O Sing, My Soul: A Trinitarian Hymn Reflection
Words and music by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa
Matt Boswell is a native Texan, and has been leading worship and has been involved in church planting since 1995. He presently serves as the pastor of ministries and worship at Providence Church in Frisco, Texas. He graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and his passion is to see the congregation engaged in gospel-centered ministry. He writes songs for congregational worship, and he is involved with Lifeway Worship and is a driving force behind Doxology & Theology, a biennial conference that focuses on equipping and encouraging worship leaders for gospel-centered corporate worship. The next national conference will be held on November 2018 at the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Matt Papa is an independent artist, worship leader, author, and song writer. Matt’s goal is to help people see the beauty and glory of Jesus. He has worked all over the world along with David Platt, Rick Warren, John Piper, David Nasser, Tim Keller, and many more. He is actively involved in songwriting and worship conferences mentoring other worship leaders. For him, hymns take longer time to compose than simple songs because they need “…some life experience, some liturgy, and a lot of theology.”
These two songwriters have co-written many songs, including “His Mercy is More,” and “Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery.” This song is included in Matt Boswell’s recording album “Messenger Hymns: Matt Boswell Volume 1,” and it appears on Hymns of Grace, published by John Arthur’s Master Seminary Press.
Analysis
1. O sing, my soul, the ancient song, and lend your highest praise
To Him who is the King of old and dwells in endless days.
How resplendent His glory! How majestic His name!
Now to the uncreated One, oh, let the anthem raise.
The first stanza invites the soul to join the praises of the King of old (Daniel 7- Ancient of days), the majestic One, the Uncreated One (Revelation 1:8- Alpha and Omega; Beginning and end). Here, the writers beautifully depict the nature of the glorified God, who has no beginning and no end, to whom all creation must render praise and adoration.
2. O worship Him, our Father God, the Spirit, and the Word,
Who fashioned all things from His joy and saw that it was good.
What perfection of friendship, what communion we shared!
But choosing death, we fell from life aside the guilty pair.
The second stanza invites the soul to worship the triune God - Father God, the Spirit and the Word. The stanza goes on to declare the united work of the three persons in fashioning the creation, referring to the creation story in Genesis 1, calling the Triunity, a perfect friendship, with whom we shared the union. The stanza concludes with the fall of the guilty pair, Adam and Eve, stating that even aside from them, we, too, have sinned, reminding of Paul’s statement in Romans 5:12.
3. Now hear, my soul, the gospel song, attend the joyful news,
For Christ has come, the perfect Son, His Father’s will to choose.
In our place He did suffer, in our place became sin.
The death of death, the death of Christ Who stands alive again!
The third stanza, following the fall away from the union with the Triune God, brings the gospel message. This stanza focuses on the work of Christ, the perfect Son, who, in obedience to the Father’s will, died in our place, suffering death, and rose again. This stanza can be clearly seen as a reflection of Philippians 2:5–11.
4. Now, people of the risen Lord, O hear the call to go.
Into the world we have been sent as messengers of hope.
Christ alone be our treasure, Christ alone our reward.
Come, bid the nations sing with us the praises of the Lord.
The fourth stanza is a mission call to the people of God to go into the world as “messengers of hope.” This stanza is a reminder of the great commission in Matthew 28:18–20, to go to the nations. Christ, being our reward, is mentioned by Paul in Colossians 3:23–24, “work… as working for the Lord, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
The invitational word, “come” on the last line of this verse appears to be directed to Christ, who was talked about in the previous line, however, the ambiguity comes with the invitation to make the nations sing praises of the Lord. It is not uncommon to use the word “come” in reference to God, as seen in the first line of “Come, Thou Almighty King,” which says, “… help us THY [Your] name to sing, help us to praise.” So, the ambiguity arrives with the continuing phrase which says “the praises of the Lord.” If the word is addressed to Christ, who is mentioned in the previous line, or the Triune God, then the line must specify “your praises,” instead of “the praises of the Lord.” Since this hymn is considered to be a Trinitarian hymn, it should be more appropriate to consider this invitation as a call to the Holy Spirit “to bid the nations to join the praises of the Lord,” since it is the Holy Spirit who works within the hearts of men and women convicting one of sin (John 16:7–9,13–15), bearing witness about Jesus Christ (John 15:26), and sanctifies (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14). The gospel message can never be complete without the work of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
This modern hymn is a well written hymn, with deep theological content, with a simple singable tune. The interest and focus of the writers, which is gospel-centric, is clearly visible in this hymn. A Trinitarian hymn does not necessarily have a balance amount of reference to three persons, so, it is reasonable that Christ is the central subject of this gospel-centered hymn, but is seen in the light of the Economic Trinity.
In this hymn, we see the reference of “soul,” which we often see in Psalms (e.g.: Psalms 103), which is a reference to the human essence or our core being. We see reference of God as one being in the first stanza, and the three persons in the second stanza. The third and fourth stanzas reveal the gospel message but make references only to God the Father and God the Son, limiting the role of the Holy Spirit, unless the final line of the hymn is interpreted as an address to the Holy Spirit.
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