May 17, 2020
Ecclesiastes 1:3-11
3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils
under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation
comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises,
and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the
north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the
wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea
is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow
again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot
utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled
with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what
has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under
the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See,
this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will
there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who
come after.
When writing Hear Me, All You People Hear—Psalm 49 back in
the summer of last year, I made an off-hand comment to Mirandi and
Elizabeth that, because the music was so dark, we could probably
only ever use it in Lent— unless we had a sermon series on
something really unusual, something like … Ecclesiastes. Well,
providentially, that series is happening now! The most striking
moment in the piece is the dissonant harmony that sounds at the end
of each phrase, which coincides with some of the darkest moments in
the psalm: “hidden wisdom” (vs. 4), “the evil day” (vs. 5), death
“within his fold will keep” (vs. 14). Twice in the text (vs. 12,
20), the psalmist laments that “man in his pomp is like the beasts
that perish.” I wanted to mimic this structure in the musical
setting, so there is a coda following the third verse which repeats
the line “they are like the beast that dies.” But unlike every
other time, the phrase hangs in the air longer, transitioning to
the hopeful conclusion, “God will raise me from the grave.” Here at
the very end, the dissonant chord is finally removed in favor of a
peaceful resolution to an open fifth. This relaxed harmony attempts
to reflect the psalmist’s confidence that he does not fear in times
of trouble or trust in worldly wealth—and perhaps reminds us of the
preacher of Ecclesiastes as well. —Henry C. Haffner
Key Words: Forever, Hastens, Full, Weariness,
Satisfied, Remembrance
Keystone Verse: There is nothing new under the
sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)