The fourth verse sounds a bit new-age-y to 21st century ears, though it has a perfectly good explanation for being here in an 8th century hymn.
I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the star-lit heaven,
the glorious sun's life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea
around the old eternal rocks.
Druids, the priestly types of the Celtic pagan religion that dominated the pre-Christian British Isles, were fond of claiming for themselves the powers of nature (or at least the ability to control it). This verse reclaims nature for its Creator and those who believe in Him, much like putting this poem in the form of a lorica reclaimed that form for Christ (early Christians seem to have made a habit of either mocking or reclaiming things from pagans.) I'd categorize this verse as one of those that was very useful when it was written, but less so today.
Verse five I would say is the meat of this hymn. Its twice as long as the other verses, and I would say get to the heart of the writer's purpose.
I bind myself today to God's Virtue to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's Word to speak to me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to secure me,
Against snares of demons,
Against seductions of vices,
Against lusts of nature,
Against every one who wishes ill to me,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in a multitude.
Remember, this poetic form is known as a 'breastplate' hymn. Its meant for protection. In this case I would say its a prayer for protection against both outside forces, and those inner forces which cause us to stray from God's will. It reminds, although indirectly, of the Aaronic Blessing:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Numbers 6: 24-26 (NRSV)Particularly the first and last lines. Interestly, it also invokes "God's Host", presumably meaning angels and the like, to protect the speaker against three things we don't talk about much: demons, vices and lusts of nature. It also invokes for protection against other people "afar and anear" which takes on new meaning in this age of globe trotting.
Last post I mused on how angels have fallen by the wayside, too sickly sweet, turned from fearsome servants of God into spiritual diabetes inducing Russel Stover candies. Those things your great aunt pulls out at the holidays. The flip side is that we've also, perception-wise, weakened their nemeses. Oh sure, we talk about all having to fight our own demons, but pretty much no one means it literally. The closest we get is the devil-on-the-shoulder thing. What ever happened to those guys? Did they all have to suddenly accept mandatory retirement around 1700? Did they all turn into cynical hipsters and decide to just slouch around Hell? Don't tell me humans started doing their jobs for them--humans have been doing that since the fall. Have we just started rationalizing them away? Have we gotten too 'enlightened' to see them? I'm not suggesting we go back to diagnosing schizophrenics as possessed or anything like that. And I'm definitely not suggesting we revive the ridiculous demonolgies of the Middle Ages. But I feel it is a question we need to address, seriously, and not try to sweep under the rug. Even if you aren't a hard core Bible literalist, I challenge you to find a way to explain away all of Jesus's casting out of demons without serious undermining the rest of the Gospel account. I'm not saying I have any sort of answer--I try not to think about demons, to be honest. But I think there is a certain amount of dishonesty, and we lose some credibility, by not addressing them.
Vices and lusts of nature are another we don't talk about. We joke about the seven deadly sins (all of which are vices) and we might give lip service to the lusts of nature, but we don't address them, at least not in ourselves. From where I sit, the church has an awful lot of planks to take out of our eyes. You can complain about the medicalization of vices and biological explanations for lusts, but what the heck have we Christians offered in rebuttal? A lot of shaming and blithering and hypocrisy. Of which we are supposed to be doing exactly...none. Seriously, point me to the place where we are supposed to be shaming our neighbors with anything else but our holiness, our taking care of societies cast offs, our embracing the sinner? The church needs to be praying this verse every single day until Christ comes again.
*Thanks to my dad for pointing out my use of the non-existent word "meterized" in my first post and providing the correct term "metricized"
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