I’m not one of those stiff-necked folks who insist that only hymns are proper worship songs, but given the fact that there’s actually a plethora of bad Christian music out there nowadays, I still prefer hymns to contemporary Christian music (CCM).
There’s just something majestic and magnifying of the Lord in hymns, unlike bad CCM that harp about “what I want from God” or worse, not mentioning God at all in the lyrics.
As you can probably guess by now, lately I’ve been harking back to hymns after having listened to CCM for awhile. Perhaps it’s a ‘grass is greener on the other side’ phenomenon, but for most of my time in a church it was in one that only sings hymns, and not CCM.
The only reason I started listening to CCM was that I was younger then and needed a beat. I mean, if you’re a teenager who’s listening to Run D.M.C. and Bon Jovi on normal days and had to go with the slow solemn hymns on Sunday, you would not have any interest in the latter.
So, perhaps it’s also because I’m older now and (hopefully) more matured as a Christian, I have a new-found appreciation for hymns, especially those sung by a good church choir.
Here’s one I found recently that I particularly like titled Worthy of Praise — it’s from the church choir of a church that I plan on visiting on Sunday.
Of late, I’ve also thought much about going back to my Bible-Presbyterian roots, hence the planned visit. Sure, I don’t agree with infant baptism, and the KJV-only stance, but it’s a Biblical church and teaches sound doctrine.
Not to mention a great choir and mmm… hymns!
If you liked Worthy of Praise, take a listen to the hymn Trusting Jesus too.
Soli deo Gloria!
Source: All hymns linked in this post are sung by the Calvary Pandan Church Choir. Photograph of the Calvary Pandan Church Choir taken from the Calvary Pandan Church web site.
Tags: Bible-Presbyterian, Choir, Church, Contemporary Christian Music, Hymn, KJV, Music, Worship
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Enjoyed the choral anthem and the hymn arrangement of the featured choir. I too am a big hymn fan. Anything that lives on and continues to bless hundreds of years after written has got more value in my book than a lot of the popular stuff that comes and goes within a few months.
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Hymn… it’s a long story but do you know that the first inspiration of classical music is came from psalm book?
No wonder that you like hymn music..
By the way, please check out also my latest posthttp://metanoialive.blogspot.com/2008/03/nephilim.html
Shalom, GOD bless
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I agree, Isaiah… Hymns like “It Is Well With My Soul”… especially when you know the depth of the story behind such hymns. There’s just no comparison.
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Well definitely I fully agree with you that hymns will always top CCM or even Holy Hip-Hop, even though they are [IMHO] legitimate musical styles. Much of what passes for “Christian” music today lacks the substance and clarity of the “old” hymns.
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Guy Muse:
Thank you for visiting my blog. I totally agree with you, and it’s great to meet another person who loves hymns.
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Sigit:
Hm… I think I’ve come across that a long time ago while I was learning to play the violin and taking lessons in the theory in music as part of the course. The Book of Psalms is one of my favorite books too!
God bless, and Shalom!
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Aye, Michelle, that happens to be one of my favorite hymns too, especially after having read the story of how the hymn came to be written.
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Douglas:
Thank you for visiting and sharing your thoughts on this.
I have quite a disdain for the modern musical styles that we hear on the radio nowadays — nothing is original and everything hangs too much on the beat and special effects.
Even the voices of some popular artistes are well-tuned digitally to sound better. The disappointment comes when you hear these ’singers’ live.
That said, there’s also the phenomenon that many CCM artistes are trying to cross-sell their music to secular stations, and therefore purposely diluting the lyrics of their songs to fit. When many are driven by monetary motives, is it any wonder that much of CCM is nothing but secular music that occasionally mentions God?
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Yeah! I love hymns too. It’s really special compared to CCM. I would love to attend a church that would sing both CCM and hymns. By the way do you know any site where I could get such hymns? or any cds to recommend? So far those CDs that I have are actually CCM-nized hymns.
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Hey Aaron,
Good to see you again, brother.
You can try these (with thanks to Yongchun for the recommendations):
– Abiding Radio
– Word of Truth RadioI also go to these occasionally:
– Hymns section at Crosswalk Radio, though you’ll need to register and login
– The Cyber HymnalHope that’s helpful!
AFAIK, most Protestant churches in Singapore sing either hymns or CCM exclusively, seldom a mix. The only ones that mix, and which I’ve heard, is at some Roman Catholic churches. I come from the Bible-Presbyterian church which sings only hymns.
Shalom.
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