YHWH songs

[NickAlexander]

Hello...

Last year, the leadership of my denomination (Roman Catholic) has requested that all songs that use the Tetragrammaton (YHWH=Yahweh=Yehovah,etc) to cease using that word in its liturgies and songs.

From its statement: "As an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable and hence was replaced during the reading of sacred Scripture by means of the use of an alternate name: 'Adonai,' which means 'Lord'..."

I see their points, and I honor them. To the best of my ability, I will choose to wait for song texts that will use alternate versions.

But what about songs in which the songwriters have no desire to change the songs? Can there be a way to incorporate "Elohim" or "Adonai" into songs that use "Yahweh", and not get into copyright trouble?

Take, for example, "Exalted (Yahweh)" off of Tomlin's latest release. 2/3rds of the song has nothing to do with the word, and can possibly stand alone as its own song. But when it cuts into the wonderfully repeated outro, there's a real sense of awe and majesty in these words:

"Yah-weh, we exalt Your Name.".

And in my heart, I wonder aloud why it wouldn't be feasible to rewrite this text to say exactly the same thing:

"Ad-o-nai, we lift high, Your Name."

It utterly breaks my heart, as I can see this being just as powerful as Tomlin's original, excepting that it is now more appropriate, and it retains the power of reverential holiness in God's very Name.

I don't like being driven to rewrite hymns, and if I had immediate access to the songwriters themselves, it would be great to have an open discussion about such things. I am not an advocate for breaking copyright. It may just be that I will never be able to sing this song during liturgies, because of Tomlin's blind spot on this issue (which many interdenominational worship leaders hold to--one of the columnists for _Worship Leader_ magazine expressed his reservations on this very matter).

And, in case there are those who may look upon this as an example of Phariseeism, don't. We live in a Christian culture where holy reverence towards God has been diminished greatly. I find it a tremendous act of worship to refrain from saying certain words because of their sacredness. I don't judge those who haven't come to this same conviction... I just wish there was an alternate text to use, instead of the one provided.

Nick
http://www.nickalexander.com/home

[mikeymo1741]

Personally, I look at it from another point of view. I don't see it as a lack of reverence; rather as an increased intimacy with God. In the Jewish tradition, there was a fear of the face of God. There was a separation of the people and the Most Holy Place.

In Christ, we no longer need to fear being in God's intimate presence, nor do we need to fear calling His name (as prophecied in Jeremiah 29.) Indeed, we regularly call upon the name of Jesus, which Scripture proclaims to be the Name above all other names. By that logic, would it not then be even more irreverent to use His name?

I'm not criticising the policy at all, BTW, and I appriciate your thoughts as to how to be faithful to it.

[alangustin]

There's a few ways to view this "conundrum"...

Is the leadership of your local church aware of this? I guess you could present a song containing "Yahweh" in it, sing it, and see what happens. Besides, I mean, it's not like every other praise and worship song has "Yahweh" in the lyric, right? But if the Catholic Church is really bugged about it, I would just avoid those songs. Maybe the authors of these songs would be offended by you changing the lyric. If your church is going to enforce this "ban"... then there's gobs of other great praise and worship songs out there. Is this really going to stifle your ministry?

[NickAlexander]

I actually agree with the decision, and I'm not in the habit of encouraging my local parish towards disobedience. But I'm an itinerant music minister, so this doesn't affect my decison on a week-to-week basis.

In terms of the song "Exalted (Yahweh)" itself, there are really three ways to go about this--the first is to ignore the song altogether, in light of the numerous other anthemic worship songs in existence. The second is to snip off the outro, and sing the alternate verse--one line--without the words displayed. (This is in keeping with CCLI rules). The third is to snip off the outro, and medley the song into another (completely different) song with the same key/tempo/time-sig/direction/tone. I happen to like my rewrite, so I'm leaning towards the second solution, so long as I make it abundantly clear that this is an alternate rendering of the chorus, so as to not create confusion. This will not be a problem until I choose to record it, or YouTube it, and only then will I have to deal with the muckety-muck of permissions-not-granted due to not being associated with a label. Not everybody is David Crowder.

Nick
http://www.nickalexander.com/home

[yod1948]

I also don't use "the name" in any songs for the same reason. I welcome hearing this, btw.

No one should have any problem with substituting "LORD" or "ADONAI" in it's place since that is exactly what the Bible does also.

[mikeymo1741]

When I first started attending my church, we used to do a song called "Yahweh" written by Gloria Gaither and Carman of all people. I can say I don't miss it.

Matt Maher (a Roman Catholic) has a nice song called "Love Has Come" with the lyric "Father Yahweh, Elohim." Guess that one is out.

From what I understand, this "prohibition" only applies to liturgical settings, so I imagine a worship leader would be free to sing one of these songs at other times.

[NickAlexander]

Originally Posted by mikeymo1741

Matt Maher (a Roman Catholic) has a nice song called "Love Has Come" with the lyric "Father Yahweh, Elohim." Guess that one is out.

Just got my music issue today. There were a half-dozen standards that had been rewritten to comply to the Vatican guidelines. A song that sang "Yahweh I know You are near" is now "Oh Lord, I know You are near." (How I wish they got "Ad'nai" in there...).

BTW, "Love Has Come", which had been printed in prior issues, was not in this one. Maybe it would be fixed by next year.

From what I understand, this "prohibition" only applies to liturgical settings, so I imagine a worship leader would be free to sing one of these songs at other times.

On another board I frequent, a lot of Catholic musicians decided that it was probably a good idea to no longer sing "Yahweh" songs, especially including those venues outside of liturgy, simply on the basis of the logic in the letter itself.

Why the quotation marks around the word "prohibition"? Are you implying that the pope really didn't mean what he said?

Nick
http://www.nickalexander.com/home

[yod1948]

This stems from the 2nd commandment about not using the Lord's name in vain. In ancient Israel, the High Priest would only say the Name once a year when he went into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Because of that, over the centuries the exact pronunciation was lost which why some say "Yahweh" and others say "Yehova" because there were no vowels in the hebrew aleph-bet. Jews still substitute "HaShem" (which means "The Name") when referred to the Lord.

YHVH can be pronounced many ways without any of them being right.

But if that kind of reverence was attached to His Name and it was never rebuked by the Lord, then I assume that it's important to Him.


We have been given the Name above all Names now and I have no problem with saying "Yeshua" as often and as loudly as possible.

[travisvwright]

This is the second time in my life I've heard this refered to as the 2nd commandment. Yod what are your ten? BTW I'm fascinated. If that is 2 I can't get to ten.

From the top of my head so not word for word.
1. No other gods before Me.
2. Make no craven images.
3. Do not use the name of the Lord in vain.
4. Honor the Sabath
5. Honor your father and Mother
6. Do not kill.
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not lie
10. Do not covet.

Anyway if you hvae my three at 2 then you have another commandment that I don't have unless you only get up to nine??? Please set me straight.

[NickAlexander]

The Ten Commandments weren't written with numbers preceding the actual commandments. Therefore, there have been two approaches to the lists. Yours is one.

The other is:
1. No other gods before Me.
2. Make no graven images. Do not use the name of the Lord in vain. (two ways of saying the same thing)
3. Honor the Sabath
4. Honor your father and Mother
5. Do not kill.
6. Do not commit adultery
7. Do not steal
8. Do not lie
9. Do not covet your neighbor's goods.
10. Do not covet your neighbor's wife.

FYI...
Nick
http://www.nickalexander.com/home