Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence - as sung by Jack Marti

Here is a Christmas song I've known about since the early '80s. It's one you don't hear that often, but more lately. Up until last year I didn't know it had more than one verse, but ever since I heard the whole song, I've wanted to do it. So here is my rendition.

The original was composed in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn for the Offertory of the Divine Liturgy of St James in the fourth Century AD, with local Churches adopting arrangements in Syriac. In modern times, the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of a translation from the Greek by Gerard Moultrie to the tune of Picardy, a French medieval folk melody, popularized the hymn among Christian congregations that worship liturgically.

PICARDY is a French "noel," a carol tune thought to date back to the seventeenth century. The tune was first published in Chansons Populaires des Provences de France (vol. IV, Paris, 1860); the melody was written down as sung by a Madame Pierre Dupont in Champfleury-Wekerlin to Jesus Christ s'habille en pauvre, a folk song she remembered from her childhood in Picardy, an old province in northern France. PICARDY was first published with "Let All Mortal Flesh" in The English Hymnal (1906).

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood;
He gave Himself for us, a perfect sacrifice
as only our Creator could.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim, with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Christmas
• traditional
• song
• Let
• All
• Mortal
• Flesh
• Keep
• Silence
• guitar
• religious music
• worship
• fourth
• century

[buzzard027]

very nicely done

[guitmartiman]

@buzzard027 Thank you.

[guitmartiman]

No problem. I appreciate your concern. I don't change lyrics lightly. I gave this a lot of thought & prayerful consideration. I just couldn't sing it the way it was written, even though technically I could do so & not B wrong. The way it was worded just went over the line 4 me. I know people, not just Catholics, who teach transubstantiation, and they R emphatic about it. 2 take it 2 that extent really just destroys the significance of what Christ was saying & brings it down 2 a carnal level.

[MrJustinLegault]

@guitmartiman I understand. Thank you for explaining, & for your patience.

[guitmartiman]

@MrJustinLegault I understand that Jesus is more important to us than the food we eat, that He is, in fact, the Bread of life, metaphorically speaking. If we eat His flesh and drink His blood by abiding in Him and in His Word than we will live for ever with Him in the place that He has prepared for us. I just did not feel comfortable with that lyric in this song.

[MrJustinLegault]

@guitmartiman The words you used were fine, theologically and Biblically correct, and lovely in their own right. It's what you left out that troubles me, not what you put in. My hope is that even rejecting transubstantiation, you can accept the mystery of the body & the blood Christ proposes to his followers in John 6. He insisted on its acceptance, to the point that he would rather have his followers leave him than reject it. Take 10 minutes, and reread John 6, slowly.

[guitmartiman]

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed my arrangement.

[guitmartiman]

@MrJustinLegault The words I used were not biblically incorrect. I have no problem with the metaphor of Jesus as the Bread of life, but that's not the way the lyric put it. I also realize it wouldn't B unbiblical 2 use the lyric the way it was written, but since it wasn't exactly quoting the Bible, & I did not want 2 lend credence 2 the transubstantiation doctrine by singing it that way. I'm sorry. The lyric just doesn't sit well with me. There are other songs I will do where I use the metaphor.

[MrJustinLegault]

Dear Guitarmartiman,

You don't have to sing the words as a ref. to transubstantiation; you can sing them as a ref. to John 6 (read this chapter again!), which is their source. Even if you reject the Catholic interpretation of this text, as a follower of Christ you must accept his words, even if you do not know precisely how he wants us to take them. So sing them biblically, as a good disciple should.

Yours in Christ

Justin

[guitmartiman]

@mark0123210 Since I do not subscribe to the theory of Transubstantiation, I could not sing that lyric in good conscience, so I adapted the lyric accordingly, so that I could sing the song in Spirit and in Truth. If it offends you, I'm sorry, but you are obviously free to sing the song in whatever way reflects your understanding.