One of the most liberating things about stepping down as a Minister and now, as part of my CF role, being invited to lead worship at different CF churches, is that you get to choose all your favourite hymns, and no one knows they are indeed your favourites!! Although, of course, now you know my cunning plan, and if I come and lead worship at your church, you’ll be in the know!
It’s funny, isn’t it, how our favourite hymns change and evolve as we go through our lives. And yet some stay with us ... the “modern” hymns of our youths (for me, many of Graham Kendrick’s) which we were sure would shock the older members of the congregation when we shared them! Or perhaps those hymns which were used at particularly meaningful times for us – ones we remember from weddings or funerals?
Growing up, one of my favourites was When a knight won his spurs. This hymn, to me, created the perfect imagery of all I loved… faith and history, action and tales of daring do!
Whilst researching for this reflection I discovered that this hymn isn’t as old as it may initially be thought. It first appeared in “Songs of Praise” in 1931 by Jan Struther (who of course also wrote “Lord of all Hopefulness” and, another one we may remember from our Sunday School days, “Daisies are our silver, buttercups are gold”). That means when I was first singing it in the late 1970s, it would only have been around 45 years old – no time at all in the world of hymnody! I guess a bit like the age now of some of Graham Kendrick’s early hymns!
And yet I suppose with its lyrics, and the medieval setting, it feels much older, perhaps even timeless and, I know, it was certainly very inspiring to a young history buff with an overactive imagination and, even then, a love of faith with a purpose! I was always disappointed that it wasn’t included in Mission Praise but maybe it was seen as a bit dated, a bit too twee even to be included.
Whatever, I still think it is a fab hymn, with a cracking tune and will forever transport me back to that time in school assemblies and Sunday school anniversaries where it was an old standard and which I would belt out with much gusto in my own inimitable way!
Perhaps, today, we should all dust off that hymn we loved to sing and sing it out loud to the Lord – after all the Psalms entreat us to sing joyfully to the Lord (it doesn’t say it has to be tuneful too!)
When a knight won his spurs, in the stories of old,
He was gentle and brave, he was gallant and bold
With a shield on his arm and a lance in his hand,
For God and for valour he rode through the land.
No charger have I, and no sword by my side,
Yet still to adventure and battle I ride,
Though back into storyland giants have fled,
And the knights are no more and the dragons are dead.
Let faith be my shield and let joy be my steed
'Gainst the dragons of anger, the ogres of greed;
And let me set free with the sword of my youth,
From the castle of darkness, the power of the truth.
Catherine Booton
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