Genesis 49:18
I wait for your salvation,
O Lord.
Once at the seminary I misspelled the word liturgy in a correspondence. I had spelled it “litergy.” The person I had written took a moment to point out gently my error and scribbled back, "There is no liturgy without “you” in the middle.”
I was grateful to be warned against misspelling again a word so common in a pastor's vocabulary. The little suggested memory device I easily remember. But I have to admit; my pride was slightly offended—embarrassed rather, and although I did not respond again in turn, I tried to compensate by arguing silently to myself, “Yes, but the center of the liturgy is never ‘you.’” The center of the liturgy is a different pronoun. The center is “He (Christ).”
I realize I may sound overly touchy in such things, but our ears should be hypersensitive to pronouns. In prayers, hymn texts, devotional writings, song lyrics and such things the antecedent and number of pronouns can be very telling. All theology is rooted in grammar. The text of Scripture is sacred—including the pronouns. Our confession should also be sacred and precise. We Christians are grammarians, not for some snobby respectability or high and mighty protocol, but because people’s very lives depend on words.
In Leviticus 26, the Lord no less than twenty-eight times says, “I will.” Here are some examples; I will give; I will turn to you; I will make my dwelling among you; I will visit you; I will walk with you. Each of these express the promise of God's favor upon those who walk in His ways. “I” and “you” are both used generously. But the action is God's and we are the recipient of God's favor.
At the same time God warns the ungodly by using with the first person singular pronoun: I will scatter you; I will set my face against you; I will discipline you. The actions of God and His use of the pronouns—the “I” and “you” in His written Word are inspired and necessary to understand.
From us, the application of the first person pronoun “I” can be easily overused. That may be inadvertent; then again, it may also reveal an erroneous theology, even a decentralization of Christ.
Be guarded when you hear a public prayer, devotion, or Christian song encumbered with promises made to God beginning with “I” or expressions of a Christian’s commitment predominate.
One current top ten song lyric among Christian recording artists is expressed this way: “I will stumble, I will fall down, but I will not be moved. I will make mistakes. I will face heartache, but I will not be moved. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I will not be moved.”
Each phrase taken alone is entirely acceptable.
But look again and ask just how much (if anything) is spoken of Christ at all. Besides the mention of his name, is Christ the center? Clearly, the cumulative focus in not in Christ’s person or work but in the singer’s affirmation of himself or herself which spills over with “I”.
Consider the lyrics of another song presently even higher on the charts, “You are everything that I live for; Everything that I can't believe is happening; You're standing right in front of me, with arms wide open, all I know is everyday is filled with hope 'cause You are everything that I breathe for, and I can't help but breathe You in, and breathe again, feeling all this life within, every single beat of my heart.”
When I heard the first line of this “Christian” song, my first thought was that Christ might be the antecedent of “I” and we Christians the antecedent of “you.” What a wonderful comfort for Christ to say to us, “You are everything that I live for.” That is unadulterated Christian theology.
But one quickly discovers this is not what is sung. The only thing we learn of Christ is that he has wide arms. The crippling lyric rests “hope” in my breathing, feeling, and the beat of my heart. Even at best, Christ’s only shares the spotlight. The pronouns tell the tale.
Consider by contract the superlative pronouns in the following Advent hymn:
Once He came in blessing, all our sins redressing;
Came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy;
Bore the cross to save us; Hope and freedom gave us.
Now He gently leads us; with Himself He feeds us
Precious food from heaven, Pledge of peace here given,
Manna that will nourish Souls that they may flourish.
Come, then, O Lord Jesus, from our sins release us.
Keep our hearts believing, that we, grace receiving,
Ever may confess You Till in heav’n we bless You.
Ask yourself: which pronouns predominate? Is it not “He/Himself” … the Son of God?
The Christian dynamic and confession must always and entirely be “He” for “us.” We are not being “picky” here. Lives depend on this. The issue in not a mere misspelling or accidental grammatical goof. The pronouns and how we confess them pertains to the centrality of the Gospel and the preeminence of Christ. This is not the high ground we want to surrender.
