Glorious Things

Have you had the experience that you hear a song once or twice and it runs through your head for days, or weeks?

It is not a rare occurrence, yet I have never heard or read an explanation for it.

The hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” has been my constant companion for over a year. It doesn’t leave me alone.

Actually, I am not sure I want it to. The melody is beautiful and the words are loaded with poetry and Christian meaning. They were written by John Newton who also wrote “Amazing Grace.”

Perhaps it is the mental images the words evoke as much as anything that make this hymn unforgettable. Its poetic form is an apostrophe, the speaker addressing the city of Jerusalem as if it/she were a person.

The hymn begins, Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, City of our God.

Psalm 87 begins, On the holy mount stands the city [God] founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.

We might say that Newton took these words and ran with them, building more word pictures with strong rock as one of the central ideas.

Mount Zion was the place in Jerusalem on which the Temple was built in ancient times to be the chief place of worship and sacrifice of the Israelites.

The nation of ancient Israel was also called Jacob, the entire people called by the name of one important man.

The second line of the hymn says, On the Rock of ages founded, What can shake thy sure repose?

Throughout the psalms, being moved or shaken is a deeply dreaded condition. There’s the mental picture of a rock again.

The next line is my favorite. Newton says, With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou mayest smile at all thy foes.

In our time, in a world insane with love of violence, God’s protection means that there is no occasion for violence.

Just enjoy this thought: With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou mayest smile at all they foes.

No guns, no bombs, no weapons are needed. With God’s protection, you may simply smile at your foes because they can’t hurt you.

The second stanza recalls not only the immovable rocks which the Israelites encountered in the wilderness but compares the never-failing grace of God to that abundance—like water in a desert.

Newton says, “See the streams of living waters, Springing from eternal love, Well supply thy sons and daughters And all fear of want remove. Who can faint when such a river Ever flows their thirst to assuage: Grace which like the Lord, the Giver, never fails from age to age?

The third stanza again calls up pictures of the history of the wandering children of Israel after they escaped from Egypt. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night showed them the path through the wilderness.

Meanwhile, the manna appeared every morning to sustain the travelers in their long, long walk—40 years. We still use the expression, “manna in the wilderness,” to mean unexpected blessing.

‘Round each habitation hovering, See the cloud and fire appear For a glory and a covering, Showing that the Lord is near! Thus deriving from their banner Light by night and shade by day, Safe they feed upon the manna Which he gives them when they pray.

And Newton clearly wants us to know that that grace, protection, and sustenance are ours as much as it was theirs, because the love from God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

Thanks be to God.