Loud Songs

“Let us joyful be,

and sing to God right thankfully

loud songs of Alleluia”

— from verse 1 of Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bonds

Crank it up!

We’ve been too mournful, too self-serving and too timid.

When he wrote this next Easter hymn in our series in 1524, Martin Luther piled on heavy theology.

When he translated it into English in  1854, Richard Massie left it intact.

This song includes substitutionary atonement and invitational, sacramental evangelism in its four verses.

But it’s the phrase at the end of verse 1 that I’d like you and me to take with us today.

We’re admonished to be joyful, to sing thankfully and to let our songs be loud.  

We’ve been too mournful, too self-serving and too timid.

Martin Luther tells us to crank it up!