05-4 Theology of the..

REFLECTIONS ON LUTHERAN WORSHIP, CLASSICS, AND THE TE DEUM 43
32. Luthers version, with its division of the Te Deum into five parts
consisting of twenty-five lines, also has Christ at the center. The verse on
the Incarnation is exactly in the middle of the hymn with twelve complete
verses following it and preceding it. An outline follows:
Stanza a: 5 verses=angelic song of praise, culminating in the triple
Sanctus.
Stanza b: 6 verses=praise of Trinity by apostles, prophets, martyrs, and
all Christians.
Stanza c: 5 verses=confession of faith in Christ. (The verse on the
Incarnation forms the center, preceded and followed by
twelve complete verses.)
Stanza d: 4 verses=prayer for salvation.
Stanza e: 5 verses (same melody as first)=petitions for Christian life.
For further details, see the discussion in AE 53: 171–173.
33. For these and other examples, see Michael Horton, Are Your
Hymns Too Spiritual Modern Reformation, July–August 1995, 27–29.
34. Of course, worship has a primary purpose that goes far beyond
the didactic. God distributes his gifts to us and we respond to his grace by
thanking and praising him publicly for his goodness. This activity must
be done for its own sake. If our worship converts the ungodly, instructs
the novice, and edifies the faithful, well and good. But these are by-products,
not the ultimate end, of worship.
35. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith (New York:
Doubleday, 1959), 48.
36. If it seems strange, as it did to Burn (cxxiii), that the first verse of
the hymn should be regarded as addressed to the Son, when verse 2
includes the words aeternum Patrem, one need only point to the
description of the Prince of Peace as the “Everlasting Father” in Isaiah
9:6, which was regularly applied to Christ in early Christian exegesis.
Such a reading would, of course, dilute somewhat the Trinitarian quality
of the Te Deum. On the question of the addressee see also J. Jungmann,
“Quos pretioso sanguine redemisti,” Zeitschrift fr Katholische Theologie
61 (1937): 105–107.
37. In the earliest manuscripts in which the Te Deum is to be found,
there is little unanimity as to how the composition should conclude after
the verse Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Most of the following
lines are taken from the Psalms and were probably not part of the
earliest version of the Te Deum. It is clear, however, that these additional
verses were appended fairly early on (they are in the Bangor Antiophonary
of the seventh century) and that they have been regularly sung
by the church through the ages as an integral part of the Te Deum. These
beautiful, appropriate, and scriptural lines have unfortunately been
eliminated in the versions of the Te Deum to be found in current
Lutheran hymnals. One suspects that the motives behind this abbreviation
of the Te Deum were not exclusively the desire to return this hymn
to its pristine form. Congregations used to worship services that last less
than forty-five minutes are unlikely to possess the patience to sing a
composition of this length.
38. Luthers deep regard for music (next to the word of God, music
deserves the highest praise) is evident in the high quality of his own compositions.
For one of his best-known discussions of music, see his preface
to Georg Rhaus Symphoniae Iucundae (AE 53: 321–324).