A friend of mine once mused that it was at Christmas that Christians finally sing good hymns. Selah.1 And Chuck Bumgardner (here and here and here) has been providing some excellent commending great hymns of the season. I thought I would take my weekly post here to suggest to you an advent hymn myself. I… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Articles on Hymnody
Incarnation Hymnody: "Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth" and “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming"
We here continue our series on Incarnation Hymnody. Today: the ancient “Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth” and the not-quite-as-ancient-but-still-very-old “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”. Incorporating hymnody such as these two pieces from years past helps, I think, to emphasize our connection to the church’s past, and can perhaps fulfill C. S. Lewis’s sage… Continue Reading
Incarnation Hymnody: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" and "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
Today’s post continues our series on “incarnation hymnody.” Today: the ancient “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” and Charles Wesley’s “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” ____________________ “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” is an ancient song and an interesting example of singing texts with a different understanding than the text’s author intended. Because the hymn is… Continue Reading
Incarnation Hymnody: "Of the Father's Love Begotten" and "Silent Night"
God’s people, and especially those who would stand before the Christian assembly and lead in singing praise, ought always to be thoughtful about what they are singing. This is often a challenge with familiar songs, and perhaps especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas. During the last month of the year, those who are… Continue Reading
Hymn Highlights: "Jesus Lives, and So Shall I"
I am always thrilled when someone introduces me to a hymn that is well-written and theologically rich, and for some reason or another has been neglected by the editors of popular hymnals. Today, let me introduce you to one of my old friends! “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I” by Christian Gellert (original German title:… Continue Reading
Changing hymn lyrics
Changing the lyrics of hymns we sing has a long, established precedent, and for good reason. If hymns are meant to be genuine expressions of corporate worship, then we should sing what we mean and mean what we sing. If a hymn is good, and yet there are one or two words or phrases we… Continue Reading
Notes on "It Is Well"
This month, our pastor used Sunday evenings to preach a series covering the broad, overarching metanarrative of Scripture. Titled “The Epic Story,” he moved in four services through Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation (listen). For congregational hymns prior to the last message, I chose “Come, We that Love the Lord” (speaking of our present experience… Continue Reading
Sing to the Lord a New Song
At least nine times, Scripture directly refers to a “new song,” via both psalmist (Ps. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1) and prophet (Isa 42:10; Rev 5:9; 14:3). In some instances, the reference takes the form of an injunction: “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!” (Ps… Continue Reading
The Hymnody of the Christian Church
Here are PDFs and audio from the entire Christian hymnody series: Hymnody of the Church Part 1 | Audio Hymnody of the Church Part 2 | Audio Continue Reading
Hymnody Today: What Do We Do?
So where does this leave us today? I will conclude with several brief suggestions of we should be striving toward in our choices of hymns for corporate worship. Recognize the importance of form. Form shapes content. As we evaluate the hymns that we sing, we must not be content that our hymns simply say the… Continue Reading
Two Roads Diverged
The dethroning of the Church by Reason and the creation of pop culture left the Church in an awkward position. Its cultural influence was non-existent. As the culture around it plunged into sanitized paganism, the Church’s traditional forms became foreign. The Church was in Babylon, yet it was free to worship as it pleased. So… Continue Reading
Hymn advocates aren't always good hymn writers
Benjamin Keach, a Baptist pastor in the late 17th century, is often credited as the first Englishman to provide a well-developed defense of the recovery1 of hymn singing (instead of exclusive Psalm singing). His advocacy paved the way for Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and other significant English hymn writers. Just because you are a successful… Continue Reading
The Enlightenment and Christian Hymnody
This far in our journey we have witnessed an almost unbroken stream of Judeo-Christian tradition. From King David to Lutheran composer Johann Crüger (1598-1662) we find a slow and steady cultivation of poetic and musical forms. There were certainly bumps in the road and many changes along the way, yet for around 1800 years the quality… Continue Reading
Reformation Hymns
When Martin Luther (1483—1546) sparked a Reformation of the Church by nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the Church door at Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged the Roman Church’s doctrine and practice, but never its musical forms. The musical forms of the Reformation continued to follow in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The most significant change Luther made for… Continue Reading
Medieval Hymns
When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 with the Edict of Milan, and Christianity soon became the religion of the entire empire, the cultural conditions within which the Church thrived changed into a situation that had not been enjoyed since before the Hebrew exile. Soon the Church gained prominence over all aspects of politics and… Continue Reading
Early Church Hymns
The hymnody of the early church was naturally an extension of Hebrew hymnody.1 Therefore, we can expect the hymnody of the early church to have the same general characteristics of Hebrew hymns: Early church hymns were word-centered, modest, and distinct, and they continued to nurture the forms they inherited from Jewish worship. The only change would… Continue Reading
Hymnody in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
The Beginning The first mention of music in the Bible is in Genesis 4. Verses 17—22 list Cain’s descendants, and specifically those who began the development of various cultural and social skills. Jabal was “the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock,” Tubal-cain was “the forger of all instruments of bronze and… Continue Reading
The Cultivation of Form
On the wall in my study I have three portraits. All three are portraits of theologians who were also heavily involved with music. They are Martin Luther, J.S. Bach, and Isaac Watts. All three men fought their battles in defense of high standards for worship music. All three had their share of controversy. And all… Continue Reading
Musical Form in Christian Hymnody
Musical form shapes content in very similar ways to poetic form, yet it is a bit more abstract and thus considerably more difficult to readily recognize. But because music communicates by mimicking natural human expression, anyone can discern the basic meaning of music by simply listening closely and asking a few penetrating questions. Music contains… Continue Reading
Poetic Meter in Christian Hymnody
The next level of form is poetic meter and rhyme scheme. A poetic meter is basically how many syllables are in each line of the poem, and where the naturally stresses are. Consider this example: A – MAZ – ing GRACE! How SWEET the SOUND That SAVED a WRETCH like ME! I ONCE was LOST,… Continue Reading