Friday, March 15, 2024  

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Today's Hymn
“My Song Is Love Unknown”

Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine:
never was love, dear King,
never was grief like thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

by Samuel Crossman
Hymn 209, Glory to God
verse 5

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Reflection

Neurologists have proven that music is stored in the brain in different areas from the ones that store speech. People who struggle with language — whether because of illness, grief, or other reasons — may express themselves easily with music. Here might I stay and sing, and you might understand me better ... or I might put a hymn’s words to something too deep to express otherwise.

Sometimes people ask me whether I like sad songs. I don’t. Yet I need them. I don’t like crying, so concentrating on being able to put the emotion into music helps me avoid that. When emotion is beyond words, music can still reach it, as hymns show more and more as we approach Holy Week and Easter.

Whether you’re singing music by yourself or in public as Easter approaches, think about the difference between singing and speech. For many people, there’s more effort in singing — and these holy stories are worth our better efforts, not just idle chatter. We are singing about, and for, our dear King. As this verse powerfully reminds us, our dear King is also our Friend.

My mind gets involved in the stories of Holy Week. But a different part of my brain is involved as I sing. The music breaks my heart and puts it back together, changed.

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Prayer
O God, you know what it is to suffer and to lose what you don’t want to lose. But I am with you. Let me stay and sing to you always, with love. Amen.

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Written by Margaret Laing, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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