Lord Jesus Christ, invited guest and Saviour

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Lord Jesus Christ, invited guest and Saviour” by Michael Perry. It’s another wedding hymn, which as John has pointed out doesn’t really fit well with online morning prayer or a blog, but it’s in the book so we sing it anyway. 

Like most modern wedding hymns, the emphasis is on praying a blessing on the couple being married. Perhaps because families are often rather complex today, there is less emphasis than there once would have been on marriage as implying the conception and rearing of children, which is good news for those of us who have not been able to have them. Rather, the vision presented here of a Christian marriage is one of “caring and serving” (which may be for one’s own children as well as each other, or for others in a wider family or community), for a life of faithfulness and prayer, a continued commitment to follow Christ, and of knowing his peace.

The last of the three verses acknowledges that no marriage is free of problems. Rather we ask that Christ be “their delight in joy, their hope in sorrow, their true friend in pleasure as in pain”. At the end is the almost obligatory reference in any wedding hymn to the miracle of water becoming wine at the wedding in Cana (is it just a happy coincidence that the composer of the tune had the middle name Bacchus?)

One thought on “Lord Jesus Christ, invited guest and Saviour”

  1. I think Stephen has summarised these words very well. The hymn seems aimed at the intercessions slot in a wedding, and it is somehow a very matter-of-fact workaday kind of lyric, which I found a bit tedious. I also confess myself slightly annoyed by the trite “turn humble water into wine again” finish of the hymn – the “almost obligatory reference” as Stephen says.

    What did interest me was the harmonic variation in the tune “Strength and Stay” as compared with the version in A&MR 17: the chromaticism of the parts in the first half of line 2 and the mid point of line 4. I can only suppose that this is the original version Dykes wrote, and A&MR 17 toned down the music-hall effect in favour of something more straight-laced. Dykes (and Stainer following him) pioneered the incorporation of more adventurous harmonies in hymn tunes, and it seems this is an example. Most interesting.

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