Singin' In The Rain

“When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  Mark 14:26

“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands,” says a favorite children’s tune which invites the singer to demonstrate glad emotion by also stomping feet, saying “Amen!” and doing all three in syncopated sequence.  If the circumstances of life are pleasant and positive, singing this song is easy, but when we’re facing trials and tribulations, a chippy melody doesn’t make much sense. There are songs for times like these.  “If you’re struggling and you know it, nod your head,” is a verse we could add to the former, and the list goes on.  As Elton John aptly intoned, “Sad songs they say so much.” Such is the wonder of music. No matter the emotion, words set to melodies give voice to our feelings.  And to our faith. 

The Israelites sang when God swept the Egyptians away in the Red Sea.  They sang when He provided water in the wilderness at the well of Beer. (I see you smiling!) Soon before his death, Moses serenaded the entire nation with a ballad about God’s faithfulness, justice, and vengeance.  Deborah and Barak crooned about God’s rescue from Canaanite oppression.  David lifted up a song of praise when God delivered him from all his enemies.  Zechariah belted out a “Spirited” tune when John the Baptist was finally born. Mary glorified the Lord with song when she grasped His grace in her overflowing heart and her ever-growing belly. And Jesus led His eleven apostles in a hymn as they ended the Last Supper and headed to Gethsemane.  “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives”(Mk 14:26).

In Greek, what we translate as “sung a hymn” is really only one word—humneo, which simply means “to hymn, sing praise, celebrate or worship with hymns.”  In other words, the verse really says, “When they had hymned, they went out to the Mount.”  

“To hymn” is more than mixing lyrics with melody; it is intentionally, deliberately, and emphatically declaring truth and praise about and toward the only One who is both worthy and wonderful. Jewish tradition ended the Passover meal with the songs of Psalm 115-118 whose verses are filled with poignant references to the very scene in which Jesus and His disciples stood. The ones who would desert and deny but then return with unyielding devotion and the One who would willingly lay down His life to make us alive opened their mouths and worshiped with the words, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name on the Lord”(Ps 116:13).  “Praise the Lord, all nations!  Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord!”(Ps 117:1-2). “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  Save us, we pray, O Lord.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”(Ps 118:14,22,25-26).

With the struggle of Gethsemane staring Jesus in the face and the shadow of the cross looming larger by the moment, Jesus sang—not because a tune made things better but because the truth made Him stronger.

When we’re facing the difficult, we can’t go wrong declaring Who’s right.

“Hymn” to Him.