Music Mondays: Audrey Assad's 'Death Be Not Proud'

Music Mondays are a weekly reflection on a different Christian album and artist written and shared by community members of UCM at UBC. Most modern day Christians get the brunt of their theology from music these days, so we're digging into these songs to let you know what's going on and why. For weekly updates, go check out our social media (@ucmatubc on IG and UCM at UBC on fb).
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​Hey everybody! Back at it again with the album of the week!

This week we’ve got an EP by Audrey Assad, a Catholic singer songwriter: ‘Death Be Not Proud’. Assad’s songwriting is wonderful, she has a depth and an artistry that goes far beyond typical CCM work, and I highly recommend her other stuff! Her arrangements and sound are also very minimalist (a huge boon), and make for very easy listening—I recommend you put her tracks on in the background while you do your bible devo’s or quiet time!

Listen to the full album here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3cPp8EStm3uRhx6FmJRl6q?si=nro3OiY8Qm6iASdDsbPjJw

Hit the "read more" button to open the whole post! ------->
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* Commentary Below*

1. Death, Be Not Proud
This song is drawn from the metaphysical poet John Donne’s Holy Sonnet X (Death, Be Not Proud)—I have a copy of John Donne’s poetic works by my bedside and often read from the Holy Sonnets when I can’t sleep, he might be one of my favourite poets! The recipient of this song is Death itself; The theme is the fact that death has been beaten and no longer holds sway over us as Christians. Assad questions how death can be proud when, in fact, it will not kill us: Although it haunts us from outside of our control (“Though you may dwell in plague and poison”), it remains a “slave to fate and desperate men”—enslaved to powers greater than itself and only manifest in desperate and evil forms. In fact, death’s “sleep” is the”gates of Heaven”. Thanks to Christ’s conquering work, we know that “One short sleep past, we wake eternally” (Donne, Sonnet X)—Death is not, for those who are found in Christ Jesus, an end, but rather merely a step into the eternity that He has gone ahead to prepare for us. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

2. Death in His Grave
Another song about death! This song is actually a cover of John Mark MacMillan’s song of the same name. It’s a beautifully written meditation on Christ’s victory on the cross. The chorus is beautiful, observing the passion weekend: How Jesus hung on a cross, a thief, on that fateful Friday before awaking three days later, having conquered death and hell and sin, to assume his place as King of kings and Lord of lords! Stepping out of the grave that could not hold him, he turned and laid Death itself where he had lain those three days. Our Christ is victorious! Praise him! Praise him! Praise him!
*For fun: if anyone can tell what model of the atonement is being assumed here, I’ll buy them a cinnamon bun from Grounds Coffee next time I see them

3. Lamb of God
“Christ, the victim / Christ, the priest”. And just like that, Assad notes one of the profoundest realities that faces us as Christians: Christ as our high priest and the one who’s offering of himself provides atonement for us before God. “You give your body for the feast” refers to the passover feast, which Jesus celebrated the night he was arrested, and which was a preconfiguration of his own death and sacrifice on the cross (Exodus 12 for the establishment of the feast). The bridge culminates in the lines, “Miserere nobis”, ‘Have Mercy on us’, which ties this song to the song/liturgy Agnus Dei:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
A little bit of Latin for you!!
Christ is the Lamb who was slain for us—to take away the sins of the world. I’ve spoken on this before, so I won’t dive into it. But if you want a beautiful expression of Jesus as both Lion and Lamb, I would encourage you to read C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’, especially the last chapter, which depicts Aslan (analogous to Christ) as a Lamb even as he is depicted as his usual Lion self. That scene often drives me to tears when I read it.

4. Receive
A beautiful, trinitarian, meditation on gratitude as a response to the gifts of God: “It is God who we encounter, / It is God that we receive”. The first verse refers to receiving by faith the gift of the eucharist, communion: “Humble Godhead bending low and / Touching bread and wine.” The second verse refers to Jesus providing our daily bread, his “own life and bread”—He is the bread of life (John 6:25-59). We have recieved so much from our gracious God, it is only good and right to respond with praise (for what else can we give?), hence we sing, “To the Father, to the Son, / And to the Spirit be / Blessing, honour, glory, power, / Might, and majesty”. Thankfully, God is pleased to recieve our praise and our worship because we have an everlasting High Priest (See the song before and Hebrews 4:14-16) in whose praise we participate and share in. Our imperfect praise, just like our imperfect lives, are taken up by Christ and made to participate in his own perfect praise and perfect life, making ours worthy and righteous. He is so good to us. This is why we need not be worried that our worship or service not be good enough: even our worship is taken out of our frail hands and made perfect before the Father, let alone our lives. We need only approach in humility and faith, recognizing and accepting the gracious work of Christ already started and perfected.

5. Love is Moving
This song is lyrically gorgeous. I encourage you to take a moment and just listen to this one with the lyrics open beside you, it’s definitely worth it. The subdued arrangement sits behind Assad’s airy vocals and evokes a certain tranquility, matched by the confident assurance that the lyrics provide. The song must be understood in light of John 4:16, “God is love”: it is He who is moving among us, His robe we reach out to grasp (Luke 8:43-48). Consider for a moment the fact that Jesus has compassion on us—in the gospels, it is often noted that Jesus looks upon a person or people and has compassion on them. He usually then heals them or meets their need. We too quickly gloss over that word compassion though. Compassion is a conjunct of two latin roots, com (cum = with) and passion (passio = experience, suffering). Interestingly, sympathize works the same way, but from Greek terms, sym (sun = with) pathize (pathos = experience, suffering). Jesus suffered with those people, as he suffers with us. He took all suffering upon himself on the cross, and the one who is love became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21)—Jesus said that “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), and surely he now calls us friends, for everything (see, LOVE) he learnt from the Father he has made known to us (John 15:15). He is so good my friends.
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I’m a big fan of this album. As I prepared this commentary, I was overwhelmed by how lyrically beautiful each track is. I felt like I must not have ever really listened to it before, and it made me want to listen to more! This album gives me a tremendous sense of peace and comfort; it moves from polemicizing against Death to its very face, to praising Jesus for his laying Death down in the very grave that he stepped up from. It sings of receiving the love and grace that Jesus, the Lamb of God, bought for us with his life, so that we might live in communion with Him. Love is moving among us, and Love has a name: Jesus.

Jameson Thomas

Jameson is one of the staff members a UCM at UBC. He's currently studying at Regent College in Vancouver. Check out his full bio here.