Old Hallelujahs with New Melodies
Dear church,
I grew up in a church that sang hymns exclusively. The only time I remember that we didn’t sing a hymn is maybe in Sunday School. We would sing those fun Sunday School songs instead. Remember those? Songs like… ‘If You’re Saved and You Know it’, ‘Jesus Loves Me’, and ‘Father Abraham.’ Those were a lot of fun.
But on Sunday mornings (and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights) we sang hymns. We sang all of them. We sang all the verses and then we’d sing them again. I really loved it. Grant it, I didn’t know anything else, but I absolutely loved it. I loved singing from hymn books and trying to figure out what all the dots and lines were that accompanied the lyrics. I finally figured out that as the dots moved up and down the lines so did the notes we sang. I got interested in the piano and how to learn the notes and play the hymns we’ve sung. I remember my older brother got a guitar and started to learn the chords that went with the hymns. It was so much fun to learn how to play those chords with those hymns. As I got a little older, I loved finding the four parts of the harmony and trying to sing along with the bass line. We had a choir in our church and in high school, I would join the choir with my dad and learn how to sing the parts and I finally learned what all those dots and lines were for in the hymnals!
What was really special was hearing those many voices singing together and worshiping our Savior through those hymns that lasted generations!
I still love singing hymns. We usually sing at least one every week in our Sunday morning service. I think there is still something really special about singing truths about our savior that saints of old in our church have also sung. To think of Barney Wimer, Bev Dull, Glenn Butler, Dorothy Lamoreaux, and countless other members of First Christian Church in times past also singing ‘How Great Thou Art’, ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’, and other hymns is pretty special. Can you imagine the number of melodies and harmonies that have been sung in our church these last almost 130 years? The hymns that we sing today that are (in some cases) a hundred years old speak to the lasting nature of our faith and practice. We serve an everlasting and eternal God. We serve and sing to a God that Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac worshipped as well. We declare truths about our Savior like King David would do in his palace or in the green fields during his shepherd days. And when we sing these beautiful hymns, I believe they speak to the faith we live by today and the reality we someday will embrace in the presence of our Savior.
Although it seems like we’ve known some songs all our lives, the reality is that every song for us was a new song at some point. And we learned them over time. I love singing hymns. I also really love singing modern worship songs. The truths contained in some modern worship songs have moved me in ways that have brought me closer to my Savior. Worship songs like ‘The Goodness of God’, ‘I Will Rise’, and ‘Graves into Gardens’ have really encouraged me in recent days.
About a month ago my sister texted me and included the link to a worship song she’s loved recently. The song was ‘Old Church Basement’ by Elevation Worship & Maverick City. The song is a first-person account of remembering what it was like to worship as a teenager. The artist shares how that over the course of his life while the music, melodies, and sometimes the lyrics have changed, the worship and recipient (our Savior) of that worship has never changed. These hymns we loved for years and the worship songs that we love today are simply the same worship with new melodies. They’re just an ‘old hallelujah with a new melody.’
I’m truly grateful that on a given Sunday in our service we may sing a hymn that is hundreds of years old that has stood the test of time, while also singing a worship song that was written in the last couple of years. What a beautiful testament to the creativity of God’s people and the everlasting nature of God’s people! It is true that Scripture encourages us to sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs. It is also true that Lamentations reminds us that His mercies are new every morning and the Psalmist declares to us that we should have a new song in our hearts.
Hymns. Worship songs. It’s not either/or for us. It’s both.
Hallelujah is all I need
When I think of Your goodness and Your love for me
Oh, the joy of my salvation is coming back to me
It's just an old hallelujah with a new melody
~ ‘Old Church Basement’ by Elevation Worship & Maverick City
So how about it?
What’s a hymn that comes to mind that you’re worshipping God with today?
What worship song reflects your heart’s worship today?
There’s room for them both.
I love you church,
Pastor Daniel
(In upcoming issues of ‘Dear church’ we’ll talk about three guest speakers that will come to FCC in the coming months, how I study for a message, and what a week looks like in the life of your pastor)
