THE BREAD OF ANGELS

For the August student service we had chosen the theme from Psalm 78:25 “They ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.” The gospel for the day was John 6:24-35, focusing on “the bread of life, the true bread from heaven”. Through cross referencing in my Jerusalem Bible I was led to Wisdom 16:20-29, and the central theme of the song emerged: “You gave them the food of angels, from heaven untiringly sending them bread already prepared, containing every delight, satisfying every taste. And the substance you gave demonstrated your sweetness towards your children...... so that your children, Lord, might learn that the various crops are not what nourishes humankind, but your word which preserves all who trust in you.” Not a quick song, it required a fair bit of editorial assistance from Dorothy. She suggested one note change in the last line of the verse which picked up the melody considerably. She was also unimpressed with some of the words I had. Only verse 5 remained unscathed. Pastor Bob Kempe was the chief culprit behind the theme of this verse — he preached on 'The Compassion of God' (Mark 6:30-34) the week before. The musical beginnings of the song — it's structure and overall style — started to develop after I heard Dylan's 'Knocking on heaven's door', though it's hard to see a connection in the final result. Dorothy and I both detected a borrowing from an old hymn we both like 'Now rest beneath night's shadow'. Dorothy's dad (& most of his Australian Lutheran contemporaries) always used verse 4 of the hymn after baptisms: “...let angel guards sing o'er me: this child of God shall meet no harm.”