Good Friday Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Some Great Suggestions

I recently asked my Twitter and Facebook peeps for a list of their favorite Good Friday songs.  I received several responses from each group (more recommendations from Twitter, but more frivolity on Facebook).  Here are the songs with multiple votes.  Good choices, all:

1. O Sacred Head Now Wounded (Bernard of Clairvaux).  Here is an interesting version of the standard music for this hymn (harmonized by J.S. Bach).  In this version, David Summerford plays “O Sacred Head” on the bowed and mountain dulcimers.  Hey, I’m typing this blog post in Kentucky — might as well have some dulcimers:

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? the anonymously-authored African American spiritual that has been covered by artists as diverse as Johnny Cash and Mahalia Jackson.  This simple-yet-complex song takes us from the crucifixion to the burial and resurrection.  And the question it asks must be answered with “Yes.”  We were all “there,” when “they crucified my Lord,” because it was our sins that put Him on the cross.  But, by faith, we are also buried to our sins and raised to new life.

Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed (Isaac Watts) We’ve got our own adaptation of this one, written by Alex O’Nan and Brooks Ritter.  You’ll be able to hear it on our upcoming record Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One. Alex and Brooks made this reflective section into a chorus, which plays off of the story told in the verses:

My thoughts fixed on His sacrifice

The cross that draws me near

Dissolves my heart in thankfulness

And melts my eyes to tears

Depth of Mercy (Charles Wesley) Caedmon’s Call adapted this great hymn of the faith into a song called “Only Hope” for their Back Home album.  You can hear this version at Last FM.  Check out just a couple of Wesley’s amazing, heart-wrenching verses:

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I have spilt His precious blood,
Trampled on the Son of God,
Filled with pangs unspeakable,
I, who yet am not in hell!

and having sung these things, it makes the mystery of grace all the more unfathomable:

Whence to me this waste of love?
Ask my Advocate above!
See the cause in Jesus’ face,
Now before the throne of grace.

There for me the Savior stands,
Shows His wounds and spreads His hands.
God is love! I know, I feel;
Jesus weeps and loves me still.

The Wonderful Cross (Isaac Watts) Many contemporary worship leaders sing this one, and you can find it on lots of recordings.  Typically they do it with Chris Tomlin’s chorus.  I’ve read that some folks find his addition to be poetically impoverished, compared to the original verses.  Actually I disagree.

It’s a good idea to make a chorus less complex than the verses.  You need to give people time to process the heavier stuff, and cement the teachings of the verses with a simple doxology.  In fact, the apostle Paul did this in his epistles — line upon line of deep truths, until he got so ecstatic about them that he could not contain himself.  I think this is what Tomlin might have experienced as he read and sang Watts’ lyrics, before breaking into:

Oh the wonderful cross!  Oh the wonderful cross!

Bids me come and die, to find that I may truly live.

Oh the wonderful cross!  Oh the wonderful cross!

All who gather here by faith draw near and bless Your name.

And then we’ll end with the lovely and gracious Sarah Cosper, wife of Sojourn Worship & Arts Pastor Mike Cosper, who offered this gem on Facebook:

“I can sing you Sandi Patti’s “Via Dolorosa”. I even have the backup tape if you want.  I can sing it with Patti or by myself, you choose.  I don’t know why Mike has never had me do this for a Sojourn service.  Oh, I also have some Twila Paris songs I might be able to do…”

Mike, stop holding your wife back.  The world wants to hear her duet with Sandi Patti.