Confessing the Commandments

While ministering in Geneva in the 1530’s, John Calvin became convinced that God meant for his people to sing their faith “through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” the way Paul said they should (which apparently they weren’t doing in Geneva at the time). In the late 30’s, Calvin was forced to live in Strasbourg for a few years, where churches under Martin Bucer’s leadership were singing loud and long.

In Strasbourg, Calvin recruited Clement Marot, one of the most gifted French poets of his day, and together they started writing songs to take back to Geneva. One of the things that especially touched Calvin was the way “liturgical” texts like the Creeds and the Commandments took on new life when they were sung rather than merely recited (or mumbled?).

One of the songs Calvin and Marot brought back to Geneva in 1539 was the arrangement of the 10 Commandments we sang yesterday morning (24 April 2005) at Orangewood Presbyterian Church. Its minor mode gives it a feeling of confession. In between verses, the congregation sings, “Kyrie eleison,” which is Greek for “Lord, have mercy.” That was the prayer to Jesus that began with blind Bartimaeus and the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed (Mark 10:47-48; Matthew 15:22).

It’s a prayer that rings true today, regardless of the language. We’re big sinners. We need a big Savior. We’re overcome by evil within us and all around us. We need a God whose mercy turned the worst of human rebellion to his glory at the cross. We need a God whose grace broke sin’s destructiveness in the resurrection of his Son. “Lord, have mercy.”