Victory Songs

The Lord’s Supper is a victory meal celebrated before the victory has occurred, as if Melchizedek has come out to Abram with bread and wine before the battle with the kings instead of after (Genesis 14). Traditional hymnody and certainly the Psalms likewise strike a triumphant note that clashes with the evident fact that Jesus is not triumphant, and His kingship remains a contested kingship. We can sing only by faith.

Much modern hymnody, especially evangelical hymnody that has developed from the revivalist culture since the eighteenth century, replaces this note of triumph with a hope for escape from the present evil age. It is a very realistic hymnody, acknowledging as it does that we do not see all things subdued beneath His feet. But it is the hymnody of sight not faith. It is not a hymnody to shape a piety that can in turn shape a vigorous pursuit of Christian culture. For that, we need to sing, absurdly, victory songs long before victory appears.