Great (Hymn/Anthem!) One Liners: 10. Zadok and Nathan

After a short blog break I can't resist cheating for my next Great Hymn One-Liner.

It is not a hymn!  So it really is a cheat.

And it's not great!  So it's a total cheat.

But it is worth a blog for more than one reason.  So what is it?  It's a line from the Anthem sung at the fundamental moment in the Coronation of the Monarch in Westminster Abbey.  The words are 

Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet anointed Solomon King . . .

It references Solomon's coronation, recorded in 1 Kings Chapter 1.  It references it, but it takes plenty of liberties because it ignores Benaiah and a whole bunch of others - the Cherethites and the Pelethites. 

Its use in English coronations goes back into antiquity, but the setting now used for hundreds of years is the setting by Handel.  What makes this a great one liner in my opinion (though not just mine) is that Handel has taken just about the most boring line imaginable and somehow elevated it to the position of highest drama.

By a clever and long introduction that seems repetitious but changes in all kinds of subtle ways the composer prepares us for a dramatic line. A pause and the choirs come in at full volume.  What they are singing is lost in the fact that they are singing and the setting they are singing in.  

It is the triumph of music over meaning and is therefore perhaps as great a lesson in musical worship as any of the great one liners we have looked at.

(To see the whole series click on the hymnline tag)

Great (Hymn) One Liners 9. The Gate

 It's Easter, and today our Great Hymn One Liner comes from a German hymn.  Generally Easter hymns are simple by the very nature of the event.  Whilst profound in its significance, the Resurrection of Christ tends to be sung about in straightforward terms.  And why not?

henceforth is death but the gate to life immortal

The line neatly captures the forever transformation that Easter Day brings to the singer, and everyone else, who believes.   Nothing, following the resurrection, will ever be the same again, ever.

There is such a difference between the brick wall that unbelievers see themselves  hitting in death and the gate to a new future that the believer in Jesus sees.  This is a glorious day to be a Christian.  Yet in  truth, so is every other day!!

Great (Hymn) One Liners 8. In man for Man

A vast array of memorable lines are on offer for Good Friday.  I am going for a line that, frankly, most people singing it probably do not grasp (here I am judging others by my own weaknesses, it is true).

The double agony in man, for Man. should undergo.

The line comes from 'Praise to the holiest in the height' by the Victorian Anglican-turned-Roman Catholic John Henry Newman.  The line describes the extent of the generous love of God in Jesus who died for us.  

The whole hymn is deep and dense, but here Newman uses the simplest of words - in man for Man - to describe the humiliation of God becoming human (Agony Number One) in order to save humans by his death (Agony Number Two).

Did you see what happened there? I took a long and complex sentence - Newman took four words totaling eleven letters. 

These agonies are the agonies of this day, and our good salvation.

(To see the whole series click on the hymnline tag)

Great (Hymn) One Liners 7. Ride On

The essence of great one liners is that they say an enormous amount in a tiny space.  On Palm Sunday approaches (as I write) this one line comes from an old Palm Sunday hymn, Ride on, ride on in majesty.

In lowly pomp ride on to die

If this seems like just an obvious line for Palm Sunday it might be worth pointing out

a) lowly pomp  This is all but a meaningless expression - pomp is exactly the opposite of lowly.  Yet lowly pomp is exactly what was on display as Christ rode the young donkey into the great city.  Incongruous, yet true; and incongruity is in the middle of the atmosphere of Easter.

b) ride on This phrase captures the partial nature of this journey.  He is riding, but he must ride on.  There is very little Gospel in Palm Sunday though at first glance it is almost the best news imaginable. The point of Jesus entry into the city was, in fact, to leave it.  

c) to die. He made evident to his disciples - who did not really listen - that he was up to Jerusalem in order to die.  A ride to the triumph of the cross.

Henry Milman, who wrote this hymn, was far from a great devotee of the Gospel - but he was a great writer and here, in 7 short word, he captured a lot that is essential about Easter week.