Christian Art | George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Antiphon (1)
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Antiphon (1)
Chorus
Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King.
Verse
The heav’ns are not too high,
His praise may thither flie:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Chorus
Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King.
Verse
The church with psalms must shout
No doore can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
Chorus
Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Antiphon (1)
The poem emphasizes universality and inclusivity of divine worship, suggesting that the entire world resounds with praise for God. The refrain, ‘Let all the world in every corner sing, / My God and King,’ creates a communal call to worship through the poem.
In the first verse, Herbert observes that no part of creation is too remote to participate in this act of praise. The ‘heavens are not too high’ implies that even loftiest parts of existence are within reach of God’s presence and praise. That the earth is ‘not too low’ suggests that God’s praise can flourish in every humble or hidden corner of the world. By connecting heaven and earth through praise, the poem knows that the divine is omnipresent and accessible, wherever one may be.
The second verse shifts focus to the Church as a collective body of worship; there is power of song to transcend physical barriers. ‘No door can keep them out.’ This implies that spiritual praise cannot be confined or silenced, no matter attempts to contain it. However, the poem underscores that genuine worship must ultimately be seated in the heart, as ‘the heart / Must bear the longest part’. This phrase suggests that while communal worship is important, the enduring and most meaningful aspect of worship is the individual, heartfelt devotion of each individual believer. We are all individuals with God.
By juxtaposing physical spaces – heavens, earth, the Church – with spiritual commitment of the heart, the poem presents worship as an act that is both outwardly communal and deeply personal. The refrain, which binds each verse, reinforces the idea that this praise is both continuous and unending, a shared endeavour that is boundless across place and person.
At the time of Luke’s writing his Gospel, those Christian communities which had largely arisen among the poor were being joined by richer people. This caused some problems, which appear in the advice given in the Letter of James, in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, and in Luke’s Gospel. Saint Paul describes how, when the Christian community comes together to share the Lord’s supper, the rich have brought their own food and have no intention of sharing it. This was at a time when the Eucharist proper was still celebrated as part of a larger meal, an arrangement which did not last many years. St Paul writes [ … ]
George Herbert’s poem explores humanity’s relentless pursuit of knowledge and mastery over the natural world, juxtaposing these achievements with the failure to recognize and embrace God’s immediate presence. The poem is structured around vivid images of human ingenuity, drawing on the astronomer, diver, and chemist (or ‘chymick’) as archetypes of humanity’s intellectual and physical endeavors. Yet, beneath these triumphs lies a critique: the neglect of the divine, who resides ‘at hand’ rather than in the distant realms humanity seeks to conquer [ … ]
For the Jewish people, the sickness of the paralyzed man was a symptom of underlying sin. It was a punishment, a consequence of one’s own moral evil or of one’s parents. We can imagine the social consequences for the paralyzed man, in the light of the various exclusions which were applied to disabled people [ … ]
