Hymn Reflection: This Holy Covenant Was Made
Words: Sylvia Dunstan (1955–1993)
Music: LASST UNS ERFREUEN 8.8.4.4.8.8 with alleluias
Published: 1991 by GIA
Hymnals: Lift Up Your Hearts (no. 847) and Sing! A New Creation (no. 173)
The Author
Sylvia G. Dunstan (1955–1993) was an ordained clergywoman by the Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada. She received her education at York University and Emmanuel College, Toronto. With her very brief life, she served as minister in two pastoral charges: the first as Prison Chaplain in Ontario for ten years and later as editor of a Canadian worship resource journal, Gathering.
Dunstan started writing Christian songs in her early twentys and later she was encouraged and taught to compose hymn texts based on Scripture. According to Hymnary.org, she produced almost forty hymn texts with a variety of theological and biblical subjects. Many of her hymns appeared in the United Church hymnbook Voices United and other non-denominational hymnals such as Lift Up Your Hearts.
Besides her lyric output, she also wrote and published prayers, litanies, and benedictions. “Her writing reflects her commitment to reform tradition and encourage mission, justice, inclusion, and compassion.” [1] According to C. Michael Hawn, Dunstan “became one of the leading hymn writers in North America … [and] her hymn texts appear increasingly in hymnals in the United States.” [2]
Dunstan realized that the structure of classic hymns with meter and rhyme “empowered” congregational singing. “I came to believe,” she said, “that ‘meaningful thoughts’ in sloppy form are an impediment to the people’s prayer, causing an undue focus on the work itself, rather than pointing to the worship of God.” (C. Michael Hawn, “History of Hymns: ‘All Who Hunger,’” The UMC Discipleship Ministries.)
The Hymn
Regarding Trinitarian hymns, Dunstan composed three (out of her roughly forty) hymn texts that explicitly and systematically “narrate” the triadic activities in a chronological manner. Unlike some of the Trinitarian hymns that view the Trinity from a theological or didactical perspective, Dunstan’s “This Holy Covenant Was Made,” “Crashing Waters at Creation,” and “I Believe in God Almighty” use a rather historical and economical perspective to portray the works of the Trinity. As a baptismal hymn, “Crashing Waters at Creation” uses water as a means to connect distinct roles each Person plays in the Creation, Exodic deliverance, and Jordan baptism.
Crashing Waters at Creation
Stanza 1. “Crashing waters at creation, ordered by the Spirit’s breath …”
Stanza 2. “Parting water stood and trembled as the captives passed on through …”
Stanza 3. “Cleansing water once at Jordan closed around the one foretold …”
Stanza 4. “Living water, never ending, quench the thirst and flood the soul …”
In “This Holy Covenant Was Made,” Dunstan converges to a focus of the redemptive act of the Trinity. As with other Trinitarian hymns, the author uses specific nature of each Person to make implications to salvific realities. Instead of using a fourth stanza as an expression of the Trinitarian doxology, Dunstan borrows the four-fold alleluia ending from the original “All Creatures of Our God and King” (which itself is a Trinitarian hymn) as its own doxological praise of each stanza.
An Analysis
This holy covenant was made:
God, our Deliverance was obeyed.
Seas were parted;
Freedom started.
By cloud and fire we were led.
By quail and manna we were fed.
Alleluia.
This holy covenant was new
At table with Christ’s gathered few.
Blessing spoken;
Body broken.
By lifted cup our God forgives,
By Jesus’ grace alone we live.
Alleluia.
This holy covenant of flame
Sears in our hearts the saving name.
Spirit’s fire,
Our desire.
By wind and tongue the church is sealed.
By might and power here revealed.
Alleluia.
The first stanza portrays God — the Father — as the Deliverer of the elect from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, the Leader in the wilderness, and the Provider of physical needs. This is a clear reference to Exodus 14 and 16. The second stanza concisely narrates the Last Supper: Jesus gathered, ate, and fellowshipped with the disciples which is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 26:26–28. Unlike the wilderness experience, this meal of bread and cup at the table not only satisfyied physical security and appetite — here Christ came as the eternal Protector, Deliverer, and Provider from the bondage of sin and the judgment of hell.
The third stanza recounts the sending of the Holy Spirit recorded in Acts 2. In this stanza, Dunstan not only makes a natural connection of “wind and tongue” and “might and power” to the Holy Spirit as described in the narrative, she also relates the third Person of the Trinity with fire and flame. As John the Baptist declared regarding the administration of Jesus’s Baptism, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he [Jesus] who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11, ESV). Even in the heavenly vision of the Apostle John, he saw the spirits of God manifested as “burning torches of fire” (Revelation 4:5, ESV).
As mentioned earlier, “This Holy Covenant Was Made” uses a rather historical approach to remind singers the distinct role that each Person of the Trinity played in the redemptive history. We learn from this hymn that
(1) God the Father as the Deliverer in the Exodus account is noticeable;
(2) Christ, the Son of God as the Son of Man to break bread signifying His broken body in order to offer the grace of forgiveness;
(3) the Holy Spirit of flame and fire to sear, to seal, and to reveal.
Although there is not a fourth stanza or an explicit description of the unity of one Godhead is operating, the bracket of a unified beginning phrase (“This holy covenant”) and ending alleluias resounding in each stanza embodies an undivided manifestation of this Author of the holy covenant.
An Evaluation
In spite of rich and formal music training and began writing songs at her early age, Dunstan soon realized that her gift was not so much on her music composition but her powerful and felicitous lyrics. Instead of fitting the text in a new tune, she chooses another familiar Trinitarian hymn tune LASST UNS ERFREUEN. Since the hymn tune possesses a rather unique meter scheme, I assume she might have the tune chosen prior to her lyric creation.
There are several intriguing highlights in the hymn text I would like point out. In the first stanza, the author chooses to use the first person plural “we” as an inclusion of the New Testament believers who are also be led by the cloud and fire, and fed by quail and manna. Although “we” as believers of the New Testament have received a new dispensation of the Messianic deliverance, Dunstan is not shy to connect both God’s elected and Christ’s redeemed as beneficiaries of the Triune deliverance. Meanwhile, the author seems to connect the “meal” during the Exodus with the “meal” of the Table. Instead of multiple meals provided for physical bodies, the latter meal represents the spiritual realm of forgiveness.
The Paradoxical Imageries
At one point, Dunstan was influenced and inspired by the paradoxical theology of Søren Kierkegaard to compose her “Christus Paradox” (or “You, Lord, are both Lamb and Shepherd”). In the hymn, she raises number of paradoxical pairs such as prince and slave, peace-maker and sword-bringer, earthly Jesus and cosmic Christ, and defect and victory. In “This Holy Covenant Was Made,” pairs of theology paradox are also found:
Stanza 1: obedience so that we/they were saved yet the true freedom started
Stanza 2: Christ’s body is broken in order to make His body unified (“gathered”)
Stanza 3: The Holy Spirit who sealed the church yet the same Spirit, by His might and power, revealed
“The Reverend Dunstan’s deft poetic lines forced me think in new and challenging ways about the meaning of the One who came to Bethlehem. For me, her hymn was like a puzzle or a riddle, which forced me to give my imagination a strenuous workout.” [3]
As I read, sang, and looked into this hymn, both Dunstan’s proficient and concise word choices, and paradoxical treatments in her story-retelling arouse boundless imageries that propel spiritual contemplation. I would recommend this great Trinitarian text to be sung more frequently as a complementary alternative to the familiar “All Creatures of Our God and King.”
[1] Trothen, Tracy J, “Sylvia G. Dunstan,” in The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History, edited by Susan Hill Lindley and Eleanor Stebner, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,66.
[2] Hawn, C. Michael, “History of Hymns: ‘All Who Hunger,’” The UMC Discipleship Ministries. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-all-who-hunger
[3] Evertsberg, William, “Christus Paradox.” Kenilworth Union Church Church Stories, 2017. https://www.kuc.org/christus-paradox/
