“Yet
the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his
song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Psalms
42:8)
In my opinion, this is the most touching and meaningful evening hymn in the
1940 Hymnal. The words were written by John Ellerton in 1870. There are two
choice tunes to which the hymn may be sung. The older tune is that of Louis (Loys)
Bourgeois, the famous French composer who wrote many of the tunes for the
Calvinist hymns. He also wrote the tune to Old Hundreth (Doxology) and the tune
for this hymn under study – Bourgeois – is the same suggested for Nunc
Dimittis, in 1551. The second, and more popular, tune for this hymn of today is
that of the Rev. Clement Cotteril Scholefield of Birmingham, England. It is
called, St. Clement, and was written in 1874.
After a long day of toil and travel, what a blessing that God provides a rest
for His people – not only at the end of an earthly day, but at the conclusion
of one’s heavenly pilgrimage upon the earth. The Christian may recite, with
renewed assurance, the words of that old Evening Prayer for Families found on
page 594 of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:
|
O
|
LORD,
support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is
done. Then in thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at
the last. Amen.
I suppose our main concern at the close of the long day of life is to know that
our work, that the Lord has given us, is truly done. That knowledge will enable
us to go before our Maker with a satisfied mind.
The
Day thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended
The day Thou
gavest, Lord, is ended,
The darkness falls
at Thy behest;
To Thee our
morning hymns ascended,
Thy praise shall
sanctify our rest.
We thank Thee that
Thy church, unsleeping,
While earth rolls
onward into light,
Through all the
world her watch is keeping,
And rests not now
by day or night.
As o’er each
continent and island
The dawn leads on
another day,
The voice of
prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the
strain of praise away.
The sun that bids
us rest is waking
Our brethren ’neath
the western sky,
And hour by hour
fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous
doings heard on high.
So be it, Lord;
Thy throne shall never,
Like earth’s proud
empires, pass away:
Thy kingdom
stands, and grows forever,
Till all Thy
creatures own Thy sway.
“The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended, the darkness
falls at thy behest; to thee our morning hymns ascended, thy praise shall
sanctify our rest.” First of all, do we stop to consider at
nightfall that this day – and every other day of our lives under the sun, were
given us by the Lord? God began the Creation of the world in abject darkness,
and completed it with the morning of Light; “. . . and the evening
and the morning were the first day.” If we are true
Anglicans, and not free-spirited heathen, we will begin each day with prayer
and songs of praise. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my
soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land,
where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in
the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall
praise thee.” (Psalms 63:1-3) Believe it or not, the 63rd Psalm was
General George S. Patton’s favorite of all. That ‘rest’ that accompanies praise
does, indeed, sanctify our rest. The days come and go in the cycle established
by God’s Law of Nature from the beginning. But there will come a day when the
fever of life is over and God will close the Curtain of Life at His own behest.
“We thank thee that thy Church, unsleeping while earth
rolls onward into light, through all the world her watch is keeping and rests
not now by day nor night.” If this refrain were literally true, the world would
revert to that haven of peace that existed in America, England, France, German,
Russia, and the Asian countries when the Word of God was their governor.
Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Instead of sleeping during the hours
of darkness, the church has become participant in the works of darkness.
Instead of being a sweet savor to the world, the Church has flung open her
gates to the world itself and has become accomplice with its sins. She is
fasting from her righteous deeds and feasting on the unrighteous deeds of the
world.
“As o'er each continent and island the dawn leads
on another day, the voice of prayer is never silent,
nor dies the strain
of praise away.” Thank God, this refrain is literally true. In old
Egypt, there was a day when the dreadful Angel of Death hovered over the land
and took away the first-born of every family – except in the Land of Goshen
where the door posts and lintels were covered with the blood of an innocent
lamb – a lamb that pre-figured that Lamb of God which would come to our
salvation in the fullness of time. When we traveled to the Philippines
for the AOC, to Fiji, to the Solomon Chain of Islands, and to the African
countries, we witnessed a humble and joyous pleading for the Lord’s presence by
Prayer, Song, and Praise. The melody and rich tenor of voices accented the
faith that compelled the expression of music. “And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” (Isaiah 11:11)
“The sun that bids us rest is
waking our brethren 'neath the western sky, and hour by hour fresh lips are
making thy wondrous doings heard on high.”
The same Sun of
Righteousness that rises on the eastern horizon of our souls and gives life, is
the same that sinks beneath that western horizon in the dusk of time to give
way to the Evening Star - that is also the Bright and Morning Star. Our praises
should not be mantras of nonsense, but true accounts of the glorious works of
God. Is that not the point of the classical hymns? Do they not incorporate in
their lines biblical doctrine and praise of His works?
“So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never, like earth's
proud empires, pass away; thy kingdom stands, and grows for ever,till all thy
creatures own thy sway.” “So be it!” (the Great AMEN!) The Throne of the King
of Kings is an Eternal Regime of Light and Love. It has no end – neither did it
have a beginning! The empires of the world are built upon the shifting sands of
time. Ozymandias was such a ruler and empire of which Shelley wrote:
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique
land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless
legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them,
on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage
lies, whose frown,
And
wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those
passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on
these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the
heart that fed.
And
on the pedestal these words appear –
"My name is Ozymandias, king
of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and
despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the
decay
Of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch
far away.'
Percy
Bysshe Shelley
There will be a time in the glorious Eternity future in
which every creature and soul shall conform to that perfect Will of God – not
by force, but by love perfected. Christ will truly be as He should be to us
today – our “All in All.”
