Dissecting A Thousand Tongues
In a recent blog post I discussed the difference between personal-story worship songs and cosmic-story worship songs. I made the qualification that personal-story songs focus mainly on how God interacts with the author’s story, whereas cosmic-story songs show how the author has been swept up in God’s saving activity, having a share in salvation history. This begs the question, which is more fitting for the content of Christian worship? The cosmic gives perspective and identity to the personal, but this does not mean the personal is invalid. I believe that Christian worship songs are at their best when they somehow strike a balance between the personal and the cosmic.
Charles Wesley is one of the best examples of a Christian songwriter who often captured both the personal-story and cosmic-story within a single song. He was able to depict the narrative of salvation in a deeply intimate way. Lyrical expression was more than a cathartic experience for Charles Wesley’s soul. Instead, Charles felt deeply the importance of communicating the theme of God’s universal invitation to salvation. Yet, his lyrics were often testimonial as well.
One of Charles’ most famous hymns, commonly known as “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” was composed as a reflection on his own faith journey. The original hymn contained eighteen verses and was written by Charles on the first anniversary of his conversion (three days prior to his brother John’s own heart-warming experience). He appropriately entitled the hymn, “For the Anniversary of One’s Conversion.” (John Wesley later pared it down to eight stanzas for use in the Methodist hymnal, beginning with the line “O for a thousand tongues…,” which is why we know it by that title today.)
Though many of Charles Wesley’s lyrical works would be a fitting example of the unity of the personal with the cosmic, in this post I will examine the full eighteen verses of “O for a Thousand to Sing.” By looking at this well-known text, I believe we will see how worship can speak to deeply intimate realities while enrapturing an individual to the grand narrative of God.
Part One: Cosmic Doxology
Though our personal stories may have a place in worship, worship is directed to God and given for God’s glory alone. In other words, our testimonies are put in their proper perspective through doxology. The first words of Saint Augustine of Hippo’s spiritual autobiography give evidence to this: “Great are you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised!” Likewise, Charles situates his hymn with a doxology, beginning with praise and glory given to God:
1. Glory to God and praise and love
Be ever, ever given
By saints below, and saints above
The Church in earth and heaven.
Worship draws us into doxology. In our meeting with God, our primary response should always be similar to that of Isaiah 6, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Doxology is the overflow of praise for who God is and what God has done. Only in this light will any following testimony be put in proper perspective.
Part Two: Personal Testimony
In stanzas two through seven, Charles Wesley turns more personal. He begins to give his testimonial account, offering a description of his own experience of salvation:
2. On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose
On my benightened soul he shone
And filled it with repose
3. Sudden expired the legal strife
‘Twas then I ceased to grieve
My second, real, living life
I then began to live
4. Then with my heart I first believed
Believed with faith divine
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Saviour mine
5. I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied
Me, me he loved, the Son of God
For me, for me he died!
6. I found and owned his promise true,
Ascertained my part
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart
7. O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise!
The glories of my God and King
The triumphs of his grace
In this section of the song, the author (Charles Wesley) is the primary subject. This is about his experiences, his emotions, and his transformation. The language is deeply personal: “Me, me he loved, the Son of God/ For me, for me he died!” Even the singer/reader can feel a personal connection to the words. Yet, even though the lyrics tend toward an individual focus, Charles keeps the cosmic narrative in view. In part, his Trinitarian language (thereby acknowledging the Trinity’s work in his conversion) accomplishes this in lines such as, “Power with the Holy Ghost received/ To call the Saviour mine.” Additionally, Charles comes back to the doxological purpose of worship in the seventh stanza, “O for a thousand tongues to sing/ My great Redeemer’s praise!/ The glory of my God and King/ The triumphs of his grace.”
Part Three: Cosmic Proclamation
As stanza seven bring the song back to a doxological proclamation similar to how the hymn first began, it also sets up a lyrical shift in the song. In stanza seven, Charles makes the personal request for “a thousand tongues” to declare his praise to God, acknowledging his glories and triumphs. In stanza eight, Charles uses the tongue (or pen) God has given him to make such cosmic proclamation (and perhaps, through our joining him in the hymn, he is granted the thousand tongues he desired):
8. My gracious Master and my God
Assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name
9. Jesus, the name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears
‘Tis life and health and peace
10. He breaks the power of cancelled sin
He sets the prisoner free
His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood availed for me
11. He speaks, and listening to his voice
New life the dead receive
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice
The humble poor believe
Stanzas eight through eleven are a sermon of the gospel message of Jesus Christ, reflecting the universal call to salvation so important in the Wesleys’ preaching. Charles shows in these lines that with the experience of conversion comes proclamation of the gospel. Furthermore, though the call for salvation is universal, Wesley gets specific. In stanzas ten and eleven he shows that Christ comes to bring salvation to specific experiences of those to whom the proclamation is addressed: sinners are freed from the power of sin; prisoners are set free; the dead are given life; the sorrowful are given joy.
Part Four: Personal Responsibility
In the final seven stanzas of the hymn, Charles once again gets personal, but in a much different way than in his testimony earlier in the song. Charles now commands in boldness for others to make the Gospel story personal in their own lives, to find themselves caught up in the cosmic narrative of God’s salvation, to accept the triumphs of Christ, and to join his doxology:
12. Hear him ye deaf, his praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ
Ye blind behold your Saviour come
And leap ye lame for joy
13. Look unto him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race!
Look, and be saved through faith alone
And justified by grace
14. See all your sins on Jesus laid
The Lamb of God was slain
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man
15. Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine
16. Murderers and all ye hellish crew
Ye sons of lust and pride
Believe the Saviour died for you
For me the Saviour died
17. Awake from guilty nature’s sleep
And Christ shall give you light
Cast all your sins into the deep
And wash with Ethiop white
18. With me your chief you then shall know
Shall feel your sins forgiven
Anticipate your heaven below
And own that love is heaven
Conclusion
The structure of Charles Wesley’s hymn moves from glory to testimony to proclamation and finally to exhortation. Throughout, the song demonstrates that worship is not to be primarily concerned with our own pious introspection but instead leads us to a cosmic acknowledgement and proclamation of God’s glorious work and character. Furthermore, worship brings us to share the good news of the Gospel through our doxological praise. Though many of us may not feel as gifted as Charles Wesley, we do have a story to tell. Through this hymn, Charles Wesley brilliantly shows us how every testimony presents a remarkable opportunity to give praise to God, tell the story of salvation, proclaim the Gospel message, and encourage others to take claim of it in their life. May God assist our tongues to make such proclamation.
