Man-up and Sing to Your Children

Where in the American story did we decide that singing together is not a manly pursuit? Through much of history, where men gathered together, they sang songs together. I’ll give you a few examples.

Consider seafaring men of all types: fishermen, pirates, sailors, etc. If you’ve ever caught an episode of Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch”, it becomes clear pretty quickly that commercial fishing is not job for the weak or the weak hearted. Statistically, it’s one of the most dangerous jobs out there with a fatality rate far higher than most other occupations.

Likewise, I’ll wager that when you conjure an image of a pirate and sailor, you’ll picture someone that could hardly be described as effete, unless you’re thinking of more contemporary examples like Jack Sparrow or the Village People. Think Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, Popeye, or any depiction of a tattooed WWII sailor. If you’re having trouble imagining it, here’s a depiction of Blackbeard:

And yet all of these occupations have such a strong tradition of singing together, their style of singing was given its own name – the sea chanty (shan-tee). In the sea chanty, men are generally encouraging each other to keep up a steady pace of work, reminding each other what they’re working for, or generally just lifting each other’s spirits with a story, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes of bravery and boldness. Take a moment to listen to this relatively contemporary chanty below titled “Keep Hauling” by Port Isaac Fisherman’s Friends. Though there are clips from the movie (currently on Netflix if you’re inclined) telling the group’s story, you’ll spot more than a few hard-bitten, sea-faring faces singing in the video, and no, those aren’t just stand-ins that look the part. They’re the ones actually singing.

Though there are quite a number of groups that sing chanties, some more traditional than these, here’s one more from the same group, a favorite of mine, showing the group’s ability to sing harmony.

It’s not just men of the sea that have sung during their endeavors. Consider the men of WWI who sang “Over hill, over dale” from the song “U.S. Field Artillery March” as they went to war and surely many more. If you like, there are examples from fiction such as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings singing the oath of his great-grandfather as he is crowned king of Gondor, or the dwarves from The Hobbit singing of their long lost home that they hope to reclaim.

The hymns of the church serve much the same function as these examples above. They are the songs passed down to us from our forebears that tell the story of our faith. Sometimes they inspire sorrow (LSB 450 “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”). Other times, they encourage us to keep up our steady pace of labor (LSB 668 “Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You” or LSB 656 “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”). Still others speak of great and bold deeds of the past both by our Lord and others of the faith (LSB 454 “Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle” and LSB 517 and 518 “By All Your Saints in Warfare”). Yet more are exuberant shouts of joy and praise (LSB 457 “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and LSB 941 “We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God”). A vast majority of them in our hymnal are written in a robust four-part harmony just like the examples above.

So, my first exhortation is this: Men, the hymns are not just nice songs to sing in the midst of the service just because. They’re our battle anthems through this vale of tears. Use them to encourage each other against the assault of our foes. Lift each other’s spirits and to preach the word to one another with them.

Now before moving onto my next point, I’ll address a few practical matters. First, the melodies of most hymns were written with sopranos (high women’s voices) in mind. If you have trouble hitting some of those high notes, or even some of the low notes, it’s just because the melody wasn’t written for you. If you need to drop out for a moment or suddenly sing a lot lower (to hit the high notes) or higher (to hit the low notes) than you have been, there’s no shame in it. You could also learn to sing harmony (those notes below the words) which were written with you in mind. In all fairness, I know that’s pretty next level for most folks these days.

Second, if you’ve ever uttered the words “I don’t sing” or “You don’t want me to sing” and you made that decision in high school, you frankly don’t know whether or not you can actually sing. Give it another shot. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come out perfect the first time. Music and singing take practice like anything else. You wouldn’t tell your son to give up football if his first throw wasn’t a perfect 40-yard spiral or give up on basketball if he didn’t sink his first shot on the goal with nothing but net from the three-point line. If nothing else, scripture tells us to make a joyful sound. It doesn’t specify that it has to be good. Get over yourself and do it.

My second exhortation is a refinement of the first. Man up and sing to your family, especially your children. My point here is best demonstrated in two personal anecdotes from earlier this year. If you haven’t already, go back up and listen to “Keep Hauling” up above. I played this song for my students in music class this year when we were discussing various kinds of folk music. In the course of playing it, one of the boys came up to me and let me know that another boy was crying. I went and checked on the boy who was now weeping. He told me that the song was a favorite of his recently deceased grandpa. There’s nothing wrong with having a favorite secular song, but imagine now the profound effect on the faith of your sons and grandsons if they knew what your favorite hymn was. Would they not exclaim all the louder “Thy Strong Word Doth Cleave the Darkness” or “Built on the Rock the Church Shall Stand” to their own sons and grandsons?

The next anecdote took place at 2021 Good Shepherd Institute Conference at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. At this annual conference, pastors and church musicians get together and discuss how to lead, preach to, and teach congregations. One of the events that takes place during the course of this conference is a hymn festival at the seminary chapel. Now as an entire group of pastors and church musicians is wont to do, this crew of mostly men nearly shakes the rafters with their bold confessions in song. At the end of this festival, one of the two women sitting in front of me turned around and exclaimed to me, “All these male voices! Is this a church I can join?” Although I had to disappoint her in explaining that the chapel does not host its own congregation, her reaction is telling. This woman was ready to leave her current congregation just so she could hear men boldly singing their confession of faith. I doubt she is alone in her sentiment.

Where Christians gather together, where Christian men gather together, they sing. As Psalm 22 encourages (paraphrased), tell of His praise in the midst of the congregation. We shall serve him and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn. When the psalmist wrote those words, he was writing of you and your children, Christian. Now do it.

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