What are your favorite and least favorite lines in hymns? Are there any that make you happy to think of, or that make you cringe when you sing them? Here are a few of mine. I’ll start with my least favorites so I can end on a positive note.
Angels above us are silent notes taking
– Do What Is Right
Of ev’ry action; then do what is right!
I have enough stress with the visible entities in my life without worrying about angels spying on me and taking notes so they can scold me later.
There’s the right and the wrong to ev’ry question;
This is just patently wrong. Of course there are some decisions that have a moral dimension to them, but many decisions have no such dimension. If I’m choosing what color tie to wear to church, or what cereal to eat, there’s no reason for me to worry about whether I’m choosing the right. Furthermore, even when decisions do have a moral dimension, it’s typical for them to be far more complicated than just right and wrong. Rather, there are multiple options with all kinds of characteristics that we need to weigh. As Dallin H. Oaks famously reminded us, there may be good, better, and best.
Improve each shining moment.
This is way too much pressure. How about if I try to improve a shining moment once a month or so?
Ev’ry stroke disarms a foeman;
Ev’ry step we conq’ring go.
I find war imagery in hymns off-putting in general, but at least much of the time, it could be seen as metaphorical. This isn’t even pretending. We’re rejoicing at whacking heretics’ arms off. No thanks.
Here are some of my favorites.
Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
This is probably my favorite hymn in our current hymnal. I particularly love this third verse, and this line about not something so comparatively bland as the day of a happy afterlife is coming, but rather the much more immediate statement that the hour is hastening on.
Thou gav’st thy life on Calvary,
That I might live forevermore
It’s probably just to make a rhyme with implore in a previous line, but I’ve always felt like the idea of living forevermore, rather than just plain old forever, sounds dramatic and cool!
There’s surely somewhere a lowly place
In earth’s harvest fields so wide
Where I may labor through life’s short day
For Jesus, the Crucified.
I remember being first struck by this at the beginning of my mission, when I was feeling overwhelmed at the prospect even of leaving home for two years. I love the contrast of lowly with wide, which I recall made the prospect feel more manageable to me, because I’d only be in a tiny little place, and I felt more like I didn’t have to worry about the rest of it.
Though like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone,
Yet in my dreams I’d be
Nearer, my God, to thee,
I like the despair expressed in these lines. I relate to it a lot more than I do to the bright, bouncy hymns.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with his love doth befriend thee.
I like the idea of God befriending me. It sounds more relatable than most depictions of God.
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
This is in the middle of a war-imagery song, which overall isn’t my favorite. That being said, I like the reference to hearts and arms as entities in themselves. I also especially appreciate the use of again, which acknowledges the so-common experience when facing any task or difficulty, of having your heart be brave at first, but then you run out of energy or hope, and have to get your heart to be brave again.
As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,
I love the call to action here. Unlike most all of our other hymns, it doesn’t say our job is just to spread the gospel; rather it’s to actually make people free!
I’d love to hear your favorite or least favorite lines in hymns too!
I like “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” — but in French rather than in English. Instead of all the meeting at feet which always sounds cheap in its repetition, the French words translate to
“Oh, joyous, holy hope for those who follow Jesus!
We will see each other again in his presence when death and grief are no more!”
The lines of the verses are also more comforting, in my opinion — instead of God “being” there, which sounds passive, the French lines have God guarding you when peril menaces, throughout your entire life.
Favorite: “He lives to calm my troubled heart.” I Know that My Redeemer Lives
There’s a whole category on my least favorite list that I call the “you’ll get your comeuppance” lyric. The most famous of these is in We Thank The O God For a Prophet: “the wicked who fight against Zion/shall surely be smitten at last”. It’s the hymn version of that song from My Fair Lady: “Just You Wait”. There are other examples, but I can’t remember them right now. I encountered a new one in a hymn I’d never sung before at church recently. They always come from late 19th century authors. It would be great if we can move on and remove all of those things from the new hymnbook, but sometimes I do find it just a little endearing to think of my pioneer ancestors taking out their rage at the US government in their hymns.
Other categories I dislike: hymns that are excessively reverential to Joseph Smith or current leaders (strike 2 against We Thank The O God for a Prophet), and hymns that are overly militaristic (you already mentioned most of them).
Least favorite line is from Love at Home:
Roses bloom beneath our feet;
All the earth’s a garden sweet,
Making life a bliss complete
When there’s love at home.
Roses have thorns. Not good under feet. Also this whole stanza is so sappy and ridiculous.
None of us need mention any line in “In Our Lovely Deseret”.
The first verse of “The Wintry Day, Descending to its Close,” along with its melancholy melody, is so beautiful I tear up every time I hear it. The second verse is almost as good. The third and fourth also have some lovely imagery, but unfortunately are ruined by the expressions of racism and colonialism that have existed in the church from the beginning (and sadly still exist today, or the last verse, especially, would have been removed long ago).
But…the first verse!
The wintry day, descending to its close,
Invites all wearied nature to repose,
And shades of night are falling dense and fast,
Like sable curtains closing o’er the past.
Pale through the gloom the newly fallen snow
Wraps in a shroud the silent earth below
As tho ’twere mercy’s hand had spread the pall,
A symbol of forgiveness unto all.
A hymn genre not yet mentioned are those that say whatever happens, however awful, it’s all fine. Come, Come ye Saints with most especially “and should we die before our journey’s through, happy day, all is well”. Really? And one of the new (and apparently popular) hymns It is Well with My Soul, which I describe as a masochist anthem, the entire first verse is awful, and the back story is horrific. Both of these hymns seem to me to minimise suffering.
A second vote for Be Still My Soul, as a favourite, which for me, is a much healthier approach to suffering. From the new batch of hymns I love His Eye is on the Sparrow for the line “I sing because I’m free”, I sometimes wonder how that line made it through correlation! Similarly I love the first verse of Jesus Mighty King in Zion for the words “Thou alone our guide shalt be.” and “We will follow none but thee.” Sticking it to overly officious full of themselves priesthood leadership as it were.
Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath breath, join with Abraham’s seed to adore him!
Let the “amen” Sum all our praises again,
Now as we worship before him.
I know the idea of Abraham’s seed is problematic, but in the context of the whole hymn I take “all that hath breath” to be all of creation (not just humans) joining together in worship. And I love that idea. Also, a God who we adore rather than who we are afraid of is much more appealing to me.
We really need all 5 verses of Be Still My Soul. The two omitted stanzas (3 and 5) are integral to the overwhelming power and meaning of this hymn.
I second the vote against Love At Home: the most saccharine lyrics in the hymn book, combined with the most bland and unimaginative music. Who thought this was worthy of publication?
Increasingly I have come to dislike sacrament hymns that focus on our need to repent (see As Now We Take the Sacrament, among others). I feel like that was not the point of the Last Supper, and turning our commemoration of it into some kind of Mormon variant of Catholic confession practices I have concluded is a relatively modern innovation. I’d like to see it go, but it’s probably a hopeless cause at this point.
Lord, I would follow Thee.
I fall short, but it’s what I want to do.
I also share Quentin’s dislike for ‘We Thank The for a Prophet’ for the same reasons. Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley was reported to been uncomfortable when that hymn was sung in his presence.
Ziff: Disarming a foeman can simply be knocking their sword out of their hand. No chopping required.
The original line in the Battle Hymn is “as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.” Howe wrote it during the civil war and it is unavoidably a wartime song. We have justifiably changed that line to be applicable to when we are not fighting, and, though I’m no fan of martial hymns, I still love the original line.
Dot: I can’t sing the “sable curtains” line with a straight face. I just can’t. The whole song just feels overdramatic and cheesy to me. To each their own . . . .
Favorites of mine:
#85 – How Firm a Foundation
Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
….
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!
And, I mean, the song is just so rousing that you can’t help but crank it out with a full organ. I have a hard time separating music and lyrics in hymns; if one is bad, the other can’t save it.
#131 More Holiness Give Me
The whole thing. It’s just a list of things that I largely don’t have, but I wish I did. Holiness, patience in suffering, sorrow for sin, faith in my Savior, joy in his service, purpose in prayer, hope in his word, longing for home. More, Savior, like thee.
Thanks, everyone for your comments. I always enjoy how so many of us have strong opinions on hymns!
Ardis, that’s great! You’re really going above and beyond in finding cool stuff in another language. As a speaker of English only, I’m missing out!
Lily, great pick! I have a troubled heart too that could use some calming.
Quentin, I completely agree about the comeuppance lines being bad. And I swear you’re right, that there are some in other hymns, but I couldn’t find them in a quick search either.
Paul, I agree about the sappiness of “Love at Home.” I’m also not a fan because I feel like it sets up an impossible ideal that just makes us all feel bad.
Vic, but what about “Tea and coffee and tobacco they despise”? My favorite! 🙂 I see it was written by Eliza R. Snow, so no later than 1887, and long before the WoW was made into a serious commandment.
Dot, honestly, that’s always struck me as a weird holdover hymn from another time. But you’re right that the lyrics are striking. Maybe I should give it another chance (with the offensive verse excised, as you suggest)!
Hedgehog, I’ve always kind of liked the idea that Come, Come, Ye Saints at least rejects the prosperity gospel in acknowledging that we might die, but you make a fair point about the “happy day” being not the best response to that. And I love that you also love Be Still My Soul!
gomez, oh, that’s a great reading of “all that hath breath”! It kind of makes me think of the line from Joy to the World, “Let heav’n and nature sing” (sadly modified in the Mormon version).
tubes, thanks for the pointer! I’m happy to have a hymn I already love improved even further!
PWS, that’s great! I love all the aspirational “would”‘s in that hymn.
RMD, that’s very encouraging to hear about President Hinckley. I’m imagining Russell M. Nelson wouldn’t share his distaste for it.
DaveW, ha! You’re of course exactly right! I’m going to blame the story of Ammon for my misreading of “disarms.” And thanks for your additions. Unfortunately for me, How Firm a Foundation has bad associations for me because it was the favorite of my meanest mission companion, but of course that’s no fault of the hymn’s.
My favorite hymn lyrics are “Have I Done Any Good?” which I find motivational and helping focus on serving.
I also like verses 4 and 5 of “How Firm a Foundation” which are unfortunately rarely sung.
I have always found the lyrics of “Know This, That Every Soul is Free” rather strange but somehow satisfying at the same time.
I agree that it’s old-fashioned, and obviously I’m in the minority here! For me it captures a meditative side to the pioneer spirit—Orson Whitney taking a moment and saying, “Wow, it’s beautiful here.” And the melody is haunting. It doesn’t fit in a modern hymn book and no one sings it, anyway, and I don’t even go to church anymore. But I’ll be sad to see it go.
Attenpting to process the grief at my Dad’s passing, the last line of a hymn came to mind and provided me a measure of peace:
“Father, from me remove this cup
Yet if thou wilt, I’ll drink it up.
I’ve done the work thou gavest me,
I’ve done the work thou gavest me.
Receive my spirit unto thee!” #191
This verse from “God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand” really struck me when we sang it in September of 2001. It seems appropriate now, too.
From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be thy strong arm our eversure defense.
Thy true religion in our hearts increase.
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
JohnD,
What about the old lyrics to Have I done any good?
“Only he who does something is worthy to live, The world has no use for the drone.”
Replaced with …:
“Only he who does something helps others to live. To God each good work will be known.”
I’m torn. “Worthy to live” is pretty horrible, but “world has no use for a drone” is the most epic feminist quote in all of scripture/hymnody. So, that one line is my entry for both worst and best.
On the other hand “Where me can u turn for peace” is wonderful.
“….reaches my reaching. In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend. Gentle the peace he finds, for my beseeching. Constant he is and kind, love without end.”
@Mortimer, that the line you mention is indeed atrocious and was not previously aware of the change. According to Wikipedia it was changed in 1985 by specific direction of BKP. I’m glad this was tweaked instead of throwing the whole hymn out.