Think Before You Sing

As I said in last week’s video , today is a look at a different version of When Morning Gilds the Sky. You can find many of the different version at hymnary.org . We are looking at the representative text that was translated by Edward Caswall. Verse one starts out the same way we say in the video When morning gilds the sky, our hearts awaking cry: May Jesus Christ be praised! This quickly changes in the second half of the verse. in all our work and prayer we ask his loving care: May Jesus Christ be praised! This is not talking about the evening and already feels disconnected. This is asking for Jesus love in all that we do but it seems to be asking it with May Jesus Christ be Praised. Although not a bad thing, do you usually ask for care through praise? Verse two feels unlike anything from the other version. To God, the Word on high, the hosts of angels cry: May Jesus Christ be praised! It starts with angels crying out praise and then connects back to humans. Let m...

In this week’s video on When Morning Gilds the Skies , we went through the definition of mirth – amusement, especially as expressed in laughter. We looked at this as it connected with the lines: When mirth for music longs, This is my song of songs: “May Jesus Christ be praised!” We talked about this as when we are joyful we should be singing praises to Christ. Mirth is used in the Psalm 137:3 The word seems to be used slightly differently in different translations. Let’s just take a look at two of them. KJV For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. ESV For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” Depending on how you interpret this you can get the same effect. KJV clearly states that the captors required the captives to be happy and express that in song and laughter. You can read ESV the sam...