Featured The Case for Singing (OLD) Hymns

12Strings, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but have you ever read the book, "Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal"?

It's a follow up to Why Johnny Can't Preach, which is also an excellent book.

 

Not even close. The method by which the Ark was moved was completely out of line with the Law. Are you going to tell me singing Chris Tomlin songs is "completely out of line with Scripture?"

And you are making a judgment that, if isn't old and in the Baptist Hymnal, it isn't reverential. Not only is that rather haughty, it's just plain wrong.

 

He wasn't writing about music at all. He was writing about the sustenance and character of a Christian lifestyle using wine and music as metphors. The melody of which he spoke is in your heart to the Lord.

My point is that the Scriptures aren't silent about musical styles, as some assert. Quite the contrary, it is assumed that nature itself has taught us.

My point in this thread was merely that your definition is not the biblical definition. That was all.

 

Atmosphere is exrtremely important.

God has Moses go through GREAT pains to design the tabernacle just so, to dress the high priest just so, to build the ark of the covenant just so. The tabernacle was to be so high and so wide. Trumpets were to be blown at certain times in various ceremonies, etc, etc, etc...

In Revelation we see a vivid description of the ambience and atmosphere of heaven about the throne of Christ. There are thunderings and lightenings and trumpets and beasts crying loudly particular praises unto him that sits upon the throne.

In Is. 6 we see a similar atmosphere described. We could go on and on.

Atmosphere is extremely important in the worship of God. The ambnience communicates the Gospel we preach alongside the actual preaching of it. Atmosphere should be appropriate and congruent to the nature and awesomeness of the God we preach.

We should always press toward the ideal.

Start wherever you have to start but press continually toward the ideal.

False dichotomy here. Focusing on good singing and preaching is linked to the atmosphere in which that good singing and preaching is done.

By ALL means mimic the church down the street if they are prodiucing a loftier perspective of God than you are. By all means.

Probably.

 

The spirit of the law was that God was to be greatly feared and reverenced.

Make the tabernacle exactly this way- why? Because God ought to be approached with the highest possible reverence.

Never put human hands on the ark of the covenant- why? Because God ought to be approached with the highest possible reverence.

Ananias and Saphira die in the church in the New Testament- why? Because God ought STILL to be approached with the highest possible reverence.

Chris Tomlin may be better than most. I do think he sounds rather effeminate when he sings, however.

I do not care for about half of the songs in the Baptist Hymnal. I do not think a church should avoid new songs, either.

I think there are a lot of new songs that can be done tastefully with appropriate musical arrangements in church today.

 

Beautiful opening post. "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" is breathtaking. Fernando Ortega has a wonderful way of taking old hymns, some forgotten, and preserving their beauty and simplicity while reintroducing them to the world. I really like that about him. "Sing Allelu" is one of them.
It's nice to sit in silence and ponder our Creator while listening to "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." Sometimes will just bring you to your knees. Give it a listen!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8wl4u8lnDQs

 

How can you tell the difference between doing it make self feel good, and doing it because you want to praise and glorify him?

Do you think it's possible for someone to perform music in order to please self and make self feel good and deceive them self into thinking it's being done to praise the Lord?

 

I agree with you my brother.

 

Some of the best songs I've heard are in the Sweet Songster and Thomas Hymnal....

 

Personally thinking ....

I can't see why a service can't combine the old with the new, so long as they have relevance and fit the theme of the service. I like to sing the old hymns as much as the new choruses, and I've always been able to merge them successfully! BTW - I like to use overheads of projected words on a screen, so no one has to fumble around with a hymnal trying to find the page!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it :smilewinkgrin:

 

12strings--agree with your post completely.

Apparently my church does also, as we have recently revamped worship to include more hymns, for just those reasons.

And guess who is leading the charge? It is most definitely not our seniors, or aging baby boomers who want to keep their rock and ccm.

It is being led by the young marrieds and the teens and the college age kids.

Same folks leading the charge wanting more "reverence" in worship.

Boomers in jeans sitting next to younger folks who have dressed up.

 

Any of you know what a Psalter is? I ask that because some churches ONLY sing the Psalms. The beauty of metrical psalms is that they we can sing them to the tune of Amazing Grace and other well-known tunes.

At one point, exclusive psalmody was quite the debate. But I guess it would/could solve the worship wars.....no more fighting about hymns vs contemporary. Just singing songs out of the Bible's song book. Something to ponder.

 

For a psalter that puts the book of Psalms into English poetic form, I would recommend that you purchase a copy of The Poetic Interpretation of the Psalms, by Isaac Watts.

This 281-page paperback book can be purchased from Amazon for about eight dollars.

What Isaac Watts has done was to take the Psalms and re-arrange the words into English poetry. Then, based on the particular poem's meter, the reader is then referred to hymn tunes to which that poetic Psalm can be sung.

EXAMPLE: The twenty-third Psalm is converted into Watt's poem, "The Lord Our Shepherd," which is set to the short meter. IOW, you can sing his poem to such hymns as "Blest Be the Tie That Binds," or "Crown Him With Many Crowns."

 

I'm another one who appreciates and agrees with the OP. Have to add a note about 'adapting' "Morning Has Broken". No need - it's a Christian hymn first published in 1931, and set to an older tune from the Scottish Highlands. Cat Stevens is the one who did the adapting. Another comment: Our church folks love "And Can It Be?" - it's a challenging tune but Weslay's words are deep and reverent. For a really difficult song, try "Hallelujah For The Cross" - with a vocal range greater than that for the "Star Spangled Banner", but still a fine hymn even though my voice cracks if I try for the high notes.