Why Sing Hymns?

Why Sing Hymns?

Growing up as a child I always noticed that no Christian gathering existed in those days without the singing of hymns. Back then, hymnody (the singing of hymns) was an essential part of every Christian corporate worship or gathering.

Moving over to this 21^st century and it seems like the singing of hymns is a thing of the past. Most congregations hardly consider singing of hymns let alone adding it as a part of their worship lifestyle in other congregations, when hymns are sung the younger generations count it as boredom and neither give attention or too distracted to take part in the singing as they prefer contemporary worship to hymns. The need to revive the culture of singing hymns in churches cannot be overemphasized and I state here a few reason to revive the hymnody culture.

1 1) Hymns are a formal/corporate way of worship:  After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, the whole congregation came together as one body to formally give thanks to God. This was a congregational worship in unison unto God. We all as individuals have unique voices but when this individuality is harnessed and put together as one, to sing a hymn to God, it ascends to him as a sweet smelling perfume. To hear different individual voices united in voice to the audience of one.

 2)  Hymns ensure our voice is heard: A theologian once said “of all the musical instruments that may be employed in the praise of God, the human voice has priority” and as a music minister I quiet agree with this. In the singing of hymns, it does not matter how well you sing, God wants to hear your voice. Hymnody does not depend on a worship leaders skills, melody or rhythm but is congregational; everyone takes part.

  3)  Hymns make us true imitators of Christ: Some people view Hymns as one of the things Jesus came to abolish, some count it as an orthodox worship style and as such do not consider it as valuable but in Matt.26:30 Jesus and His disciples were said to have sung a hymn and I am sure this was not the first time they would have done that.  For Jesus to have sung a hymn it means He considers them as necessary for worship. He never came to abolish hymns since he took part in it. As imitators of Christ we are to imitate His ways and life style thus it is necessary to imitate Christ in the attitude of singing hymns. Be not imitators in part but in whole.

  4)  Hymns unite different generation of Christians: One of my mothers in faith once came to minister with our congregation and after which she stated that she was really  at home with the service based on the hymns inculcated to the service. One of the things we do in church is unification of people from different works and walks of life. This is done immensely when we sing hymns, when all men lift their voices together and stand untied in corporate worship. Also when we sing hymns of the past, we are sharing in faith with those who have gone before us thus uniting us with the faith of our fathers.

55) Hymns complete our worship service: In the New Testament the Church is commanded twice to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19, Col.3:16). Some Christians enjoy in complete worship in that they sing psalms and spiritual songs (contemporary worship) but totally ignore the singing of hymns. Suffice to say this is incomplete worship as it lacks the hymn-ingredient. In a meal, they are things that are essential to make it complete. You do not eat your meals without water or cook your food without salt because the meal will be incomplete and the cooking tasteless. Hymns are like water to our meals and salts to our cooking they complete our worship service.

Hymn singing should not be ignored to people of a certain age or denomination every Christian ought to sing hymns. It’s also time to teach our churches especially those of the newer generation on the singing of hymns before this rich tradition is completely lost.

Holydynamite