Hymns in Worship--Part One

It is Sunday night and I am thinking about the wonderful worship service we had this morning. At Glasgow, we typically have a nice blend of hymns and chorus songs. This morning we sang several hymns--"All Creatures of Our God and King" with traditional piano and organ, a new arrangement of "Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone," by Chris Tomlin, a new version of the great hymn "I Will Sing of My Redeemer," and the modern hymn, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." We also did a simple chorus song taken from the Psalms and Romans 14:11, "Come Now is the Time to Worship." I don't know about you, but I was also so blessed by our youth choir--they sang a simple song of the love and comfort that we find in our Triune God.

It seemed that ALL the "voices" of the church were heard in worship today. I love that the older people at Glasgow join in with the youthful chorus songs that they may not particularly love--that is an encouragement and a great example to your covenant children. And it lifts my soul to see young children and the choir teens singing out on the old hymns that may seem to them to be a totally foreign style. These liturgical actions are, in effect, yielding to each other in humility and condescension just as Christ did for each of us. These are some of my "favorite things" about Glasgow. What a great place to lead worship!

I would like our congregation to focus on learning some modern hymns and continue to deepen our appreciation of the great hymns. Hymns are composed for congregations to sing as opposed to many songs that are written for a soloist to sing. The tunes are usually very singable. Generally speaking, hymns do not elicit the outward emotional response that chorus songs deliver, so they may appear on the surface to be less lively. Nothing could be further from the real truth! Hymns are doctrine and Scripture which IS life! Many times hymns pierce the heart in quiet, profound, and lasting ways. Don't measure worship by appearances--true worship can't be measured by how loudly the congregation sings, how many hands are raised, or if we clap in unison. True worship can be measured by our lives throughout the week. Jesus deals with "mere appearances" in the book of John--very powerfully, of course.