Common Ground Song 52 ‘How good it is’
Words: Ruth Duck / Music: Carl Glaser © GIA Publications Inc
YouTube recording: ‘Remember, O thou man’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd8iMnk07cU
Featured image: anointing with ashes, source unknown (from http://www.benningtonvalepress.com/ )

The words of this song are at least partly based on Psalm 133, namely the references to living in unity being like ‘fragrant oil’ and ‘morning dew’. In the Psalm the oil is that used to anoint Aaron, the first chief priest of the tribes of Israel. It is pictured ‘running down his beard and on the collar of his robes’. The present song, which is essentially about striving for peace, also references Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, which both speak of swords being beaten into ploughshares.

Anointing with oil is something that is no longer part of daily life, and for that matter modern weapons are not so easy to turn into farming implements (though a tank could be used as a tractor, I suppose). But anointing is still practiced in the church, including today, Ash Wednesday, when the oil is mixed with ashes to symbolise the ‘dust and ashes’ from which our bodies are made, and to which they will return. The Rector and I applied this ash-and-oil mix to each other’s foreheads and those of the congregation, as a mark of humility and repentance.

The season of Lent which we are now entering, and its Islamic counterpart of Ramadan, are about recognising our human frailty (so we are encouraged to pray more frequently and deeply than usual), our dependence on God for daily food (from which we fast to a greater or lesser extent, depending on tradition) and our call humbly to serve other people, as both religions recognise by encouraging charitable giving in this season. These themes also featured in our Rector’s sermon this evening.

I was not able to find a recording of this song being sung, and the words are copyrighted (Ruth Duck only died in 2024) and I have not found them online. If you can find them, there is a tune suggested in the book, called ‘Azmon’. But as with the previous post (song 57), it is suggested that either ‘Dove of Peace’ or ‘St Botolph’ fits well. Instead of a video of this song, I have linked a performance of a traditional Ash Wednesday anthem.