Lyrics

I was listening to "Clayton Erb: Unceasing Worship." Clayton Erb is the music minister (or some such title) at Grace Community Church in California (John MacArthur's church, the one I attend when I go down for school) and the CD is from his 30th anniversary in that role (and it was free). On of the hymns is "It Is Well..." and listening to it (and singing it) always makes me smile. There's a line "My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought,...." When I was very young, I didn't understand the use of dashes and commas and could not understand why we were singing about being happy about sin!

The full lyrics, though, are:

My sin -- O, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin -- not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

I also have trouble not giggling whenever we sing the fifth line of the second verse of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

In Bethlehem, in Israel,
This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scorn
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

I know it's "which" and not "witch" but I still think it sounds like you're calling Mary a witch. I used to think I was the only one until one Christmas. I was standing with some friends in church, singing the hymn, and when we came to that line I made the mistake of catching someone's eye. We started the fight against giggles which spread to the rest of our little group.

I know these are great hymns of the faith (well, the first one is anyway) and I don't want to detract from that. I just find certain lines very funny, and I wonder why no one else laughs. Either everyone else is more mature than I (possible, but not probable; not everyone I know is that mature) or they are also trying not to laugh (more likely in some cases, which is why I don't look at anyone at these lines) or they don't see/hear things the same way I do (rather likely, in my experience) or they don't think about what they are singing (and in some cases, I think that's very likely).