This morning twelve other people and I finished morning worship at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Penola by singing Charles Wesley’s ‘Jesus! The Name High Over All’.
Not for the faint-hearted!
The tune ‘Lydia’ is a bit of a challenge, the words, however proclaim the supremacy of Christ.
It is a fun sing once you’ve got the hang of it. (And a few helpers and a confident organist.)
Here’s the lyrics.
1.
Jesus! The Name high over all
in earth or sky or sea.
Angels and men before Him fall,
and devils fear and flee,
and devils fear and flee.
2.
Jesus! The Name to sinners dear,
the Name to sinners given.
It scatters all their guilty fear,
and turns their hell to heaven,
and turns their hell to heaven.
3.
Jesus! The prisoner’s fetters breaks,
and bruises Satan’s head;
pow’r into strengthless souls it speaks,
and life into the dead,
and life into the dead.
4.
O that the world might taste and see
the riches of His grace;
the arms of love surrounding me
would all the world embrace,
would all the world embrace.
5.
Only His righteousness I show,
His saving truth proclaim;
this, all my witness here below
to cry: ‘Behold the Lamb!’
To cry: ‘Behold the Lamb!’
6.
Happy, if with my final breath,
I may but speak His Name;
preach Him to all, and cry in death:
‘Behold, behold the Lamb!’
‘Behold, behold the Lamb!’
Hymn from the Rejoice! Hymn Book, Presbyterian Church of Australia
Contrast the modernised words above with the original lyrics, which do not have the last line of each verse repeated. Cyberhymnal nominates the tunes Gräfenberg and Praxis Pietatis Melica as being associated with the hymn in this form.
1.
Jesus! the name high over all,
in hell or earth or sky;
angels and mortals prostrate fall,
and devils fear and fly.
2.
Jesus! the name to sinners dear,
the name to sinners given;
it scatters all their guilty fear,
it turns their hell to heaven.
3.
O that the world might taste and see
the riches of his grace!
The arms of love that compass me
would all the world embrace.
4.
Thee I shall constantly proclaim,
though earth and hell oppose;
bold to confess thy glorious name
before a world of foes.
5.
His only righteousness I show,
his saving truth proclaim;
’tis all my business here below
to cry, “Behold the Lamb!”
6.
Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name,
preach him to all and cry in death,
“Behold, behold the Lamb!”
This seems to be the only YouTube for this hymn.
It’s not without a few problems in the way of keeping everyone in time with the music, but you’ll get the idea. (And a pretty realistic notion of how we went in Penola this morning.)
mgpcpastor's blog 
tough tune.
At least they had melody line Rejoices.
Which does beat out the straight word projections we use at mgpc.
I could also see the organists hands. If I can remember the words and the melody well enough I sing with the organists hands so the two of us can keep in time together.
How are things at home?
Good thanks Gary, if not a little cold: -1 this morning.
The kids start school holidays tomorrow (3 terms here) and Rachel was reminding me that it’s the first time in about 6 years that we won’t be in either Sydney or Melbourne for part of the 3 week break. Staying put seems a bit boring:)
This hymn is one of my husband’s favourites, but I think that every time I’ve sung or played this tune for congregational singing there’s been at least one negative reaction. The reaction was something along the lines of “that dreadful tune” or “that terrible hymn” – it hadn’t occurred to me that maybe people just found it too difficult, or couldn’t appreciate the tune when they were struggling. I think when you’ve played your way through the hymnbook a few times, you can forget that everyone else hasn’t.
But with 12 people it probably would be challenging, unless you’ve got above average singers.
I like tunes that take a little bit of work.
One problem with this one was that for some weird reason I kept tripping on the third line of each verse because for some reason it felt like it felt like each of them fitted the music differently.