I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.
Today’s song is Let all the World in Every Corner Sing from 1633.
Refrain:
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing,
My God and King.
1. The heav'ns are not too high,
His praise may thither fly;
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow. [Refrain]
2. The Church with psalms must shout;
No door can keep them out;
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part. [Refrain]
I love this one, though I don’t remembering singing it much. But I do remember hearing it on various hymn shows. Three things that surprise me is how old it is, how short it is, and how it speaks of “corners” of the world.
Spheres don’t really have corners do they? I do remember a song by Marie Osmond – “My Little Corner of the World”, a cover of a 1960 song that she released in 1974. The term “corner” is probably used because corners are small spaces, out of the main flow, that might be unnoticed.
I suppose it’s a synonym for “part”. And the hymn delights in the fact that people praise God from every part of the world. And heaven will be populated by people of every tribe tongue and nation:
Revelation 7:9-10
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Christianity was never meant to be a national or regional religion. It did begin in Israel, but rapidly spread to the surrounding nations. Much of early church history is set in North Africa, Turkey, Syria and regions to the East. And over the centuries, it spread around the globe. In evangelical church history, because England was central to the modern missionary movement, you can get the impression that it’s spreading from there. But nowadays, things are very different. Over the centuries, the sphere of influence has shifted to different regions, but the important thing is that people in all nations have the opportunity to hear about Jesus.
I enjoy finding hymns sung around the world. I generally search for English hymns, but even these can yield surprising results. I find many more hymn videos in India than in Ireland, but then again, India has a much larger population.
The lyrics take a little thought, but I like them. The heav’ns are not too high, His praise may thither fly. That’s not the sort of English that we speak today – but it’s basically reminding us that God hears us. God is everywhere. He is only a prayer away. When Jesus asked us to pray “Our Father who art in heaven”, I don’t think that He was presenting heaven as geographically distant, though perhaps its so far from our experience that it feels distant. And when Jesus ascended, he acted out the notion of being physically distant because he physically departed from the earth. He went upwards.
What is meant by “The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.” Well that’s another reminder of our sin and how far it keeps us from God. But there is scope to be reconciled with God and to praise Him and to grow in holiness. And verse two reminds us to shout His praise. And it all relates to what goes on in our hearts.
Anyway, here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
Hibernia Gospel 