Shall We Gather at the River

As of late, some of the most rewarding teaching experiences have come from exploring hymns with students. One recent graduate wanted to analyze "Shall We Gather at the River" together. It is a great hymn about the journey. Its wavy tune rides atop snappy march rhythms. That combination plays out the coordinated mass movement towards the river. One cannot help but think of allegories of the Christian pilgrimage such as Hinds' Feet in High Places and Pilgrim's Progress. "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" and "We're Marching to Zion" (two other hymns in which Lowry had a hand) also express important things about the journey.

 

The word "beautiful" is a beautiful sounding word. Its repetition in the chorus can shift the focus of our hearing a bit from the meaning of the word to the beauty of its sounds. The more we sing the phrase "the beautiful, the beautiful river" the more we can hear in it the lovely sounds of the lapping waves.

 

 

The word "river" is repeatedly set to the interval of a third, usually descending. A quick survey of hymn tunes with prominent descending thirds directed my attention to the word "Jesus" in "There's Something about That Name," "Jesus Loves Me," and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." All three have a bit of a comforting lullaby-like quality. Perhaps this lullaby touch is also a good fit for "Shall We Gather at the River" since Lowry describes the hymn growing out of a nap/vision on a warm summer afternoon.

 

The text is a version of the great river scene in Revelation 22 which we might say has its source in Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 47. I think it is likely that for many listeners the tune is accompanied by pleasant notions of "simpler times" - of grandparents' days - and some vague notions of Heaven. But the hymn is really about much more. It is about the culmination of time and the healing of the nations, something Lowry's original listeners would have longed for since the hymn comes from the very year of Lincoln's assassination. Framed by a question and an answer ("Shall we? . . . Yes, We'll ! . . ."), it seems to me that this is a hymn in which a congregation affirms its faith, a faith potentially shaken by the day's events and the shattering of its society.

 

 

Finally, the hymn isn't about crossing a river. I bet the crossing image is an aspect of the eronneous nebulous accretions the hymn has collected in our consciousness like barnacles on a boat. (I will leave that last simile in as evidence that I was drafting this post at 3:40 A.M..) All the way back to the river Styx, the river crossing motif seems to me to be more about death than life in the Western tradition. More recently, Stonewall Jackson's famous last words were "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." But there is one situation in which crossing the river has meant life: the liberated slave meeting a conductor at the river so as to cross over into freedom.

 

 

Lowry specifically stated his desire to treat the river of life with his setting, not a river of death. This Revelation 22 river is unlike the Styx of Charon or even the Ohio of Tice Davids. Unlike the rivers of the ages, it is not a barrier. No crossing is required. In this scene, the limitations and anxieties we've know in earthly life are no longer relevant. We finally gather in the presence we've been seeking.

 

 

This is my mother's mural of an idyllic river scene painted for the fellowship hall

of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Sampson County, NC.
And here's my own musical riverscape, a setting of "Shall We Gather at the River" performed with my good friend and tenor, Jeff Prillaman.