Hymns: Glorious Day

In this series, I explore some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. And I try to be positive, though I generally seem to end up damning them with faint praise. But I am gradually growing to like them more and more.

Today’s hymn has a wonderful title: Glorious Day. It’s from 2009.

When I became a Christian, I pulled back a bit from “worldly” music for a couple of years. I didn’t see much harm in it, but I was very keen to change direction. Even if I hadn’t become a Christian, once I went into my twenties, I probably wouldn’t have been as fanatical about rock music as I’d been as a teen.

And when I look at modern Christian music (like this video) it doesn’t feel all that different from a U2 concert. In my Christian circles, we always found pop/rock Christian music a little embarrassing. It just sounded odd to use that genre to sing about spiritual matters. I liked the old hymns and the newer choruses, even though I was still happy to listen to secular rock music. But now I’m trying to develop a taste for all kinds of Christian music. Perhaps, the way I saw Christian rock in the past was a little bit like the way I saw the Eurovision Song Contest. Really talented artists rarely entered the Eurovision, although you did get some exceptions. So, when you watched Eurovision, you tended to just laugh at the artists. And I tended to do the same thing with Christian music 😀. But I don’t see why we should do that now. Back in the 1950s, rock’n’roll and soul music emerged out of gospel. And I’m beginning to think that the Christian rock music that I now hear is on a par with the secular rock music that I hear. It’s true that no amazing artists have emerged, at least not in my view. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

I remember someone asking Paul McCartney how he felt about all the hysteria generated at Beatles concerts. He made the point that if people are so enthusiastic about football, why shouldn’t they be enthusiastic about pop music. And I would go further and ask why shouldn’t people be enthusiastic about their faith. When John Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular than Christ, he wasn’t boasting about the Beatles. He was making the point that he saw no enthusiasm for Christianity among young people. And that was my experience in Ireland back in the 1970s. You’d see old ladies praying to Holy Mary statues, but you’d rarely mention God among your friends, and if you showed any enthusiasm, you were seen as some kind of a religious maniac. There was the charismatic movement, but I didn’t know what to make of that. It wasn’t until I started attending evangelical churches that I felt surrounded by people who loved Jesus. And I like how that’s reflected in the Glorious Day video. It feels like my two worlds (rock music and church) meeting. It’s true that I still probably prefer old style church services, but I think that there is a place for Christian rock music too.

Anyway, let me focus on this particular song’s lyrics. You can view them in the video or on the azlyrics.com site. The song is simply a celebration of coming to Christ. It’s a little bit of heaven on earth. But we can’t deny that we have dark days too as Christians. But we look to the future, when we’ll be in glory forever. All the old hymns spring to mind when I sing these modern songs. Today’s hymn reminds me of some other testimony songs.

1 Peter 1:8–9
“Though you have not seen him, you love him… you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”