Hymns can mean anything

Hymns can mean anything ... or can they?

“I tend to tell people that whatever meaning or relevance they take from that is up to them.” unnamed Facebook commenter, cited in Sacred Harp Singing in Europe: Its Pathways, Spaces, and Meanings, Ellen Leuck, p. 226[i]

“Flexible interpretations of texts permit singers with diverse beliefs and experience to relate to Sacred Harp in personally meaningful ways…” Traveling Home: Sacred Harp Singing and American Pluralism, Kiri Miller, page 132

Regarding the texts and scriptural bases for the songs in the Sacred Harp tune books, it is important to understand that they have a context and underlying meaning. They cannot just mean whatever someone wants them to mean. Now, I understand that different texts may touch different folks in different ways, make us think different things, or make us feel different things. However, we must also understand that what we think and feel about a text is not part of the text itself, and does not become the standard for the meaning of the text. First and foremost (except for a few patriotic songs, e.g. “Behold, the smiling happy land,” “My country, ’tis of thee”) the texts are Christian texts.[ii] Therefore, the songs have a Christian worldview and meaning. That fact does not mean the texts cannot touch someone who is not Christian. That fact DOES mean that Christian hymns cannot be removed from their context and mean just anything and everything to everybody. That folks think they can have their own meaning and eat it to is a sad commentary on an age that does not understand or believe objective truth. May God help Christian singers not acquiesce to this falsehood. The Christian texts have Christian meaning.

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

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[i] A couple more quotes from Sacred Harp Singing in Europe: Its Pathways, Spaces, and Meanings: “…Sacred Harp singers in Europe who identify as generally non-religious…find other ways of internalizing the meaning of the texts outside of the realm of religious worship” (p. 220). “…the religious words in The Sacred Harp do have meaning for secular participants, though not a literal meaning. They have meaning within the context of the music, and they perhaps facilitate tapping into feelings of emotional and spiritual depth that secular lyrics can do less easily. Furthermore, it is understood by the community-at-large that the meaning of the texts is interpreted by participants privately” (pp. 222-223).
[ii] The Christians who included the patriotic songs doubtless understood them to fit within their Christian worldview.