No More Hims of Praise
Anthony Esolen on the Contemptible Mutilation of Hymns
Even when a traditional hymn is included in the modern Catholic hymnals, one cannot settle in to praise God with words written by greater men than we are. Almost always, the lyrics have been so flattened, botched, castrated, and lobotomized that I’d almost prefer to sing “On Turkey’s Wings” (you know, “I will raise you up on turkey’s wings, la de da and la de da, la de da da da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”).
Apparently it was not enough that the revisers had to aspire to heresy—the heresy that they call “inclusivity” and “relevance”—they had to be lousy writers, too.
Loosened Connections
Here I would like to show a little bit of what is to be found in something called Worship III. I will juxtapose the original verse of the classic “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” and the revised verse (revisions in italics), appending commentary:
ORIGINAL: Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven;
To his feet thy tribute bring;
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Evermore his praises sing:
Alleluia, alleluia! Praise the everlasting King.REVISED: Praise, my soul, the king of heaven;
To the throne your tribute bring;
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Evermore God’s praises sing, etc.
The contemptible suppression of the masculine pronoun makes hash of the second line. The revisers (smarter than Jesus, who naively called the Father by that exclusive “he”) could not refer to “the feet” without identifying whose feet—so they altered the sense entirely. A line of frank humility is now rendered vague; instead of laying our tribute at the feet of the King, we just sashay up to the throne.
If the King is the same person as God, then he is most appropriately identified by a pronoun. To ditch the pronoun is to loosen the grammatical and rhetorical connection between the King and God. Maybe the theological connection, too—because the revisers (who are smarter than Jesus, I must remember) apparently do not want us to have in our minds any sharp image of a King, who must invariably be masculine.
When I first published some of my analysis on Touchstone’s weblog Mere Comments, one correspondent wrote to suggest that the revisers could have solved their problem by replacing “King of Heaven” with “Heav’nly Ruler.” From their point of view, yes. But besides messing up the strong monosyllabic rhythm of the line and blurring the noun by a limply inserted adjective, the suggested revision alters the meaning and muffles the theology.
A “ruler” is defined by function: He is one who rules. That word embraces a range of positions of authority, and could presumably describe the chief of any of the orders of angels; Michael is in a sense a ruler, and he, too, dwells in heaven. But God sums in himself all rulership. The word not only describes what he does; it names what he is. He is King—not duke, not earl, not prince.
Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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