The Missing O

The Missing O April 26, 2009

“Largely obsolete? Largely obsolete!” It was enough to make me choke on my cornflakes—if I had been eating them. But according to what I was reading in the Chicago Manual of Style (that document hated by most authors, but loved by all editors) I was clearly somewhat last century!

Bring back the “O” I say! As a simple explosion of pent up energy, a cry of pent-up emotion, an expression of passion, and most of all, as a prayer of desperation tinged with joy, the word O is to be celebrated and we should use it all the time. A bit like that dying phrase, “as miserable as sin,” the word “O” should be on our lips as often as possible.

Where would we be without the word “O?” Christian worship would be infinitely worse off. Actually, perhaps Christian worship is ALREADY infinitely worse off because this word sits reluctantly on the substitute bench. Such glorious phrases as the following would simply not be possible without the “O” and any attempt to remove it would lead to hopelessly emasculated and effeminate words like, well, like some of our modern worship music today! Bring it back, I say, bring it back so we can hear phrases like:

“O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder…”
“O, what Love is this? That paid so dearly?”
“O! how I love Jesus! O! How how I love Jesus!”
“O, I’ll become even more undignified than this!”
“And we will see him as he is, O YEAH! O YEAH!”
“O God of burning cleansing flame, send the fire!”
“Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old …”
“Speak, O Lord, as we come to You”
“O church arise, and put your armor on!”

The alert of you will have noticed that some of those phrases do come from modern music from the likes of Stuart Townend, Keith Getty and the Fellinghams. So, fortunately, the age of the O is not yet over. Perhaps we could even say, the news of O’s death was exaggerated.

God save our gracious O
Long live our noble O
God save the O
Send O victorious
Happy and glorious
Long may O inspire us
God save the O!


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