From Bob Vylan to Shine Jesus Shine and beyond

Songs have the power to set a scene – whether rebellious, celebratory, or full of relief and hope. Songs like: School’s Out for Summer, We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday and Here Comes the Sun.

Songs sung together have even more power to unite us and evoke feelings. From terraces resounding with the sound of “swing low, sweet chariot” to the quiet beauty of a Gregorian chant or the moving repetition of a Taizé song, music made together has huge power.

What are we to do then, when the power to bring voices together in unison is ill-used? Glastonbury this year seemed to showcase this. One half of Bob Vylan, a British rap act, led crowds in chants of “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)” – resulting in a police investigation, US visas for the band being revoked and several other festivals cancelling planned performances by them.

The Prime Minister called the chants “appalling hate speech” and yet huge crowds chose to join in with them. Did they succumb to some sort of overwhelming peer pressure; had the heat and festival hysteria gone to everyone’s heads? It called to mind the Scottish 18th-century politician Andrew Fletcher, who declared: “Give me the making of a people’s songs, and I care not who makes its laws.”

Yet at that same Glastonbury festival, the Primary School Bangers’ set was so popular that officials had to close the field (as they had to for American rock band The Killers!)

A BBC report on the festival described “people as far as the eye can see” singing along to Give Me Oil in My Lamp and Lord of the Dance, saying: “Who needs The Killers when you can sing along to Shine Jesus Shine?” Dancing in the sunshine, people wanted to take joy in something together, to join in solidarity and community. It wasn’t in any way quiet – but it could evidence a revival of sorts, part faith, part nostalgia.

Primary School hymns are those learnt at a very formative time. Anyone who has listened to Desert Island Discs will be aware of how music and memory weave themselves together in our minds. Singing such familiar songs brings back profound feelings about previous days. It also helps us to bring together our past and present selves, and sometimes to be able to see the wider picture about where God is leading us, whatever our current circumstances.

Music ‘a sweet concord of mind’

The gift of music is a wonderful one. The 18th-century theologian Jonathan Edwards observed that: “The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other is by music.” J.I. Packer went so far as to say that: “Any theology that does not lead to song is, at a fundamental level, a flawed theology’. But we must be discerning in what we sing, and in what we encourage others to sing. 1 Corinthians calls us to sing “with the spirit”, but to “sing with the understanding also”. Let us sing with full hearts, but also with care for what we join in with – be that at church, when singing along with children in the car, or even raising our voices at a festival over this long, hot summer.