Some Observations About Singing & Studying Hymns

For a couple months now in Sunday School, we have been teaching through some of the finest hymns that the church has produced over the centuries. Clif addressed this from the outset, but one looming question might still be in your mind as we continue through this study: “Wait – why are we doing this again?” Maybe you realize the benefit of singing hymns, but don’t necessarily find hymns the most exciting thing to study. Well, a few remarks about singing and studying hymns:

 

First, we all know that the Bible commands us to sing. We could scour the Old Testament and find commands galore to lift our voices. But we also see this emphasized in the New Testament: in two particular places, Paul tells his readers to sing praises to God. The first place is in Ephesians 5.18-19: “…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.” This same idea shows up in Colossians 3.16-17: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Each passage teaches us, respectively, that (1) singing to the Lord is a result of being filled with the Spirit, and (2) singing to the Lord is a product of Christ’s word dwelling in us richly. In both cases, the Word and the Spirit are the driving forces that fuel our praise to our almighty God! So it’s no wonder that the Bible, anticipating that the Word and the Spirit will accomplish their work in redeeming sinners, commands singing to the Lord.

 

Second, what then are we to sing? Let’s take Paul’s words again from Ephesians and Colossians. Paul uses the same phrase in both places, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Does this mean that we are to sing something other than the Psalms? What exactly does Paul have in mind by “hymns” and “spiritual songs”? Although there’s debate on what each of those Greek words specifically means, we know with certainty that Paul is at least speaking about singing the Psalms. So let’s go there for some insight!

 

Take Psalm 96 for example (which, by the way, is a beautiful Psalm to sing in its own right!). This is a psalm about singing, so it should be especially instructive. Notice how the psalm opens: “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, sing to the LORD all the earth!” Right off the bat, we have another command to sing – and notice how it’s to sing something new! We could move two psalms further to Psalm 98 and see the same thing: “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!” If Ps. 96 emphasizes the universal nature of all the earth singing a new song, then Ps. 98 highlights the basis for singing a new song: the Lord has done something worthy of our marvel by saving his people! The idea seems to be that the Lord’s salvation is too comprehensive, too full, too marvelous to be contained in only a few set songs! Rather, the Psalms themselves give us warrant, even expect us, to sing new songs to the Lord… For just as the God who works salvation is infinite and inexhaustible, so too will the songs about his salvation be inexhaustible.

 

This is why we sing hymns! This is why the Church has, for 2,000 years, written and sung “new songs” about so many different facets of God, salvation, sin, Christ, and every topic in the Bible! This is also why we continue to sing hymns: because God’s glory is so incredible that it prompts further singing, until Christ comes again – and even then, we will be singing new songs (see Rev. 5.9, 14.3)! For we will have an eternity to plumb the depths of our inexhaustible God, whose face we will see in Christ, the face of salvation and redemption – what a reason to sing a new song! Hymns, therefore, find their basis in the inexhaustibility of God himself.

 

So do we sing psalms? You betcha. Psalms are divinely-inspired songs that God’s people have been singing for thousands of years – when we sing the Psalms, we even join with Old Testament saints who sang those very words as they ascended Mount Zion to worship the Lord! But do we also sing hymns? Absolutely. The Bible expects that we do, and there is an infinite amount of content about our eternal God to supply an endless number of hymns.

 

A final thought on benefitting from hymns: When we sing (and study!) hymns, we are getting a front row seat to the story of God’s redemption that he worked in some individual from the past. We can make their thankfulness for salvation our own. We remember how the Lord has worked similarly in our own lives to snatch us from the muck of our sin and bring us into green pastures of fellowship with him. And what better way to do this well, than to study those hymns of old.

 

So I’d encourage you: come and engage with the Sunday School Hymn Study! Learn about the hymns that have strengthened Christians’ faith for centuries! Understand better the “why” behind singing hymns! And may those things serve our singing to more faithfully and more heartily render to God the praise that he is due.

 

“O sing a new sing to the LORD, for wonders he has done.

By his right hand and holy arm, the vict’ry he has won.

 

God’s great salvation is revealed, for he has made it known,

He in the sight of nations all, his righteousness has shown.

 

O praise the LORD with voice and harp, with harps your praises sing,

Make joyful noise with trumpet and horn before the LORD, the King.”

 

(select stanzas from a metrical rendition of Psalm 98)

 

 

Blessings,

 

Trey