Still I Will Rejoice) 20. Greg Scheer - The Weaver of Time (Isaiah 38:10-20) 21. Hiram Ring - Awake My Soul (Isaiah 55) 22. Jeff Bourque - Jonah’s Song (Jonah 2:2-9) 23. Gregory Wilbur - Seek Ye the Lord While He May Be Found (Is.55) 24. Bruce Benedict - Simeon’s Song (Luke 2:29-33) 25. Peter La Grand - You Alone Are Holy (Revelation 15:3-4)
Canticles:
A field guide to the Songs of Scripture By Naaman Wood
Foreward by Bruce Benedict
Cardiphonia Press www.cardiphonia.org Logo Printed in the USA Cover design (c) Erik Newby