www.theologyinworship.com/2015/02/11/8-reasons-every-christian-should-sing-hymns/
I have to say up front that I agree with the title. there are many reasons we should sing hymns and many of the reasons mentioned in the article are good reasons to sing hymns. However i was rather disappointed that the author of the article rather than encourage the reader to the value of hymns instead decided to explain why Hymns are better than contemporary worship songs not found in hymn books. So I decided to write a differing perspective point by point as a suggested view that is different than the authors.
As read the authors opening statement I would agree that hymn-singing has been lost in many evangelical circles and denominations and yes this is indeed a loss. However, just because a church or denomination doesn't sing from a hymn book or sing hymns for every song doesn't mean that they have completely abandoned hymns. It certainly doesn't make entire denominations "desperate." To resort to name calling in his/her opening statement pretty much tells us the attitude and tone the rest of this article. Just because a denomination or church decides to worship stylistically different than the authors doesn't make them lesser than you or your ways. This attitude highly resembles what e read about the pharisees and their interpretation of Jesus not following their traditions.
If we really want to honor the Lord, lets put personal preference aside and worship Him the way He wants to be worshiped.
Colossians 3:16
16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
God obviously saw a distinction between psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and calls on us to sing and teach and admonish one another singing all of the above. Making no distinction that one was better than the other.
The author then moves on to their eight points. Lets address each one of these individually.
1. Hymns teach theology. in this point the author asserts that "we are what we sing" and suggests that only hymns "inform, enrich, or edify our faith" therefore we should "choose well."
Interestingly, Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines theology as:
: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience : the study of God and God's relation to the world
As this article is talking about how we should worship God I think it is fair to say that Hymns do teach theology as they talk about Gods attributes and character and talk about His relation to the world. But the same could be said about any song that talks about Gods attributes and character and how He relates to us. In fact God's word commands us to do this.
Psalm 33:1-22
"Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast..."
The command here is to "sing." Sing what? as mentioned above in Colossians we are to sing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Take notice what the psalmist inspired by the Holy Spirit tells us to sing We are to sing a "New Song." This is one of many times the word of God tells us to sing new songs. to take the attitude that only hymns should be sung in worship is clearly not good theology.
"Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast..."
2. Hymns allow for more authentic response of emotional expression. I think the author here makes a good argument why they respond more authentically and emote better through the hymns. writing things like:
"I feel my faith is all the better for having the great hymns of faith in my head, heart, and mouth, because they gave me a heightened language for articulating the good news of Christ’s gospel in response to what I saw happening in my life."
This however is a matter of personal opinion and preference not justification for making the absolute statement articulated in the title of point number two. What the author uses to ascertain that absolute statement is that in his/her experience is
"So much of what I’ve seen from contemporary worship simply seems inauthentic, flippant, and a bit dismissive, especially in response to the ugly, horrific realities we find in this world. But the best hymns of the past and present allow for a more honest, more natural, more human response to the stark terror happening around us at home and abroad. And during the darkest (and happiest) times of my life"
Once again this is a a matter of personal preference and experience, not facts that are substantiated by the author. Personally when I am going through a tough time in response to the ugly, horrific realities in this world singing a song that uses language I don't use today or communicates like I would never talk doesn't seem more natural, honest and more human to me. I would rather sing a song like Shane and Shane's "Though You Slay Me" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyUPz6_TciY to me singing these lyrics draw me to Who God is and How He is involved in the world even if it isn't in a hymn book with musical notes for me to follow because if I don't read music like most people who to church... but I'm getting ahead of my self and into other points. Sometimes the more authentic response isn't a congregational song rather a song where I sit and listen, or as Psalm 46 says "be still and know He is God" But this is me, my personality, and how I see and know God better and worship him. The author resonates better singing a hymn with rhyme and rhythm and where everyone is looking out of a book and congregationaly rather than individually AND THAT IS OK. I don't think one is better than the other just different but both in line with scripture as already pointed out in Colossians 3:16.
3. Hymns display a social consciousness. The author here makes the assumption that hymns radically impact the way we relate to the world but that spiritual songs and psalms do not. The problem I have here is that many of the hymns we sing were contemporary in their day. That is they were contemporary when written. Some of the famous hymns were even written to old bar tunes and melodies. Just because the author loves the familiarity of singing the same songs over and over again or likes looking down at a book to see the lyrics and musical notes doesn't mean that those who are looking up at a screen or singing without musical notes in front of them are any less socially aware. Just because someone doesn't lead from a hymn book doesn't mean they are "self-aggrandizing" I have lead worship for years without hymn books but I have no desire to make much of my self. When I sing Matt Redman's lyrics "...I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about You..Jesus" I don't think that is making much of myself. And if you have ever seen Matt Redman lead worship he is very unassuming. I feel sorry for the author as he/she has obviously had limited exposure or experience to contemporary worship music or the heart behind it. Whoever you have seen who gave you such a jaded view of spiritual songs of the day I apologize on their behalf. Just because it is new or different in form doesn't mean it is less socially conscious or aware. In fact Psalm says:
Psalm 96:1-13
Sing to the Lord a new song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary...
He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary...
4. Hymns were written for congregational singing. I won't spend much time here other than to say that many contemporary songs have been recorded so individuals can listen to them at home or during private worship. However many and most times they were never intended to be performed or sung that way in corporate worship settings. As someone who has been close enough to some of these circles of worship leaders many record in keys that are suitable to their voice and liking but when leading live congregations lower the keys so that they are congregational friendly. Maybe, like mentioned previously the author has had bad experience with under educated or under-qualified worship leaders who try to lead these songs like they were recorded or in the key they were recorded in. leaving them with a bad taste in their mouth.
I could point out just as many hurdles one might face when leading from a hymnal though. Most people these days do mot read music so to see tiny lyrics with all those musical notes can be confusing and cluttered. The argument could be made that using a hymnal is less congregational because my focus is down in a book as opposed to looking up at a screen giving me a better peripheral vision that I am indeed part of a group of people who are all engaged. Many of the hymns while poetically beautiful use language that is neither natural or understood by many today which can lead to less involvement in congregational singing or even more importantly worshiping because the two are not always synonymous. Once again this is a matter of preference and neither is better than the other.
5. The hymn tradition readily accepts new contributions. I would agree that for those who would rather sing hymns it is becoming ever more difficult to find places that do the hymns. But I don't think this is because contemporary has polarized old versus new any more than can be said of those who love hymns polarizing it. I worked in youth in one way or another a good 20 years and I never heard a youth say "lets not sing those hymns" But I have heard many hymn lovers say there is no place for that contemporary stuff in "our" service. In fact the tone of this article carries that same attitude attacking contemporary spiritual songs as "lesser" or not godly at all. When scripture is pretty clear that it isn't an either or rather both.
6. Hymns naturally lend themselves to liturgical use. I agree with the author here. He/she would have been dead on if they had left it at that but they had to add that last jab
"In this way, hymns become the work of the people, instead of the people’s entertainment."
Unfortunately because of this statement much of what had value to this point is tainted and will be ignored by readers. The gross assumption that non-hymn worship songs are "people's entertainment" is insulting and lacks any biblical or justifying clarification to add wait to their argument. This is polarizing and thus discredits your argument in point #5
7.Hymns remind us that we don't worship to attract unbelievers. Many of the good old hymns we sing, and I am not saying that tongue in cheek, they are good old hymns, were written to old bar tunes. the reality is that musicians express their art in ways that reflect culture and context around them. Even the authors of hymns. If we are to really take the author literally when they say
"Hymns don’t mimic popular style in word or music. They are distinctively different songs for a distinctively different covenant people."
I would ask, why we don't read the Hebrew or Greek Bible or sing in Gregorian chant style with only male vocals. No God's people have always worshiped Him and declared his praises with the influence of the cultural context they live in. We are not of the world but we do live in it and this is more the case of change happening and the authors inability to accept the changes in the musical culture of the church not in morality, or depth of song rather in just style of music.
8. Hymns unite generations of Christian people. this is where I agree the most with the author. Singing hymns reminds us of our past, our heritage and should not be abandoned. However we must bring up and reach the future generations as well. Change will happen and should happen in every facet of life including musical expression of worship. The Psalmist in Psalm 40:3 tells us that God put a new song in his mouth... and because of it many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Just because something is new doesn't make it bad or less valuable or more valuable than something old. IF the heart of the worship leader and worshiper are to worship God style should be inconsequential!
