I’m one of a rare breed, those who love hymns, and will only go to a church where hymns are sung. When we were younger and moved to a new state (which has happened four times), we would go church hunting. A couple times with my wife and kids in tow we walked into a church, saw the setup for a band, and promptly turned around and walked out. Radical, I know. I’ve attended plenty of churches with modern praise music, and most of the time I find it, well, not sure of the word, annoying maybe. Grating? Painful? It sort of depends on the quality of the music and lyrics.

I have a friend who calls all of it, “Jesus is my boyfriend” music (none of it is that bad, but you get the point). Some is clearly better than others (Getty for example). I remember going to the church where one of our sons attends last year, and I turned to my wife and said, “There sure are a lot of I’s in these songs.” What I meant is that so many of the lyrics had “I” in them, as in, I will do this, and I will do that, I this, I that. Which Identifies my issue with so much modern “praise music.” The focus is often more on me than God, on what I must and should do for God, rather than on what God has done for me in Christ. In other words, it is more experiential than theological.

Why I love hymns so much is because they are theology in song. We sang four hymns in church during a recent service, and each one was more theologically rich than the next. Here are the first two verses from the first one we sang by the great 18th century pastor and hymn writer, and one time slave trader, John Newton, Glorious things of thee are spoken:

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Holy city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode;
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

See the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy blessed members,
And all fear of want remove;
Who can faint, when such a river
Ever flows their thirst t’ assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age.

I compare this to most modern praise music, and there is no comparison. I would joke with my family sometimes that if a hymn was written after 1850 it was too new for me. This is not to say all modern praise or hymn music is the same, not at all. I am not familiar enough with it outside of my anecdotal experience, so I can’t discount all of it. If it appeals to more people who will come into a church, and stay, because of it, I certainly don’t gainsay that. However, we need to ask what the point is of singing in church.

I think all Christians can agree the purpose of music in church is the worship of God. How come, then, so much of it is about us? It so happens last Sunday I went to church with my other son, not to our normal hymn singing church. The very first song they sang as we sat down was, “I surrender . . . .” Which of course was repeated over and over again. Now, I’m all for surrendering my life to my Savior, but I thought, it isn’t about me! I want to sing about who he is and what he’s done for me, not what I am willing to do for him. Notice that next time you’re in church if the church you attend doesn’t sing hymns. Are the songs they’re singing primarily about them and what they are willing to do for God, or what he has done for them in Christ? Big, huge, gargantuan difference. Too many Christians are under the impression that God responds to me, that the initiative in the relationship is mine, and is dependent on my will. Wrong. Christianity is about God taking the initiative, about my responding to him, about him transforming my affections so my will is his. I want to sing songs in church that affirm that, theology in music.