Diminishing Returns

Let's face it; hymns are old. Hey, what can I say? It's a fact. That does not make them bad. But we can run into problems with hymns. AS an obvious example, when the language changes (as English is constantly doing), you can run into difficulty. The original lyrics of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing included "Hark how all the Welkin rings" as the first line. "Welkin? Really?" So we changed it to "Hark, the herald angels sing." We get it. Robert Robinson in Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing wrote, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer." What's an "Ebenezer?" (It occurs in 1 Samuel 7 where Samuel took a stone to remind them "Thus far the LORD has helped us." Robinson's "Ebenezer" was a reminder of God's help.) Isaac Watts, one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time, wrote How Sweet and Awful back when "awful" meant "full of awe," not "very bad." Gotta change that.

Other changes are not for such reasonable reasons.

We love grace. Why? Because we love to get good things we don't deserve. It's a wonderful thing. It really is. Oh, mercy, too. Not getting the bad things we do deserve is good, too, but grace is right up at the top of things we love about our Savior. So we sing "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a ..." wait, what is that word? The original word -- perhaps the very word that comes to your mind right now -- is "wretch." It is not a nice word. We need to fix that. So we gin up something new. Not "such a wretch," but "such a one as I." Much better.

Isaac Watts wrote Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed. This is his first verse.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?

Oh! Oh no! That will never fly. "Such a worm as I?" No, no, we have to change it. Today's most common version says, "Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?" Yes, we can live with that. No worm, please.

Beneath the Cross of Jesus was an Elizabeth Clephane piece. In one verse she looks at the cross and confesses two wonders: "the wonders of redeeming love and my own worthlessness." That version is really hard to find these days. Nearly every version I found changed it so "my unworthiness." Why? Because "worthlessness" feels too harsh.

Sometimes it is necessary to change words in hymns. We call them "sacred hymns," but they aren't God's Word -- they aren't actually sacred. Correcting errors in hymns isn't a problem. Some popular hymns are downright wrong in places. Making them more understandable as the tide of language changes isn't really an issue. We all have to deal with that ourselves these days. But when the changes occur because we don't like the term, we should be more careful. John Newton referred to himself as a "wretch" because he understood the magnitude of his sin problem. Isaac Watts' reference to himself as a "worm" was biblical (Job 25:5-6; Psa 22:6). Objections to "my own worthlessness" come not from a demand for accuracy, but from a demand for self-esteem, something we're warned about (Rom 12:3). And here's the real problem. When we diminish our sin problem we do more than make ourselves feel better about ourselves. We diminish grace. We demean the Savior's work on the cross. We decrease our debt. Until we're not that bad. Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little, loves little" (Luke 7:47). That's the wrong effect we should be seeking -- diminishing God, His grace, and our love -- by improving our self-image.