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\n<\/em>and suffer with no cure in sight,
\n<\/em>come, Holy Presence, breathe your peace
\n<\/em>with gifts of warmth and healing light.<\/em><\/p>\n
These words by Ruth Duck are the opening stanza to \u201cWhen We Must Bear Persistent Pain,\u201d a hymn that will be included as one of two hundred hymns and songs in the forthcoming worship resource, All Creation Sings.<\/em> As this resource was developed the themes of \u201clament\u201d and \u201chealing\u201d were identified as topics needing additional assembly song. Such songs are needed in every time but now as we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, the need is ever more pressing.<\/p>\n Some of the hymns in All Creation Sings<\/em> that have been written more recently take on new meaning as we sing alone in our homes or via digital means. Adam Tice profoundly expresses the depth of our suffering at this moment in \u201cSometimes Our Only Song Is Weeping.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes our only song is weeping; our only sound is gasping breath. We know as people of God that such suffering has been encountered and sung about in the Psalms and in the hymns of every generation. Consider the sixteenth-century hymn \u201cIn the Midst of Earthly Life\u201d penned by Martin Luther and in a new translation by Susan Palo Cherwien.<\/p>\n In the midst of earthly life fear and death beset us; In every time and place God\u2019s people plead for mercy yet trust in the promise that God will never forsake us. Sometimes we address God in lengthy poems; sometimes we use short refrains that reassure. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, my love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear,\u201d sings a refrain by John Bell, echoing the biblical assurance to not be afraid. In Richard Smallwood\u2019s song \u201cTotal Praise,\u201d such praise arises not when all is seemingly well but \u201cin time of the storm \u2026 [God is the] source of my strength.\u201d<\/p>\n You may be deeply lamenting the loss of singing together in these days while still clinging to the promises expressed in the songs you\u2019ve treasured. When we do come back together, perhaps these new hymns and songs will join those you\u2019ve always known in expressing the sorrow of these days but also the hope in Christ that sustains us.<\/p>\n May these words by Shirley Erena Murray inspire such hope:<\/p>\n Let my spirit always sing, <\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Sometimes it seems that God is sleeping while our brief lives are bound in death.
\n<\/em>Who hears the song our sorrows swallow and offers hope to calm our fears?
\n<\/em>When all our words seem frail and hollow, God heeds the prayers within our tears.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>who attends and hears our cry, who does not forget us?
\n<\/em>You only, God, you only.
\n<\/em>In you our forebears put their trust, hoped in you and were not crushed.
\n<\/em>Holy and righteous God! Holy and mighty God!
\n<\/em>Holy and all merciful Savior! Everlasting God!
\n<\/em>Though death would torment us, let us not sink in the dust.
\n<\/em>Lord, have mercy.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>though my heart be wintering,
\n<\/em>though the season of despair
\n<\/em>give no sign that you are there,
\n<\/em>God to whom my days belong,
\n<\/em>let there always be a song. <\/em><\/p>\n