Singing in church

When I was about eight years old, I was asked to sing a solo at the Sunday School Anniversary. The first line of the piece was “I am only a gleam of the Master’s light.” Unfortunately, when I was walking up the steps on to the church platform I tripped and fell. As a result, when I eventually started singing, according to my parents who were in the congregation, I looked anything but a gleam of the Master’s light!
 
However, in spite of this early disaster, I do always enjoy singing hymns in church. Hymns are poems set to music, and singing about what they believe has always been a mark of God’s people. The Psalms are the hymn book of the Jewish people, and it is interesting to note that some psalms begin with instructions about the music to which the psalm is to be sung (for example Psalms 4, 5, 9, 22, 45). The earliest Christians sang about their new-found faith. We know this because the apostle Paul encouraged them to use “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” when they were together (Ephesians 5:19). Some Bible commentators believe that the wonderful passage in Philippians 2:5-11 about the divine nature and earthly humility of Jesus may have been an early Christian hymn. It is certainly printed in poetic form in some Bible translations.
 
The later monastic movement developed a style of music known as plainsong, which is still heard in some churches, though not normally in Baptist churches. But there is still one well-known and much-loved hymn which we usually sing at Christmas, namely “O come, O come, Immanuel”, which has a tune based on plainsong.
 
The writing of new hymns and worship songs has always accompanied times of spiritual renewal. In the 16th century Martin Luther wrote thirty-seven hymns, and it was said that he was singing people into the Reformation. During the growth of the Methodists in the 18th century John Wesley preached all over this country and his brother Charles wrote literally hundreds of hymns, many of which are regularly sung today. In the 19th century Dwight Moody preached in the United States and Europe and Ira Sankey wrote hymns for the meetings which are still loved by many Christians. The charismatic movement in the second half of the 20th century resulted in another copious supply of new music from writers, of whom the best known is probably Graham Kendrick.
 
Down the years of course there have been many other significant hymn writers. So, I thank God for them all, and I continue to love the hymns and songs which we sing in church and the blessing which they inevitably bring.
Howard Gordon