Archive for January 18th, 2008

Serve the Lord With Gladness!

January 18th, 2008 -- Posted in Believe, Grace, Sing, Speak | 1 Comment »

Thanks to my hubby’s generous Christmas gift of an mp3 player, I’m obsessed with podcasts. And thanks to TulipGirl, I’ve found a new source for downloads. In this first (for me!) podcast, a little factoid popped up that can be a compelling retort to some who say I’m a little too optimistic about the Christian life. ;)

You know Old Hundreth, right? The first stanza looks like this:

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell;
Come ye before Him and rejoice.

It’s based on Psalm 100, of course. But notice the stark change between William Kethe’s words and David’s:

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness!
   Come into his presence with singing!

Uh. . . . Those two don’t match. Why? Why did Kethe change it? We serve with gladness – mirth, joy! The Vulgate chose lætítia. Luther uses Freuden. And Calvin is practically giddy!

Shout joyfully to praise the Lord,
all you who dwell upon the earth.
Worship the Lord with happy heart;
before him come with songs of joy.

So I think the better, more historically astute question is, why did we all get so crabby? Optimism about the Gospel is a good thing and, I would argue, a Biblical thing. What happened?