We had been invited by a family to spend a weekend with them. We arrived in time for supper and had an enjoyable time around the meal. After eating, the Bible was brought out, read and commented on. Then “Hymns of Worship and Remembrance,” the one used at the remembrance meeting of the assembly, was brought out. The man of the house announced the number for the evening, and the family sang the hymn–in four-part harmony! My wife and I joined in with gusto. What a treat! Was this a recent visit? No. It was in the early ’70’s.
I remember the times when my mother played the piano, Dad the violin, my sister the french horn, and I the sax. We would spend hours together, going hymn by hymn through the book. It was at these sessions I deepened my knowledge and appreciation of the words, melody–and correct timing–of the songs.
The young peoples’ group, after an evening together, would gather around the piano in someone’s house and sing. Or we’d have an entire evening of hymn singing. Some would bring their instruments, and we’d all join together. We would sing parts and learn new hymns. Those were great times.
Why are these just memories? When was the last time you were at a hymn sing? The last time your family gathered around the piano (or whatever instrument you play) and started at one end of the book to go all the way through it? Why is it that we sing the same 30 hymns from our hymnbooks over and over again without branching out to the other 300 we don’t know?
Let me suggest a few reasons. First, there is the fragmentation of the family. School activities send us scurrying. The assembly even helps in this. Young people’s one night, AWANA another, ladies’ fellowship, the men’s meeting. Are these things wrong? Of course not–but they can be destructive if we let them.
Secondly, there is the great gap in styles of music. The “old folks” sing hymns and the next generation prefer contemporary music. These two factors have done more to stop hymn singing than anything else.
What can be done? Does a song have to be a hundred years old to be good? No. There are some good new hymns. But the songs we teach our children should be governed by scriptural principles. The songs we sing should teach that which brings honor to Christ (Col. 3:16). We should sing from hearts that are filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:19). The Spirit shows us the Word of God, both Incarnate and written. But too many of the “new” songs are nothing but subjective emotionalism depending heavily on the beat, with tunes that either need a professional to sing them, or are just the same thing repeated over and over again. Too many of the songs are “egocentric,” not “Christocentric”; “subjective,” not “Objective”; “spectator,” not “congregational.”
A course I took in school was called Music Appreciation. One of the objectives of the course was to give me an appreciation of the “Masters” of music: Beethoven, Handel, Bach, and many others. We need to have music appreciation times in our assemblies too. Informal in nature, gathered around the piano as a “family,” we would sing the kind of songs that lift our hearts to Christ and His Word. Some young people won’t necessarily appreciate this at first, just as I didn’t appreciate “long hair” music the first time either. But gradually I learned to appreciate the finer things. And gradually our young people will begin to appreciate the kind of songs that have the backing of Scripture.
The hymnbooks we are familiar with are a fine collection of scriptural hymns. The hymnbooks used at the Lord’s Supper are superb: “Worship and Remembrance,” “The Believer’s Hymnbook,” and “Hymns for the Little Flock.” These are probably the finest collections of Christ-exalting hymns that have ever been amassed by the Christian church. Let us not lose that heritage by lowering ourselves to the level of “popular entertainment.” Instead, let us lift up the person and work of Christ that He might be adored by all of us as we sing.