Fr. Dwight Longenecker
8. Good hymns are good music and good music is transcendent – Worship takes us before the throne of God, and music is the language beyond words that takes us into the transcendent realm. The oboe and organ arrangement of the ancient hymn Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence makes my point. The hymn is a reference to Habakkuk 2:20 – “Let the whole earth keep silence before him” and it was first composed in Greek for the Liturgy of St James in the fourth century. The eminent English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams set it to the tune Picardy.
The awesome mysticism of this tune and these words lift us beyond the ordinary strains and stresses of life and remind us that we are in the presence of the angels in the court of heaven. This hymn is sometimes used as a Christmas carol because of the beauty of the incarnational language. Once again this hymn, when sung by the congregation can weave powerful Christian theology into a deep personal mysticism and take the soul to the throne of God, the manger of Bethlehem and the contemplation of the Divine Mystery as nothing else can.
Here are the words:
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
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