Hymns of the Spirit: Their Stories and Their Messages

By John Zehring

“Hymns of the Spirit” reveals the background story of how hymns about the Spirit came to us, and adds insightful reflections on their meaning and inspiration for 21st Christians today. “God is spirit,” Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman at the well. And so, hymns with the word “spirit” in them are included in this book and tell about their authors, composers, and their message.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: May 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005973629

John Zehring

John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

Book preview

Hymns of the Spirit

Their Stories and Their Messages

John Zehring

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Copyright 2021 John Zehring

"God is spirit,

and those who worship him

must worship in spirit and truth."

John 4:24

Contents

Introduction

Hymns of the Spirit

About the Author

Introduction

God is spirit, Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman at the well. Of course. Spirit exists beyond our five senses or our three dimensions. God who created the universe is so big as to be beyond our comprehension and yet, as the Alfred Henry Ackley’s Easter hymn proclaims You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart. Our finite minds need to put flesh and bones on spirit, so it is much easier for us to grasp pictures of Jesus or to conceive of God as father, like the father of the prodigal son. Page through a Christian hymnal and you will find a great many hymns about Jesus as well as many hymns of devotion to or praise about God, but not so many about spirit. There are a few hymns about Pentecost which celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Yet when God as Spirit is considered, it is difficult for us to grasp or even sing about. Spirit is amorphous, shrouded in mystery. And so, there are fewer songs about Spirit.

When we think of the spirit, we consider how many ways that word is used. There is the Holy Spirit, which descended like a dove on the Day of Pentecost. This account is explained in the Book of Acts:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power. All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others sneered and said, They are filled with new wine. (Acts 2:1-13).

So, the first thing Christians think of when the word spirit is mentioned is the Holy Spirit which entered at Pentecost, the third person of the Holy Trinity.

But also, there is God’s Spirit… God is spirit, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well. Before Jesus, the bible recognized God as spirit and considered God’s spirit as holy.

The Psalmist wrote: Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. (Psalm 51:11). There in lower case is God’s holy spirit, for anything of God is holy.

In the days of the Prophets, Isaiah (63:11) pondered out loud Where is the one who put within them his holy spirit… Here Isaiah does not refer to the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, but rather to the notion that God is spirit and God’s spirit is holy.

A few months before Jesus of Nazareth was born, the birth narrative in Matthew (1:18) began: Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. This feels a little confusing, because if the Holy Spirit did not come to humankind until the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in the book of Acts, then why does Matthew recognize the Holy Spirit at an event prior to the Day of Pentecost? He could be referring to the general spiritual nature of God, although Matthew wrote his gospel after the Pentecost event, so he could be acknowledging that Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit, who pre-existed the day when it fell upon the people like tongues of fire. While the third person of the Holy Trinity might not have blown into humankind’s experience until Acts 2, there is nothing to say that it did not exist, unknown, beforehand. Afterall, the Gospel of John talks about how Jesus’ pre-existed with God since the creation: "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him..." (John 1:2, 3a). Is there any reason to think that the third person of the Trinity did not also pre-exist with God?

Aside from the specific coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the generic nature of God as spirit, the word is also used in other ways. There is the spirit of God’s community, as sung about in "We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord." There is also the human spirit, the spirit of the times or of a place, the spirit of the living God which comes to melt us, mold us, fill us, and use us. So, the word has many shades of meaning. Wherever the word spirit occurs in hymns, it is a candidate for inclusion in this book. Most of all, there is the mysterious but felt presence of God which enters our lives as spirit and fills us, renews us, energizes us, comforts us, restores our souls, and calls us to faithfulness to God. Some who have experienced an encounter with the spirit of God would say something like… I can’t explain it, but I felt its presence. However we attempt to reach up to God, through worship or personal devotion, what we seek is an encounter with the Divine. The songs and their stories in this book talk about those who have experienced that encounter and name it the Spirit.

Notes about this book

Scriptures used in this work come from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he. I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father. Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

Hymns and their lyrics in this book come from the public domain. Hymns which are not in the public domain will be referenced only in passing to recognize them or to use a title or a few lines as a basis for a meditation.

Some of this work is adapted from other books I have written, which can be found at major book retailers.

As I worked on each hymn’s background, I found the hymn invading my subconscious, causing me to hum or sing it to myself all day long. Some of the hymn’s verses found their way into my prayers and I discovered that a prayer life is enriched by starting with words that lift prayer out of one’s own interests or needs to a higher level of praise, love, confession, or thanksgiving in words crafted by the hymn writers. And so, may this work inform you, undergird your devotion to God, provide you with some musical avenues to your personal prayers, and bring joyful music more deeply into your soul as you seek an encounter with the Spirit.

John Zehring

Hymns of the Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove

Come, Holy Spirit, Heav'nly Dove,

With all Thy quick'ning pow'rs;

Kindle a flame of sacred love

In these cold hearts of ours.

In vain we tune our formal songs,

In vain we strive to rise;

Hosannas languish on our tongues,

And our devotion dies.

Come, Holy Spirit, Heav'nly Dove,

With all Thy quick'ning pow'rs;

Come, shed abroad a Savior’s love,

And that shall kindle ours.

Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove comes to us from the historically dynamic duo of author Isaac Watts and composer John B. Dykes.

Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748) was the son of a Dissenter – a Congregationalist at odds with the Church of England. His father was a strong advocate for his faith, and found himself in trouble with the law on more than one occasion because of his dissent. That was the intense sort of environment in which Isaac Watts’ character was formed.

Watts was never a very robust person, but he demonstrated poetic ability at an early age. Sometimes he even rhymed his ordinary conversation. Isaac Watts was born in 1674 in Southampton, England. He was the oldest of nine children and Isaac was a prodigy. At age five, he learned Latin. At nine, he learned Greek, at eleven, French, and at thirteen, Hebrew. In school, he wrote his poetry in Latin.

One Sunday after returning from a particularly poor worship service, Watts continued to rail against the congregational singing. His father exclaimed, Why don't you give us something better, young man! Before the evening service began, young Isaac had written his first hymn, which was received with great enthusiasm by the people. Watts wrote some 600 hymns during his lifetime, and is known today as the Father of English Hymnody. Some of his great hymns are Joy to the World, Jesus Shall Reign, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

Here is the big change initiated by Isaac Watts. English hymns of his time were dreary, dismal, ponderous and, most significantly, impersonal. Watts changed that. He used the politically incorrect practice