Thursday Thinking - Fixing Song Lyrics

What does a church do when a well-known song or hymn lyric has a verse or phrase it finds theologically unacceptable? One choice would be to avoid the song altogether. Another, and perhaps better choice, would be to fix it.

As a pastor and sometimes worship leader, I freely admit to having no qualms or hesitation about changing (saving or repairing, from my point of view) the text of a song for use at our church. I do it quite regularly. Sometimes I even edit and update the lyrics to songs I have written. If a song can be improved or redeemed, I say do it.

Most of the changes my worship pastor and I make at Valley serve  to update archaic words and sentence structures found in older hymns. Sometimes we're simply ironing out the rhythm or improving the agogic stresses in a lyric. Occasionally, we see the need to change a word or phrase because we see a theological problem in the text. Should this surprise anyone? I don't see why it should. Christian songs are theological songs and as such are bound to express doctrinal perspectives, opinions, and speculations that are troublesome.

One such song is the much-loved "In Christ Alone" by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. It includes the phrase, "the wrath of God was satisfied," which presents a theological problem for many Christians. Is our God a God whose wrath must be satiated in order to forgive? This language expresses an atonement perspective which, though fairly common in Reformed circles, is not one I ascribe to, and certainly not one embraced universally throughout Christian history. It's a phrase that needs to be fixed, so for years I've changed it to "the wrath of God was set aside."

I was surprised and pleased to learn this week that the committee putting together the new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) also identified a problem with that selfsame phrase. The committee asked Townend and Getty if they could change the lyric of "In Christ Alone" to say "the love of God was magnified" instead of "the wrath of God was satisfied." But the writers said, "No." They wouldn't go along with it. I guess they are pretty theologically committed to satisfying God's wrath.

So what happened next? The PCUSA committee decided to not include the song in their new hymnal. I think they made the right choice. Good-bye Hymn 506. I don't worship a God whose wrath must be satisfied, I worship a God whose love is magnified and glorified through the redeeming cross of Christ.

So, while you won't see the proposed edit in the new edition of the PCUSA hymnal, I'm pretty sure you will hear it if you find yourself singing "In Christ Alone" at Valley Christian Church. I can recognize a better lyric when I see it, and a better lyric with better theology is the one I choose to sing.

READ MORE ABOUT THE PCUSA HYMNAL STORY

Presbyterian Church (USA) Drops "In Christ Alone" from Its Hymnal

An extraordinary dispute has arisen over a lyric contained one of the most beloved contemporary Christian hymns of the modern-day Church, "In Christ Alone". According to Bob Smietana of USA Today, the committee putting together a new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (USA) dropped the popular hymn because the song's authors refused to change a phrase about the wrath of God. 

He said that the original lyrics say that "on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied."
The Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song wanted to substitute the words, "the love of God was magnified." The song's authors, Stuart Townend and Northern Ireland born and now a Nashville resident, Keith Getty, objected.

"So the committee voted to drop the song," said Smietana. Read More.