Hymns

Scripture in Hymns

withgodsword Hymns, M. W. Bassford

In the comments on my post yesterday (which discussed, among other things, the importance of humility), a sister noted that her grandson had been wandering around the house yesterday singing “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.”  In response, somebody else observed that it showed how hymns are an important vehicle for teaching Scriptural truth.

I will never decline an invitation to board that particular bandwagon!  However, I believe that it’s true not only of sung-Scripture hymns like “Humble Yourselves” (if I were a composer, I would probably do nothing but set verses to music), but also of many of the greatest hymns of all time.  If we have memorized the lyrics to those hymns, we also have memorized a sizable number of Scriptures, often without realizing it.  Continue reading →

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To Our Knees

withgodsword Hymns, M. W. Bassford

O God, You bring us to our knees,
For You are very great;
We marvel at the mysteries
You purpose and create.
The starry reaches of the night
Declare Your majesty and might;
They show You clearly to our sight
And bring us to our knees. Continue reading →

The Future of Song Worship

withgodsword Hymns

A week ago, my brother D. J. Bulls posted an article about the high-church standard “All Creatures of Our God and King” on his blog.  At the beginning of the article, though, he said something even more interesting than his analysis of the hymn.  He reported that according to his observations (and D.J. is vastly more knowledgeable about worship trends than I am), we are in the middle of a worship shift away from Christian contemporary music back to. . . traditional hymns.

Frankly, I find this astounding.  My worship tastes are moderately conservative, but I figured that in holding those tastes, like Elijah in 1 Kings 19, I alone was left.  Instead, I learn that rather than being a voice crying in the wilderness, I am part of A Trend.

It’s almost disappointing.  I enjoy being a solitary prophet of doom, equipped with sandwich boards bearing “Abide With Me” on one side and “Sun of My Soul” on the other, proclaiming, “The end is near!”  Except apparently the end isn’t near.  The beginning is.

If indeed this is the case, if people are beginning to look back in order to move forward, here is what I would like to see from the worship of the church in the decades to come. Continue reading →

The Banality of Bad Hymns

withgodsword Hymns, M. W. Bassford

The other day, somebody posted the above hymn on the Facebook group “I’m Fed Up With Bad Church Music”.  The posting prompted considerable debate about whether it was, in fact, a bad hymn.  My own initial reaction was, “Wow; that’s bad!”  My second reaction was, “Why am I so sure that this is bad?”

After all, it isn’t bad in the ways that hymns are usually bad.  It has a point.  It doesn’t wander from that point.  It uses consistent rhythm, rhyme, and meter.  Usually, that’s a recipe for a hymn that is at least mediocre.  However, I don’t feel like this one even makes it over the bar of mediocrity.  In fact, the word it brought to mind was “banal”, which the dictionary tells us means, “commonplace, trite”.  It’s simply too inelegant to work well as a hymn.  In particular, I think the problems are: Continue reading →

“Before the Throne of God Above” and Calvinism

withgodsword Hymns

A day or two ago, my brother Kent Berman asked on the Hymnody group on Facebook whether the second verse of the hymn “Before the Throne of God Above” was Calvinistic.  For those who aren’t familiar with said verse, it goes like this:

When Satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look, and see Him there
who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free,
for God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me. Continue reading →