Faith Filled Friday: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

This hymn never caught my attention until last night while working out at the gym and listening to my religious music play list on my ipod.  Yes, I listen to religious music while working out!  And I've got 844 songs on that play list, and throughout the grunts and heavy breathing of the workout I feel God's grace with heavenly prayer.  Singing hymns as St. Augustine says is praying twice.

Colin Raye does a magnificent job singing it.  That's the version I have that came up on the play list.  Unfortunately his version is not on Youtube, so I can't post it here, but you can hear 30 seconds worth on Amazon here.  It's most definitely worth 99 cents but actually get the entire album, His Love Remains.  Every song on there is a brilliant version of a classic hymn.  I recommend it.

According to Wikipedia this hymn is ancient:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on words from Habakkuk 2:20, "Let all the earth keep silence before him". The original was composed in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn for the Offertory of the Divine Liturgy of St James in the fourth century AD, with local churches adopting arrangements in Syriac.

The fourth century is 1800 years ago!

The best version I could find off Youtube was this by Robert Kochis, also a very beautiful version.  Ignore that last twenty seconds at the end of the video.  Not sure why it's there, but I really wanted to keep this version. 

What's different on the Colin Raye version is that unlike most of the versions on Youtube which feature a piano as the principle accompaniment, Raye's version uses a violin, and I think it complements wonderfully.  I must say that a male vocal contrasted against a solo violin really captures me.  There's an added tension which I can't explain that a piano just doesn't provide.

Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!