OK, I’ve finally made it to the exciting title track of Heaven Shall Not Wait.
This is a great and disturbing hymn. Read the text here or listen to the piece and you will see why. The traditionally styled majestic tune Bell wrote is reminiscent of triumphalist hymnody and the effect is jarring as the intention is flipped by the excoriating text.
As in many of the hymns he grew up with in the Church of Scotland and those from my childhood in the Presbyterian church in Australia, heaven has only one syllable.
Same text, different tune: