Praise for the Lord #115
Words: Matthew Bridges, 1851; stanza 2, Godfrey Thring, 1874
Music: DIADEMATA, George Job Elvey, 1864
Matthew Bridges (1800-1894), the author of the original text of this hymn, was raised in the Anglican church; but like many Anglican scholars of his day, he was heavily influenced by his contemporary John Henry Newman and the Tractarian or Oxford Movement. Bridges was a prolific and gifted author from an early age, writing on topics of Biblical history as well as producing poetry.(Hatfield, 96) Some of his early historical writings had included pointed attacks on Catholicism, yet in 1848 he published a set of Hymns of the Heart, for the Use of Catholics, and said in the preface that he wished to "[express] his poignant and unmitigated regret, for having ever used his feeble pen against that holy and Apostolic church, which by divine grace he has lately been enabled to join."(p.3ff.)
A search of Worldcat.org shows that Bridges's publishing fell off after 1865. He is known to have lived in Quebec, but I have had an unusually difficult time finding out when he may have emigrated. The Canadian 1881 Census shows him farming in the vicinity of Sherbrooke, east of Montreal. His son Henry, the only child still at home, was 16 years old and born in England, so the move could not have been prior to 1865. At some point Bridges returned to England, where he died in 1894.(Baptist Quarterly)
The text of this hymn is from The Passion of Jesus, a Collection of Original Pieces Corresponding with the Five Sorrowful Mysteries in the Rosary of Our Blessed Lady. This collection of devotional poetry was first published in London in 1852. For those of us (myself included) who are not familiar with the traditions of the rosary, there is a good concise explanation at NewAdvent.org. The prayers are said in sets of tens, each focused on a "mystery" concerning the life of Christ; the mysteries themselves are in groups of five: the "Joyful Mysteries" concerning Christ's birth and childhood, the "Sorrowful Mysteries" concerning His death, and the "Glorious Mysteries" concerning the Resurrection and events following. (In the 20th century the "Luminous Mysteries" of Christ's earthly ministry were added.) Bridges's collection was dedicated to the five Sorrowful Mysteries: Christ's agony in Gethsemane, His scourging, the crown of thorns, Christ carrying His cross, and finally the Crucifixion itself. "Crown Him with many Crowns," therefore, was a reflection on the central mystery of the original 15 mysteries of the rosary. Bridges employs an unexpected approach to the topic, however, taking the cruel mockery intended by that original crown and turning it on its head.
Stanza 1:
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne;
Hark how the heav'nly 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!
In contemplating the glorious coronation of Christ in heaven, each stanza of this hymn addresses a different aspect of His worthiness to receive these honors. The first stanza seems clearly to invoke Revelation 5:11-14, one of the most awe-inspiring passages in all Scripture:
It is altogether fitting, then, that John's first vision of Christ enthroned in heaven was in the form of a Lamb, and that this would be the most common designation for Christ throughout the Revelation: "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."(Revelation 5:6) The paradox of such a meek figure in the midst of such heavenly acclamation is another of those instances that Brother Johnny Ramsey once termed, "Truth standing on its head to get our attention." Jesus described himself as "meek and lowly in heart,"(Matthew 11:29) and now we see how truly the kingdom of heaven belongs to the One who was above all "poor in spirit."(Matthew 5:3)
Bridges's original poem has the following two stanzas next:
Crown Him the Virgin's Son
The God Incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won
Which now His Brow adorn!
Fruit of the Mystic Rose
As of that Rose the Stem:
The Root, whence Mercy ever flows,
The Babe of Bethlehem!
Crown Him the Lord of Love!
Behold His Hands and Side,
Rich 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!
In the latter stanza Bridges begins to develop his theme along a consistent line from stanza to stanza, identifying Jesus' lordship over different aspects of existence. Of course His sovereignty is indicated foremost; but in applying the title "Lord of" to abstract concepts, Bridges ties into an old tradition of expressing the subject's preeminence in various qualities as well. Revelation 19:9 declares Jesus "Lord of Lords," and other passages in the New Testament identify Him as "Lord of the Sabbath,"(Matthew 12:8) "Lord of Glory,"(1 Corinthians 2:8) "Lord of Peace,"(2 Thessalonians 3:16--though this might refer to the Father) and "Lord of All."(Acts 10:36) Bridges begins stanzas in this hymn by calling Jesus "Lord of Love," "Lord of Peace," "Lord of Years," and "Lord of Heaven."
The "Mystic Rose" line would raise some eyebrows outside of Catholic circles--in some interpretations, that expression has a particular theological interpretation having to do with Mary's relationship to the Trinity. The stanza referring to the wounds of Jesus as "mysteries" might also have called to mind the tradition dating from the Middle Ages of venerating the wounds of Christ. But it was too good a hymn to pass up entirely; a search of Hymnary.org shows that it began to appear in Protestant collections during the 1860s, sometimes with these stanzas deleted.
At some point, however, Henry Wollaston Hutton, Priest-Vicar of Lincoln Cathedral and an important editor of hymnals himself, encouraged hymnwriter Godfrey Thring to write a few stanzas on Bridges's theme to serve as replacements. The Church of England Hymn Book gives an example of another hybridization of Bridges and Thring stanzas. Thring was a prolific writer and popular in his day, though most of his hymns, like David, "served the purpose of God in his own generation."(Acts 13:36) (His most remembered hymn by far is "Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing.") Yet no author in his own right, I suppose, likes to be thought of as a mere reviser of the works of others; Thring actually wrote an entirely new hymn as a substitute for that of Bridges, using the same meter and basic plan of successive stanzas extolling Jesus' lordship over various domains. The following stanza is the one most commonly plugged in to replace the deleted stanzas from Bridges's orginal.
Stanza 2:
Crown Him the Lord of Life,
Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who 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!
Looking again to those great scenes of the Revelation, we find "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."(Revelation 22:1) We cannot read of "water of life" without thinking back to a quiet scene by Jacob's Well, where the Son of God spoke to a lowly, sinful, but attentive listener: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."(John 4:10) Christ as the source of eternal life is a consistent theme in John's writings; the prologue to his gospel account states, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,"(John 1:4) and his first epistle opens with the statement that, "the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us."(1 John 1:2)
As the Lord of Life, Jesus came to overthrow the power of death, but He went about it in the most unexpected way imaginable--by undergoing it Himself. Godfrey Thring (our "guest author" for this stanza) emphasized this amazing juxtaposition in the final two lines, cleverly transposing the order of the key words: "Who died eternal life to bring, / And lives that death may die!" The Lord of Life died, "that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."(Hebrews 2:14-15) In what should have been the hour of Satan's triumph, he was utterly crushed (as promised in Genesis 3:15!), as Jesus "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame."(Colossians 2:15)
Christ's victory over death was also a victory for all those in His kingdom: "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God."(Romans 6:9-10) This puts a responsibility on us, as we think of the prize He won at such awful cost: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."(Romans 6:11) We have the victory over spiritual death already in hand, if we have been baptized into Christ's death; and we have the promise of the victory over physical death as well:
Crown Him the Lord of Peace!
Whose pow'r a sceptre sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease
Absorbed in prayer and praise:
His reign shall know no end,
And round His pierced feet
Fair flowers of Paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.
One of the most beautiful titles of the Messiah is "Prince of Peace."(Isaiah 9:6) And lest we forget, this peace is shalom--not just an absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness and soundness.(Strong's H7965) We can be in the midst of conflict on the outside, but have this peace on the inside; we see that quality often in the life of Jesus.
Peace was proclaimed by the angels at Jesus' birth,(Luke 2:14) and "Peace be with you" was His greeting after the Resurrection.(John 20:26) He "made peace by the blood of His cross," reconciling a sinful world to a holy God.(Colossians 1:20) This was the first and greatest of His works of peacemaking; but it was not the last.
Bridges pursues his theme in one more stanza before the conclusion, though omitted in many hymnals:
Crown Him the Lord of Years!
The Potentate of Time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime!
Glass'd in a sea of light,
Whose everlasting waves
Reflect His Form, the Infinite!
Who lives, and loves, and saves.
I am a little sorry not to have this stanza available, though it may be best after all to avoid humorously quaint words such as "ineffably." But the theme is well considered; Jesus is the Son of Man, yet He was the Creator of this universe in which humanity exists, and He is therefore the Creator of the very concept of time. Psalm 90 grandly states the disconnect between our limited, finite understanding of time and God's absolute indifference to it:
Stanza 4:
Crown Him the Lord of Heav'n!
One with the Father known,
And the Blest Spirit through Him giv'n
From yonder glorious Throne!
All Hail! Redeemer, Hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Throughout Eternity!
Here again is the ultimate irony to which Bridges points in this hymn: the Roman soldiers who mockingly placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head were unwittingly foreshadowing the triumphal return of the King of Kings to His heavenly throne. For a little while He walked among His subjects as though one of them, not like Henry V who wanted to know the minds of his troops, but as the Servant of all and ultimately the One whom they cruelly mistreated and crucified.
Once again I am struck by the contrast Bridges has drawn by juxtaposing the crown of thorns and the Crucifixion with the Christ's enthronement in heaven. Matthew tells us,
Excursus: "Crowning" Jesus in Hymns
This hymn introduces a theme that I have not yet addressed in this blog: the poetic trope of "crowning Jesus King." It may be surprising to some readers that the appropriateness of such an image is ever questioned, but in my experience we spend far too little effort in thinking about what our hymns are really saying. I have seen versions of Perronet's "All hail the power of Jesus' name" that change "crown Him Lord of all" to "praise Him Lord of all." Some brethren whom I very much respect have objected to the use of such language in any of our hymns; but I believe there is a logical defense of this hymn trope, at least as it in many hymns.
The objections I have heard do not address this hymn but rather the praise song "We bow down" by Twila Paris, yet the argument would be largely the same. The argument runs thus: If we sing that we are going to crown Jesus King, and say that "King of all Kings you will be," we are necessarily implying that Jesus is not already King of Kings. We might even be lending credence to the false premillennial idea that Jesus will return to this earth to be crowned King and take up a literal physical reign in Jerusalem.
In respect to "Crown Him with Many Crowns, " Bridges clearly states that this is a poetic description of the scene of Revelation 19:12--"His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself." The author places this scripture at the head of his poem.(Bridges, 63) He is also writing in the larger context of the Crucifixion, and at this particular point is contemplating the crown of thorns. Between the crown of thorns at Calvary and the many diadems of the Conquering King of the Revelation, lies the scene of Christ's coronation by the Father, described in the second chapter of Hebrews:
This involves a certain amount of poetic license, and I am reminded of a statement made by one good brother: "There may be such a thing as poetic license, but some poets ought to have their licenses revoked." (Whether you agree with his positions or not, you have to admit that is funny!) But the New Testament writers used figurative and imaginitive language as well; Jesus in the Revelation is not literally a lamb, or a lion. When Paul said, "Christ, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us,"(1 Corinthians 5:7) we do not understand him to say that Christ is literally a lamb (nor, for that matter, does this teach that He is literally sacrificed again and again in the taking of the Lord's Supper). And though we do not literally see the scene of Christ's coronation by His Father, in this hymn we imagine it with the mind's eye, and celebrate that glorious and fitting consummation of His work.
This touches on another objection to the "coronation trope" that deserves mention as well: is it appropriate to sing as though we ourselves are crowning Jesus? It is generally true that the lesser must be crowned by the greater. The President of the United States, though not receiving a crown, is sworn into office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as representative of the authority of the Constitution on which the President's powers depend. Western Kings and queens are typically crowned by a high-ranking church official who stands as representative of God's authority. Napoleon famously crowned himself to avoid such complications! But there is another way in which one may receive a crown--when it is surrendered by the lesser to the greater, as has happened throughout history when a vanquished king surrenders to his conqueror.
In the passage quoted above from Hebrews chapter 2, there is this interesting statement at the end of verse 8: "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him." No, this does not mean that His kingdom is yet in the future, or that some great coronation scene awaits Him at His Second Advent. It tells us that, though He is by rights King of all, there is one part of His creation that is holding out against His rule--us. When we sin and rebel against Him, we are insurgents against His reign, but He does not take back the rule of our lives by force. In His grace, love, and patience He has extended an offer of pardon if we will accept His rule again, willingly surrendering the crown of our souls back to Him to whom it belongs, and who alone can rightfully and wisely rule us.
About the music:
This is the other well-known hymn tune by George Job Elvey, the first of which reviewed was ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come"). DIADEMATA appeared in the second edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, published in 1868.(Lightwood, 315) For those who want to look further into the career of Elvey, the Life and Reminiscences of George J. Elvey, written by his widow, is available online.
DIADEMATA is in the mold of that stately sort of British march that is so distinct from its American cousin; no dotted rhythms are necessary to stir excitement, just full, clear harmonies proceeding in measured, stately dignity. A brass choir could play this music, with no arranging at all, and make a marvelous ceremonial piece of it. The melody is not as simple and winsome as that of ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come," being driven more by the progress of the harmony.
Several little techniques lend strength to this writing that are worth noting. First, the opening phrase, which sets the signature line of text from which the hymn develops, unfolds in contrary motion between the highest and lowest voice. At the same time, the harmony moves down a series of 3rds, from tonic (DO) to submediant (LA) to the subdominant (FA). The introduction of the minor submediant chord is a point of tension, logically resolved into the reassuring subdominant. ("Reassuring" may sound silly, but there is a degree of tension to certain chords within a key; the dominant chord (SOL-TI-RE) has a strong need to resolve, whereas the subdominant (FA-LA-DO), though it is not the home chord or tonic of the key, is much more restful. It is the subdominant to tonic progression that makes the standard "Amen" at the end of some hymns.)
Another interesting technique is the phrase sequence used at the beginning of the second half of the hymn (corresponding to the 5th and 6th lines of text). Just as he did in ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR, Elvey repeats an entire two-measure subphrase at a higher pitch; but in this case, it is sequenced up a step, increasing the harmonic tension. The melody is a little tricky at this spot: SOL-SOL-MI-RE-DO-LA / LA-LA-FI*-MI-RE-TI (*FA sharped, A# if the hymn is in E major as I have usually seen it). The raised 4th step of the scale, "FI," naturally wants to go up to SOL, but instead is left by stepwise descent to MI and RE. The principle of repetition with variation is so strong, however, that once the ear recognizes this as a sequence of the preceding two measures, it is much easier to hear. Finally, after all of this buildup, Elvey lets the melody hit the high "DO," the top of the scale, to begin the final two lines of text.
References:
Hatfield, Edwin F. The Poets fo the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches with Notes on their Hymns. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1884. http://archive.org/stream/poetschurchaser00hatfgoog#page/n108/mode/2up
Editorial, Baptist Quarterly [Baptist Historical Society, UK] 16:5 (January 1956), pp. 193-195.
http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/16-5_193.pdf
Strong's H7965. BlueletterBible.org. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7965
Lightwood, James T. Hymn-Tunes and their Story. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1905.
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7106809M/Hymn-tunes_and_their_story
Words: Matthew Bridges, 1851; stanza 2, Godfrey Thring, 1874
Music: DIADEMATA, George Job Elvey, 1864
Matthew Bridges (1800-1894), the author of the original text of this hymn, was raised in the Anglican church; but like many Anglican scholars of his day, he was heavily influenced by his contemporary John Henry Newman and the Tractarian or Oxford Movement. Bridges was a prolific and gifted author from an early age, writing on topics of Biblical history as well as producing poetry.(Hatfield, 96) Some of his early historical writings had included pointed attacks on Catholicism, yet in 1848 he published a set of Hymns of the Heart, for the Use of Catholics, and said in the preface that he wished to "[express] his poignant and unmitigated regret, for having ever used his feeble pen against that holy and Apostolic church, which by divine grace he has lately been enabled to join."(p.3ff.)
A search of Worldcat.org shows that Bridges's publishing fell off after 1865. He is known to have lived in Quebec, but I have had an unusually difficult time finding out when he may have emigrated. The Canadian 1881 Census shows him farming in the vicinity of Sherbrooke, east of Montreal. His son Henry, the only child still at home, was 16 years old and born in England, so the move could not have been prior to 1865. At some point Bridges returned to England, where he died in 1894.(Baptist Quarterly)
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| "Christ's thorn" jujube (Zizyphus spina Christi) A common fruit tree in Israel, traditionally the source of the crown of thorns. Used by permission from PROTA4U. |
Stanza 1:
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne;
Hark how the heav'nly 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!
In contemplating the glorious coronation of Christ in heaven, each stanza of this hymn addresses a different aspect of His worthiness to receive these honors. The first stanza seems clearly to invoke Revelation 5:11-14, one of the most awe-inspiring passages in all Scripture:
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.A lamb, the picture of innocence and inoffensiveness, was the sacrifice on many of the earliest recorded altars in Genesis, and took on a special meaning under the Sinai Covenant as the Passover offering through which God spared His people from the terrible final plague.(Exodus 12) A lamb was later prescribed as an offering for personal sins.(Leviticus 5) John the Baptizer tied all these together when he said of his cousin Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"(John 1:29) Christ is our "Passover Lamb,"(1 Corinthians 5:7) "without blemish or spot."(1 Peter 1:19)
It is altogether fitting, then, that John's first vision of Christ enthroned in heaven was in the form of a Lamb, and that this would be the most common designation for Christ throughout the Revelation: "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."(Revelation 5:6) The paradox of such a meek figure in the midst of such heavenly acclamation is another of those instances that Brother Johnny Ramsey once termed, "Truth standing on its head to get our attention." Jesus described himself as "meek and lowly in heart,"(Matthew 11:29) and now we see how truly the kingdom of heaven belongs to the One who was above all "poor in spirit."(Matthew 5:3)
Bridges's original poem has the following two stanzas next:
Crown Him the Virgin's Son
The God Incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won
Which now His Brow adorn!
Fruit of the Mystic Rose
As of that Rose the Stem:
The Root, whence Mercy ever flows,
The Babe of Bethlehem!
Crown Him the Lord of Love!
Behold His Hands and Side,
Rich 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!
In the latter stanza Bridges begins to develop his theme along a consistent line from stanza to stanza, identifying Jesus' lordship over different aspects of existence. Of course His sovereignty is indicated foremost; but in applying the title "Lord of" to abstract concepts, Bridges ties into an old tradition of expressing the subject's preeminence in various qualities as well. Revelation 19:9 declares Jesus "Lord of Lords," and other passages in the New Testament identify Him as "Lord of the Sabbath,"(Matthew 12:8) "Lord of Glory,"(1 Corinthians 2:8) "Lord of Peace,"(2 Thessalonians 3:16--though this might refer to the Father) and "Lord of All."(Acts 10:36) Bridges begins stanzas in this hymn by calling Jesus "Lord of Love," "Lord of Peace," "Lord of Years," and "Lord of Heaven."
The "Mystic Rose" line would raise some eyebrows outside of Catholic circles--in some interpretations, that expression has a particular theological interpretation having to do with Mary's relationship to the Trinity. The stanza referring to the wounds of Jesus as "mysteries" might also have called to mind the tradition dating from the Middle Ages of venerating the wounds of Christ. But it was too good a hymn to pass up entirely; a search of Hymnary.org shows that it began to appear in Protestant collections during the 1860s, sometimes with these stanzas deleted.
At some point, however, Henry Wollaston Hutton, Priest-Vicar of Lincoln Cathedral and an important editor of hymnals himself, encouraged hymnwriter Godfrey Thring to write a few stanzas on Bridges's theme to serve as replacements. The Church of England Hymn Book gives an example of another hybridization of Bridges and Thring stanzas. Thring was a prolific writer and popular in his day, though most of his hymns, like David, "served the purpose of God in his own generation."(Acts 13:36) (His most remembered hymn by far is "Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing.") Yet no author in his own right, I suppose, likes to be thought of as a mere reviser of the works of others; Thring actually wrote an entirely new hymn as a substitute for that of Bridges, using the same meter and basic plan of successive stanzas extolling Jesus' lordship over various domains. The following stanza is the one most commonly plugged in to replace the deleted stanzas from Bridges's orginal.
Stanza 2:
Crown Him the Lord of Life,
Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who 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!
Looking again to those great scenes of the Revelation, we find "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."(Revelation 22:1) We cannot read of "water of life" without thinking back to a quiet scene by Jacob's Well, where the Son of God spoke to a lowly, sinful, but attentive listener: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."(John 4:10) Christ as the source of eternal life is a consistent theme in John's writings; the prologue to his gospel account states, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,"(John 1:4) and his first epistle opens with the statement that, "the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us."(1 John 1:2)
As the Lord of Life, Jesus came to overthrow the power of death, but He went about it in the most unexpected way imaginable--by undergoing it Himself. Godfrey Thring (our "guest author" for this stanza) emphasized this amazing juxtaposition in the final two lines, cleverly transposing the order of the key words: "Who died eternal life to bring, / And lives that death may die!" The Lord of Life died, "that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."(Hebrews 2:14-15) In what should have been the hour of Satan's triumph, he was utterly crushed (as promised in Genesis 3:15!), as Jesus "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame."(Colossians 2:15)
Christ's victory over death was also a victory for all those in His kingdom: "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God."(Romans 6:9-10) This puts a responsibility on us, as we think of the prize He won at such awful cost: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."(Romans 6:11) We have the victory over spiritual death already in hand, if we have been baptized into Christ's death; and we have the promise of the victory over physical death as well:
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.(1 Corinthians 15:54-57)Stanza 3:
Crown Him the Lord of Peace!
Whose pow'r a sceptre sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease
Absorbed in prayer and praise:
His reign shall know no end,
And round His pierced feet
Fair flowers of Paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.
One of the most beautiful titles of the Messiah is "Prince of Peace."(Isaiah 9:6) And lest we forget, this peace is shalom--not just an absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness and soundness.(Strong's H7965) We can be in the midst of conflict on the outside, but have this peace on the inside; we see that quality often in the life of Jesus.
Peace was proclaimed by the angels at Jesus' birth,(Luke 2:14) and "Peace be with you" was His greeting after the Resurrection.(John 20:26) He "made peace by the blood of His cross," reconciling a sinful world to a holy God.(Colossians 1:20) This was the first and greatest of His works of peacemaking; but it was not the last.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.(Ephesians 2:13-14By bringing about peace between the individual and God, Jesus also brought about peace between people who had formerly been irreconcilable enemies. It began with the preaching of the gospel to the Samaritans, and continued to the full acceptance of both Jew and Gentile in the body of Christ. Can we not do the same today, where race, language, or nationality divide us? Our God is He who "makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the chariots with fire."(Psalm 46:9) The balance of this stanza emphasizes the unity and harmony that comes about when we are "absorbed in prayer and praise." It is worthy and admirable work when people spend their efforts in resolving conflicts and seeking peaceful settlement of disputes--"blessed are the peacemakers," Matthew 5:9--but in the end it is only when the spirit of Christ prevails in our actions that "wars may cease." To the extent that this happens, we see the blessed fulfillment of Micah's vision:
He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.(Micah 4:3)And when the day comes that Jesus returns, "every knee shall bow"(Philippians 2:10, cf. Isaiah 45:23)--in that moment, we truly will see peace from "pole to pole."
Bridges pursues his theme in one more stanza before the conclusion, though omitted in many hymnals:
Crown Him the Lord of Years!
The Potentate of Time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime!
Glass'd in a sea of light,
Whose everlasting waves
Reflect His Form, the Infinite!
Who lives, and loves, and saves.
I am a little sorry not to have this stanza available, though it may be best after all to avoid humorously quaint words such as "ineffably." But the theme is well considered; Jesus is the Son of Man, yet He was the Creator of this universe in which humanity exists, and He is therefore the Creator of the very concept of time. Psalm 90 grandly states the disconnect between our limited, finite understanding of time and God's absolute indifference to it:
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.(Psalm 90:2-4)One of the most awe-inspiring statements in the Bible is when God reveals His name to Moses: "I AM." We humans, of course, live under the tyranny of time. Our yesterday is past, and we cannot get it back; our future is out of reach and altogether uncertain; we have only the present, delivered to us moment by moment. To deal with this handicap we learn to speak of past, present, and future--"I was, I am, I will be." But for God, the "Ancient of Days,"(Daniel 7) there is no such limitation. He just is, at all times and places; "the same yesterday and today and forever."(Hebrews 13:8) Jesus knew exactly what He was saying (and so did His outraged opponents) when He said "before Abraham was, I AM!"(John 8:58)
Stanza 4:
Crown Him the Lord of Heav'n!
One with the Father known,
And the Blest Spirit through Him giv'n
From yonder glorious Throne!
All Hail! Redeemer, Hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Throughout Eternity!
Here again is the ultimate irony to which Bridges points in this hymn: the Roman soldiers who mockingly placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head were unwittingly foreshadowing the triumphal return of the King of Kings to His heavenly throne. For a little while He walked among His subjects as though one of them, not like Henry V who wanted to know the minds of his troops, but as the Servant of all and ultimately the One whom they cruelly mistreated and crucified.
Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."He was in the beginning with God,"(John 1:2) and made the Father known to us in His most perfect revelation,(John 1:18) saying, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."(John 14:7) He also made known to us the Holy Spirit or Comforter,(John 14:26, etc.) thus unfolding the mystery of the Trinity to a new and greater extent than in any prior era of revelation. Bridges's original 4th line in this stanza gave greater emphasis to this fact: "From yonder triune throne." It may be better to avoid that arcane expression, but we should not miss the point of Christ's revelation to us of the nature of the Trinity, only hinted at in earlier eras.
Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(Philippians 2:7-11)
Once again I am struck by the contrast Bridges has drawn by juxtaposing the crown of thorns and the Crucifixion with the Christ's enthronement in heaven. Matthew tells us,
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head.(Matthew 27:27-30)John adds what happened afterward:
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him."(John 19:5-6)But in his hymn we are made to see the reality of the siuation:
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and begun to reign.(Revelation 11:15-17)Perhaps some of those very soldiers who placed the crown of thorns on Christ's head later repented and became Christians; perhaps none did; we do not know, beyond legends. But at the beginning of the Revelation John reminds us, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him."(Revelation 1:7) The truth will then be out; the King will be revealed to all the world, crowned in all His glory. Will we own Him as our King now, so that we can meet that day with joy?
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| John's vision of Christ, Revelation 1; woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, 1497-98 Image used by permission from Wikimedia Commons |
Excursus: "Crowning" Jesus in Hymns
This hymn introduces a theme that I have not yet addressed in this blog: the poetic trope of "crowning Jesus King." It may be surprising to some readers that the appropriateness of such an image is ever questioned, but in my experience we spend far too little effort in thinking about what our hymns are really saying. I have seen versions of Perronet's "All hail the power of Jesus' name" that change "crown Him Lord of all" to "praise Him Lord of all." Some brethren whom I very much respect have objected to the use of such language in any of our hymns; but I believe there is a logical defense of this hymn trope, at least as it in many hymns.
The objections I have heard do not address this hymn but rather the praise song "We bow down" by Twila Paris, yet the argument would be largely the same. The argument runs thus: If we sing that we are going to crown Jesus King, and say that "King of all Kings you will be," we are necessarily implying that Jesus is not already King of Kings. We might even be lending credence to the false premillennial idea that Jesus will return to this earth to be crowned King and take up a literal physical reign in Jerusalem.
In respect to "Crown Him with Many Crowns, " Bridges clearly states that this is a poetic description of the scene of Revelation 19:12--"His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself." The author places this scripture at the head of his poem.(Bridges, 63) He is also writing in the larger context of the Crucifixion, and at this particular point is contemplating the crown of thorns. Between the crown of thorns at Calvary and the many diadems of the Conquering King of the Revelation, lies the scene of Christ's coronation by the Father, described in the second chapter of Hebrews:
You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.(Hebrews 2:7-9)It is correct that the Father crowned the Son long ago in heaven, and that in this august scene the Father delivers the honors to the Son; He receives nothing from us in this setting. But in this hymn, I suggest we are simply imagining that scene again, and offering up our praises and acclamations to the worthiness of Christ to receive these crowns. In this way we are like the angel chorus that shouted, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."(Revelation 4:11) They were not declaring Him worthy by their authority; they were agreeing with the Father's judgment. In this hymn we are praising and acknowledging the coronation of Jesus in the same fashion as did the angels, as though we were witnessing that past event.
This involves a certain amount of poetic license, and I am reminded of a statement made by one good brother: "There may be such a thing as poetic license, but some poets ought to have their licenses revoked." (Whether you agree with his positions or not, you have to admit that is funny!) But the New Testament writers used figurative and imaginitive language as well; Jesus in the Revelation is not literally a lamb, or a lion. When Paul said, "Christ, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us,"(1 Corinthians 5:7) we do not understand him to say that Christ is literally a lamb (nor, for that matter, does this teach that He is literally sacrificed again and again in the taking of the Lord's Supper). And though we do not literally see the scene of Christ's coronation by His Father, in this hymn we imagine it with the mind's eye, and celebrate that glorious and fitting consummation of His work.
This touches on another objection to the "coronation trope" that deserves mention as well: is it appropriate to sing as though we ourselves are crowning Jesus? It is generally true that the lesser must be crowned by the greater. The President of the United States, though not receiving a crown, is sworn into office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as representative of the authority of the Constitution on which the President's powers depend. Western Kings and queens are typically crowned by a high-ranking church official who stands as representative of God's authority. Napoleon famously crowned himself to avoid such complications! But there is another way in which one may receive a crown--when it is surrendered by the lesser to the greater, as has happened throughout history when a vanquished king surrenders to his conqueror.
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."(Revelation 4:9-11)Many hymns use this image as a figure for humbling ourselves and submitting to Christ's rule. Perhaps the most direct example is in "Lead me to Calvary" by Jennie Hussey: "King of my life, I crown Thee now / Thine shall the glory be." There is no thought here of granting something to Christ as an earthly king might grant a donation to a subordinate; this is surrendering authority to Jesus, and the glory is all for Him.
In the passage quoted above from Hebrews chapter 2, there is this interesting statement at the end of verse 8: "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him." No, this does not mean that His kingdom is yet in the future, or that some great coronation scene awaits Him at His Second Advent. It tells us that, though He is by rights King of all, there is one part of His creation that is holding out against His rule--us. When we sin and rebel against Him, we are insurgents against His reign, but He does not take back the rule of our lives by force. In His grace, love, and patience He has extended an offer of pardon if we will accept His rule again, willingly surrendering the crown of our souls back to Him to whom it belongs, and who alone can rightfully and wisely rule us.
About the music:
This is the other well-known hymn tune by George Job Elvey, the first of which reviewed was ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come"). DIADEMATA appeared in the second edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, published in 1868.(Lightwood, 315) For those who want to look further into the career of Elvey, the Life and Reminiscences of George J. Elvey, written by his widow, is available online.
DIADEMATA is in the mold of that stately sort of British march that is so distinct from its American cousin; no dotted rhythms are necessary to stir excitement, just full, clear harmonies proceeding in measured, stately dignity. A brass choir could play this music, with no arranging at all, and make a marvelous ceremonial piece of it. The melody is not as simple and winsome as that of ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come," being driven more by the progress of the harmony.
Several little techniques lend strength to this writing that are worth noting. First, the opening phrase, which sets the signature line of text from which the hymn develops, unfolds in contrary motion between the highest and lowest voice. At the same time, the harmony moves down a series of 3rds, from tonic (DO) to submediant (LA) to the subdominant (FA). The introduction of the minor submediant chord is a point of tension, logically resolved into the reassuring subdominant. ("Reassuring" may sound silly, but there is a degree of tension to certain chords within a key; the dominant chord (SOL-TI-RE) has a strong need to resolve, whereas the subdominant (FA-LA-DO), though it is not the home chord or tonic of the key, is much more restful. It is the subdominant to tonic progression that makes the standard "Amen" at the end of some hymns.)
Another interesting technique is the phrase sequence used at the beginning of the second half of the hymn (corresponding to the 5th and 6th lines of text). Just as he did in ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR, Elvey repeats an entire two-measure subphrase at a higher pitch; but in this case, it is sequenced up a step, increasing the harmonic tension. The melody is a little tricky at this spot: SOL-SOL-MI-RE-DO-LA / LA-LA-FI*-MI-RE-TI (*FA sharped, A# if the hymn is in E major as I have usually seen it). The raised 4th step of the scale, "FI," naturally wants to go up to SOL, but instead is left by stepwise descent to MI and RE. The principle of repetition with variation is so strong, however, that once the ear recognizes this as a sequence of the preceding two measures, it is much easier to hear. Finally, after all of this buildup, Elvey lets the melody hit the high "DO," the top of the scale, to begin the final two lines of text.
References:
Hatfield, Edwin F. The Poets fo the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches with Notes on their Hymns. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1884. http://archive.org/stream/poetschurchaser00hatfgoog#page/n108/mode/2up
Editorial, Baptist Quarterly [Baptist Historical Society, UK] 16:5 (January 1956), pp. 193-195.
http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/16-5_193.pdf
Strong's H7965. BlueletterBible.org. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7965
Lightwood, James T. Hymn-Tunes and their Story. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1905.
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7106809M/Hymn-tunes_and_their_story
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