Notes from the Far Fringe

My god but I love Eddie Izzard.

This brilliant, English, marathon running, gender-bending atheist is one of the best comedians living today. He shares brilliantly, funny ideas from pop culture, high culture, history, science, and everyday life – with a wit that doesn’t talk down but rather lifts up. I’ve seen him in person as well as the many terrific comedy specials. And he can act too – I love his performance as Chaplain in The Cat’s Meow. If you haven’t seen his work, go now – start with Dress to Kill, on Amazon Video. (But read the rest of this blog first.)

Now the reason Izzard comes to mind is that I can’t even think about today’s hymn without thinking about this bit:

I recommend watching the whole clip, although the moment this hymn brings to mind starts around 3:45.

If you watched, then you know my problem with this hymn – it was square and boring even before I saw Izzard, and more so now. A simple 4/4 time signature makes it march along. What if it were in a 6/8, with the extra beats extending the second and fourth notes? Just as Whitney Houston expanded The Star Spangled Banner from 3/4 to 4/4, and just as we have both 3/4 and 4/4 settings of Amazing Grace, we could easily have a 6/8 of this one. It would give us room to feel the help and comfort this setting of Psalm 90 aims to offer.

Seriously, these are not words to march through:

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home:

Before the hills in order stood, or earth received its frame,
from everlasting thou art God, to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone,
short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away:
we fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last, and our eternal home.

This magnificent hymn – considered by some to be the greatest hymn written in English – is nearly complete and unchanged here as late 17th century minister Isaac Watts wrote it. Only a verse of Empire is omitted- and really, you’re not missing much. Otherwise, nothing is changed.

Here’s the Psalm – number 90 in your programs; it’s a fair bit harsher than Watt’s hymn though:

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling-place^*
in all generations.
² Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³ You turn us^* back to dust,
and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’
⁴ For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past,
or like a watch in the night.

⁵ You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;
⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.

⁷ For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
⁸ You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance.

⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end^* like a sigh.
¹⁰ The days of our life are seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span^* is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you.
¹² So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.

¹³ Turn, O Lord! How long?
Have compassion on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
¹⁶ Let your work be manifest to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷ Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands!

I want to love this hymn more than I do. I love the lyrics – they ground and comfort me, reminding me of what is transient and what is permanent. It is a hymn of letting go. It is a hymn of comfort.

I’ll love it more if it’s reset with a more expansive time signature. Because otherwise, I sing it like Izzard, and that’s probably not appropriate in the pulpit.