"Beneath the Sun" (Annotated) A Hymn Based on Ecclesiastes by Dustin Battles

Beneath the Sun
A hymn based on the book of Ecclesiastes
Words: © 2022 Dustin Battles
Tune: WAYFARING STRANGER

Lyrics with footnotes to Scripture passages:

1.

Beneath the sun^[1] my soul is sighing:^[2]

how brief a vapor^[3] is my life!^[4]

My gain is gone,^[5] my days are dying.^[6]

I chase the wind^[7] and stir up strife.^[8]

Why is my life, O God, not fruitful?^[9]

Will nothing last that I have done?^[10] 

Life is unfair,^[11] for all is futile.^[12]

There's nothing new beneath the sun.^[13] 

[2.]

I told myself, “Perhaps some pleasure^[14]

will fill the void within my soul.^[15]

Perhaps hard work^[16] or gaining treasure^[17]

will make me wise^[18] and not a fool.”^[19]

But my delight^[20] turned into sorrow,^[21]
transformed before my very eyes.^[22]

What charms today dissolves tomorrow.^[23]

Earth never fully satisfies.

3.

There is a season under heaven,^[24]

a task^[25] and time^[26] for everything.^[27]

I cannot grasp^[28] the span I’m given,^[29]

or know what future days will bring.^[30]

Time is not mine to store or squander:^[31]

life is God’s gift^[32] to everyone.

Go, eat and drink in joy,^[33] yet ponder^[34]

the work of wisdom He has done.^[35]

[4.]

The wise embrace the house of mourning,^[36]

for days are not like wealth to spend.^[37]

But fools^[38] reject the fateful^[39] warning:^[40]

the grave^[41] will greet us in the end.^[42]

What words of woe^[43] await the wicked?^[44]

Will they escape the judgment throne?

The Shepherd^[45] will condemn the crooked:

exposing all, excusing none.^[46]

5.

Our joy is tempered by frustration^[47]

amid the earth's futility,^[48]

but God will soon renew creation,^[49]

His plan from all eternity.

So the conclusion of the matter:^[50]

fear God^[51] and do as He commands.^[52]

We will remember You, Creator!^[53]

Our souls and works are in Your hands.^[54]

Expanded lyrics without footnotes:

1.

Beneath the sun my soul is sighing, which we all do from time to time:

how brief a vapor or breath is my life! Our lives appear for a little while, then vanish.

How frustrating it is that My gain is gone, my days are dying.

I chase the wind [and], thinking it will help, but all that ends up happening is that I stir up strife.

I cry out: Why is my life, O God, not fruitful?

And again: Will nothing last that I have done, since all seems to fade so quickly?

Even children recognize that Life is unfair, for all is futile.

But that’s not news: There's nothing new beneath the sun.

[2.]

On this journey of life, I told myself, “Perhaps some pleasure (which isn’t necessarily wrong)

will fill the void within my soul, that we all have within us.

Perhaps hard work or gaining treasure—two good gifts—

will make me wise and not a fool.”

But when I did this, something surprising happened: my delight turned into sorrow,

transformed before my very eyes. It didn’t satisfy like I though it would.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: What charms today dissolves tomorrow.

Why? Earth never fully satisfies.

3.

There is a season under heaven that God has given us,

a task (what we need to do) and time (how long we have to do it) for everything.

I cannot grasp the span I’m given (how long will my life last? will I accomplish what I set out to do?),

or know what future days will bring, since I am not omniscient like God.

Time is not mine to store (save up some for later) or squander (time doesn’t matter so I can do whatever I want), as I am inside time, not outside of it:

life is God’s gift to everyone, which I did not receive and can be taken away at his pleasure.

Go, eat and drink in joy—two good gifts!—, yet ponder

the work of wisdom He has done, for what’s the point of enjoyment if it doesn’t point me to a greater joy in God?

[4.]

The wise embrace the house of mourning, something very counterintuitive and countercultural,

for days are not like wealth to spend, as if it doesn’t matter if I waste a day.

But fools reject the fateful warning:

the grave will greet us in the end. A hard warning to accept that our demise is imminent!

So what will happen to these wicked, unjust people?

What words of woe await the wicked?

Will they escape the judgment throne?

No, The Shepherd will condemn the crooked:

exposing all of them, excusing none of them.

5.

Our joy, though real, is tempered by frustration,

amid the earth's futility because of the fall,

but God will soon renew creation, when Jesus returns,

His plan from all eternity, not something he came up with yesterday.

So the conclusion of the matter, to boil it all down:

fear God and do as He commands.

Yet fearing God is only helpful if done rightly:

We will remember You, Creator!

Our souls and works are in Your hands, so we place our souls and works in your hands, for you to do what is right in the eyes of the Judge of all the earth, the one who places our sin upon his Son, Jesus Christ.

---

Introduction

I began to write this hymn in summer 2022 as I preached through Ecclesiastes. The impetus was actually an inquiry from a pastor friend several months prior. He was preaching through Ecclesiastes and wanted hymn recommendations. At the time, I had nothing good to give him. I realized the same thing when I started preaching through the book myself, so I set out to write my own hymn from the book.^[55] It’s “Psalmic” to a large degree; that is, it’s unlike a movie “based on a true story,” but rather tries to use words and themes found in the book of Ecclesiastes, as if you were to read one of Isaac Watts’s settings of the Psalms.

I based the title, “Beneath the Sun,” on the ESV’s rendering, “beneath the sun” in 2:22 and the frequent use of the word “sun” (32x) and “under the sun” or equivalent (27x) in the book.

I chose the WAYFARING STRANGER tune because it is a historic folk tune (and thus familiar to many) and also because it is in minor key. The book of Ecclesiastes is in many ways a lament about life lacking the fulfillment a person seeks. Yet I hope that there’s a rest that comes at the end of the hymn, even in its minor key. So my hymn is a song of lament, confession, and even exasperation, but ultimately about resting in God.

I have written out the backstory, commentary, used footnotes, and so on so that this hymn can have the richest and deepest impact possible.

Help and resources

I utilized a number of different resources to do so. First, I did my own exegesis. While I didn’t delve into Hebrew very much as someone not very proficient in that language, I did spend quite a bit of time with my nose in the text each week as I preached through it, wrestling with the grammar and structure of each passage in conjunction with its overall theme.

I also consulted scholarly works and commentaries on the book. For instance, helpful works have been Robert D. Bell’s Theological Messages of the Old Testament for examining the book’s themes; Thomas Schreiner’s chapter on Ecclesiastes in The King In His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments for a biblical theology survey of the book; Jason DeRouchie’s helpful section, “הֶבְל (‘Vanity’?) in Ecclesiastes” in the chapter entitled “Word and Concept Studies” in his book How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament; and Randy Jaeggli’s book, Embrace Life Under the Sun.

Also helpful were expositional commentaries such as those by Gordon Keddie, Benjamin Shaw, David Gibson, Stuart Olyott, Sinclair Ferguson, Zach Eswine, and Derek Kidner.

I also use Accordance Bible Software about a thousand times a day to look up words and references, examine Hebrew words and lexicons, other English translations, and various commentaries.

Exposition and explanation

As I understand the Hebrew word to הֶבְל (HBL) to mean, it can be variously translated into English (e.g., CSB [my base translation], ESV, BSB, NET, NLT, NASB) as “futile/futility,” “vain/vanity,” “fleeting,” “vapor,” or “breath,” depending on the context (e.g., famed Hebrew scholar Robert Alter translates 1:2 as “merest breath”).

I incorporated this word and concept several times in my poem/hymn. For instance, “sighing” (thanks to Dr. Talbert for confirming my thought that this seems like a way of personally expressing the frustration of the Teacher); “brief… vapor”; “futile”; “futility” and in various other forms to communicate the concept “fleeting” in phrases like these: “life [is] not fruitful”; “they fade before my very eyes”; “what charms today dissolves tomorrow;” and so on.

I endeavored to keep the words, phrases, and concepts as tightly matched to Ecclesiastes as possible, while also not being too tight or rigid. I also desired to hint at New Testament teaching, such as trusting in God (“our souls and works are in Your hands”) and the coming Savior (“the Shepherd will….”)  like the Teacher himself in Ecclesiastes seemed to.

There’s also hints of Romans 8, which seems to be its logical New Testament counterpart with Paul’s mention and exposition of the concept of “futility.”

Next, I attempted to capture not only the themes, but also the flow of the book. That is, each stanza builds on top of the previous stanza as the book builds and shines more light on the topic than previously.

One of the biggest critiques I got from fellow pastors as they read earlier drafts of the hymn was the absence of “joy” and “enjoyment” like Ecclesiastes mentions so frequently. I hope that my recent edits to the hymn have helped bring that out more clearly.

Practical use

I wrote this first and foremost for my own church! Mercy Baptist Church, West Chester, OH. I had various faces, voices, and hearts in mind as I wrote and edited this hymn. I pray “Beneath the Sun” is of similar helpfulness to small congregations like ours.

Five stanzas (and a lengthy, doubled meter!) is a lot to spiritually grasp. So I could envision “Beneath the Sun” being sung by a church that is working through Ecclesiastes in a preaching or teaching series and using all five stanzas. Or if you’re not working your way through Ecclesiastes, then you may want to use only stanzas 1, 3, and 5. (Though anyone is welcome to sing it using all five stanzas if you want!) I attempted to make it work so that it still flowed well from 1 to 3 to 5 as well as 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5.

Because this tune is an American folk and gospel song, variations on its melody are multitude. I’ve had this tune set in 3/4 time so that if you sing a multisyllabic word over a long note, it’s not as elongated. I also chose a setting of the melody that has fewer leaps than other settings.

Acknowledgements:

Many people committed time and energy to giving feedback to me along the way. Most notably, Joey Hoelscher, who I bugged incessantly for his thoughts about my newest ideas; Dr. Layton Talbert, my former professor in seminary; Doug Van Dorn; and Dr. Mark Ward. Also, Dan Kreider, Eileen Berry, and Greg Linscott, Andrew French, and a bunch of others took a look at it and gave me feedback. Thank you very much.

        I also need to credit Timothy Dudley-Smith, epic hymn writer of the 20th and 21st centuries, who as I write this is 95 years old. I wrote him a letter a few years ago, and to my surprise, he kindly replied!—and he included his book, A Functional Art: Reflections of a Hymn Writer! Through his kind letter and book I was encouraged to keep writing, keep editing, and not give up (even while pastoring!).

In particular, his hymn “When John Baptised by Jordan’s River,” which is in the same meter as my hymn, encouraged me to not give up and not settle. If Mr. Dudley-Smith could write a hymn (and perfectly rhymed!) in this meter, so could I. The jury is still out as to whether I accomplished my task.

And most importantly, my wife, Megan, the “wife of my youth.” She embodies the song that I wrote.

---

[1] Eccl. 1.3, 9, 14; 2.11, 17–20, 22; 3.16; 4.1, 3, 7, 15; 5.13, 18; 6.1, 12; 8.9, 15, 17; 9.3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 10.5

[2] 1.2

[3] Psa. 62.9; James 4.14

[4] Eccl. 2.17, 25; 3.12; 5.18, 20; 6.12; 7.12, 15; 8.12, 15; 9.9; 10.19; 11.10

[5] 1.3

[6] Eccl. 2.16, 23; 5.17, 20; 6.12; 7.14; 8.13; 11.9

[7] Eccl. 1.14, 17; 2.11, 17, 26; 4.4, 6, 16; 6.9

[8] Eccl. 2.22 (NIV)

[9] Eccl. 1.8; 5.10; 6.3, 7

[10] Eccl. 11.10

[11] Eccl. 7.15; 8.14

[12] Eccl. 1.2, 14; 2.1, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26; 3.19; 4.4, 8, 16; 5.10; 6.2, 9, 12; 7.6, 15; 8.10, 14; 11.8; 12.8

[13] 1.9, 10

[14] Eccl. 2.1–2, 8, 10; 3.13; 4.8; 5.4; 7.26, 28; 11.5; 12.1

[15] Eccl. 2.3; 10.19

[16] Eccl. 2.17–22, 24; 3.9, 11, 14, 17; 4.4; 5.6, 12; 8.9

[17] Eccl. 2.8; 5.10

[18] Eccl. 1.13, 16–18; 2.3, 9, 12, et al.

[19] Eccl. 1.13, 16–17; 6.8; 7.5

[20] Eccl. 2.8

[21] Eccl. 1.18; 2.23; 7.3

[22] Eccl. 4.8

[23] Eccl. 7.14

[24] Eccl. 3.1

[25] Eccl. 1.13; 2.26; 3.10; 4.8

[26] Eccl. 3.1–8, 11, 17; 7.17; 8.5–6, 9

[27] Eccl. 3.1, 11; 8.6

[28] Eccl. 11.5

[29] Eccl. 1.13; Eccl. 5.18; Eccl. 9.9

[30] Eccl. 2.16; 7.14

[31] Eccl. 3.1–8, 11, 17; 7.17

[32] Eccl. 3.13; 5.19

[33] Eccl. 9.7

[34] Eccl. 5.20; 9.7

[35] Eccl. 3.11; 7.13; 8.17; 11.5

[36] Eccl. 3.4; 7.2, 4

[37] Eccl. 5.13; 6.12; 10.19

[38] Eccl. 7.17

[39] Eccl. 2.14; 3.19; 9.2–3

[40] Eccl. 4.13; 12.12

[41] Eccl. 9.10

[42] Eccl. 7.2, 8

[43] A hat tip to the folk song “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Strangers” when it says “traveling through this world of woe.”

[44] Eccl. 11.9; 12.14

[45] Ezek. 34.10–24; Matt. 25.31–46

[46] Eccl. 11.9; 12.14

[47] Eccl. 5.17

[48] Eccl. 2.1, 24–26; 3.12–13, 22; 4.16; 5.19–20; 6.2; 7.14; 8.15; 9.9; 11.8–9

[49] Eph. 3.10–11; 2 Cor. 5.17; Rom. 8.18–25

[50] Eccl. 12.13

[51] Eccl. 3.14; 5.7; 8.12–13; 12.13

[52] Eccl. 8.2, 5; 12.13

[53] Eccl. 12.1

[54] Eccl. 2.24; 9.1

[55] Now I know Newton and Cowper have three hymns in Olney Hymns from Ecclesiastes: #54 “Vanity of Life”; #55 “Vanity of the World”; and #56 “Vanity of the Creature Sanctified” (The Works of John Newton, New Edition, Volume 2, Banner of Truth, 2015, pp. 623-24).