Paul Vasile

 Advent III: Our Tears Sprang Up into a Song

When God Restored Our Common Life
People, Look East

FURTHER READING and LISTENING:

Ruth Duck is one of the most important hymn writers of our time. Over the past 40 years, dozens of her hymns have been published in Christian hymnals and songbooks. While now retired, her teaching at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Chicago has shaped a generation of scholars and pastors. And through her faithful, creative work as a hymn writer she invites the Church to imagine how the language of worship can be (she would lovingly assert must be) more intentionally inclusive and expansive. Her book, Worship for the Whole People of God, is required reading in many seminaries and offers a brilliant, theologically progressive foundation for Christian worship.

Ruth stands in a long tradition of hymn writers who have paraphrased psalms, bringing fresh language and perspectives to these ancient song-poems. Psalm 126 is one of the Song of Ascents, a group of psalms that may have been sung during pilgrimage to Jerusalem for religious festivals. While they are shorter and generally hopeful texts, Psalm 126 is unique in the way it holds both joy and grief in delicate balance.

Isaac Watts (who famously translated the whole Psalter into metrical poetry) wrote, “[The Psalms] ought to be translated in such a manner as we have reason to believe David would have composed them if he had lived in our day." Ruth Duck’s setting honors this creative challenge, holding both personal testimony and communal prayer in a powerful, metrical text.

“This text was inspired by Psalm 126 . . . for all who have dedicated themselves to a journey of liberation and justice. Although at times the journey appears to lead through a never-ending wilderness, the Spirit is at work among us, transforming tears to life-giving water.”

- from Songs for the Christmas Cycle by Emily Brink, Reformed Worship Blog, Sept. 2011

INVITATION TO DEEPER LISTENING:

Before you sing, read Psalm 126 using practices we’ve explored over the past weeks. Welcome your curiosity and intuition to join you as you reflect. I’ve linked to the New Revised Standard Version but perhaps there’s another translation you prefer.

• What words, sounds, or, images are you drawn to in the psalm? What feels alive or resonant in you?

Next, read the hymn text aloud as you would poetry or scripture. You can find a copy of the hymn here.

• What words, phrases, or consonant/vowel sounds resonate or offer invitation into the emotional space of the text?

• How does Duck’s text speak about God and God’s people? How is that different than the psalm text?

• What do you notice in the final verse of the hymn, and how does that shape how you hear Psalm 126?

Finally, sing along with the recording using a soft, listening voice. If you feel less confident as a singer, you can hum or chant along, paying special attention to the flow of text and music.

• What do you notice as you add your breath and voice to the tune?

• Has your relationship with the text or tune changed?

• What are you aware of that you might not have been before, either within you or in the music?

Hymnals have commonly set Ruth Duck’s psalm paraphrase to two Sacred Harp tunes. Both suit the text in different ways, including lots of text painting that keeps the words feeling alive and expressive.

1. The tune name RESIGNATION (used in the video above) tells us so much about the character of the melody, which rises and swoops, alighting on notes of a C major triad without returning to the tonic until the last note of each phrase. Notice it has some of the same characteristic angularity of many Sacred Harp tunes (for a reminder visit last week’s post) but this is a decidedly sweet, flowing melody.
   
   This tune is commonly associated with Issac Watts’ paraphrase of Psalm 23, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. You can hear a recording of Sacred Harp group singing it here.
   
   I asked Bay Area colleague Steve Eulberg to collaborate with me and record an accompaniment track on mountain dulcimer, a three or four-stringed instrument originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. What do you hear in this choice of accompaniment that is different than the piano or organ?

2. SALVATION is a minor-key tune found in Kentucky Harmony, one of the many collections of Sacred Harp tunes published in the early 19th century. Here’s a printed copy of Ruth Duck’s text to this tune if you’d like to compare the two. Sadly, videos or recordings of this version are not readily available.