St. John of Damascus - The Day of Resurrection

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Rating:

Theological Correctness:  5/5

Use of Group Pronouns:   5/5
Focus on Victory:             5/5
The Lordship of God:       5/5
Musicality:                        5/5

Total:                                 5/5

Please read the details about our rating standard here!

Lyrics:

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.


Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;
And listening to His accents, may hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.


Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.

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This song is too short!  Not only that, but this song goes back a long time!  This hymn was written by St. John of Damascus (670-787) and translated from Greek to English by J.M. Neale in the 1800's.  There's something quite enriching about knowing our faith stretches back hundreds of thousands of years, and having that solidarity with believers past who sang the same songs (which partly accounts for my bias towards hymns over CCM).

We have unashamedly rated this song a perfect 5/5, as it hits the mark in every category.  The only thing we could really nitpick in this song is the allusion of heaven being "skyward" (that is, geographically "up"), but we feel that is hardly a problem in light of how this song includes all of Creation in the story of resurrection.

There are many renditions of this hymn musically, but Youtube's The Sunday School Songster does a fantastic job on solo guitar.  His arrangement sure gets stuck in your head, which is a wonderful thing with such great theology backing it up.

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Matthew Bridges - Crown Him With Many Crowns

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Rating:

Theological Correctness:  5/5

Use of Group Pronouns:   4/5
Focus on Victory:             5/5
The Lordship of God:       5/5
Musicality:                        5/5

Total:                                 4.8/5

Please read the details about our rating standard here!

Lyrics:

Crown Him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
Who died for thee,
and hail Him as thy matchless King
through all eternity.

Crown Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed over the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died, and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

Crown Him the Lord of love,
behold His hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky
can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends His burning eye
at mysteries so bright.

Crown Him the Lord of years,
the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
all hail, Redeemer, hail!
For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
throughout eternity.

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One of the great perks to attending a Lutheran (LCMS) church now is my wife and I get exposure to some great hymns.  I had heard this one before, but it didn't really click until I heard it during the Easter service this year.

This arrangement is a little more CCM than you would otherwise hear it, but the vocals are spot-on.  More importantly however, the theology and focus on the resurrected Christ is outstanding!

My only criticism of the song is its few instances of "me" language (lack of group pronouns).  However I do feel that those few instances are overshadowed by the overarching context of group acknowledgement.  I also chose to give Use of Group Pronouns a rating of 4/5 instead of 3/5 due to the fact that replacing such instances of "me" language with group pronouns would not work poetically.  Sometimes you can do that (leaving no excuse for "me" language"), but sometimes you just can't.

To reiterate what I've said elsewhere in case some of you are wondering, "What's wrong with singing about Christ dying for 'me' personally?", it's important to note that the Bible was written to collectivist, group-oriented minds.  Thus almost everything we read in the New Testament is to be understood in a group context.  Church is not something you do by yourself for instance, but it only has meaning and power when it encompasses a collective body of believers.

Christ certainly died and rose for us all corporately and individually, but in our individualistic culture we have seriously lost touch with our sense of group attachment and commitment.  Because music affects our thinking so greatly (often without our realization), this test we present here offers only the music that majors on group focus, drawing us back to the unity in Christ that God desires.

So is there anything wrong with saying Christ died and rose "for me"?  Absolutely not.  But is it better to say Christ died and rose "for us"?  Absolutely so!

To get back on track to the main topic however, this song get's a hearty 4.8 on the theological correctness scale.  Enjoy and share it with confidence!

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Are you enjoying the music you listen to on this blog?  You can find it all in one place by visiting our Theologically Correct Music Playlist!