Last night we watched the test match between New Zealand and South Africa. It was a fine game of rugby marred only by two incidents before the kick off.

The first incident was the faulty wireless microphone used by the chanteuse of the South African national anthem, a fault that didn’t extend to the New Zealand anthem. I’d be disappointed to think the failure, demoralising for the South African team and their supporters, was anything more than a random technical hitch.

The second incident happens at every international rugby game and many other public events. We sang the national anthem. How is it that in the twenty first century New Zealanders are still singing God of nations, at thy feet?

That a largely secular multi-cultural democracy has for its national song a prayer for divine protection written by a white nineteenth century freemason is matter for an entirely separate debate. My concern, if the formatting above doesn’t make it clear, is with the pronoun thy.

Because of the context in which we usually hear the words thou, thee, thy and thine we can be forgiven for thinking that these pronouns indicate solemnity or respect. The opposite is true.

Originally these words were the singular equivalents of you, you, your and yours respectively. Technically they’re the second person singular nominative, objective and a pair of possessives. There have been equivalent singular/plural pronoun pairings in many languages with latin roots; any high school french student can tell you the difference between tu and vous. Significantly, the singular pronouns are less respectful and less formal than the plural equivalents which have largely superseded them.

The use of separate singular pronouns began to fade in seventeeth century english, although the further from London you look the longer it lasted. It was perpetuated in written form: specifically in the liturgy of the established church, a liturgy published in 1662 and not updated until the twentieth century. In a church-going age it was the association of these pronouns with religious observance that made many feel it was natural and proper to address God as thou and thee.

When Thomas Bracken wrote the first line of God Defend New Zealand in 1876 it was understandable that he should follow it with at thy feet. But it’s not necessary for us to continue singing it that way a century later.

Bringing these pronouns up to date has no affect on scansion in any of the anthem’s five verses. For as long as this continues to be New Zealand’s national anthem, let’s start it by singing God of nations … at your feet.