The glory of the gospel is to unite people of every language and culture under the lordship of Christ (Eph. 2:11–22; 4:3–6, 13; Rev. 7:9–17). So, we should not be content with divisions created by different musical tastes and traditions. As we grow to maturity in Christ, we should be looking for ways to express the unity that is God’s goal for us: in gospel action, in the exchange of ministries and gifts, in combined services and in the sharing of musical resources and experiences.[1]
What is often missing in the debate on church music is a discussion on the virtue of love. As Christians, we must be committed to pleasing God by serving one another in love. We should value unity of the Spirit over and above uniformity of musical opinion. And so, taking into account the variety of musical tastes, experiences, and skills of a particular congregation, each local church should develop a musical tradition that is lovingly appropriate for that group of believers. Austin Lovelace and William Rice are right in saying: “All church music should have the ability to speak to the entire congregation. If the music is divisive, if most of the people do not understand what is happening, if it does not have meaning to most, then it is probably improper and wrong.”[2]
Perhaps at your church such love expresses itself in a balance of classic hymns and contemporary choruses, or the addition of an Isaac Watts psalm paraphrase to your exclusive psalm-singing repertoire. But no matter how it looks, love should be expressed by careful and intentional song selection for the Sunday morning service. A hymn or song may be textually sound and its tune may be consistent with the text, but it may be either too formal or too informal for a certain congregation in its particular setting. The loving worship leader will be “attuned both to the Word and to the people who are served.”[3]
PRINCIPLES FOR LYRICS
Realizing the central importance of biblically accurate lyrics as well as the reality that certain musical styles “simply cannot carry various texts,”[4] we should acknowledge that the musical praise of the body of Christ should reflect and honor Christ. Aware that “the selection and use of music for public worship should always have as its primary motive the glory and honor of God (Rev. 4:8, 11; 1 Cor. 1:31),”[5] each church, under the oversight of its leaders, should use the following criteria for the selection of lyrics.
Our Lyrics Should Reflect God’s Lyrics
First and most importantly, song lyrics must be biblical, echoing the words and reflecting the themes expressed in song from Genesis to Revelation. In my book God’s Lyrics, the themes found in the songs of Scripture are summarized as follows:
The Lord is placed at the center; that is, God is addressed, adored, and “enlarged.”
His mighty acts in salvation history are recounted.
His acts of judgment are rejoiced in.
His ways of living (practical wisdom: “instruction in wise behavior,” Prov. 1:3 NASB) are encouraged.[6]
There are three ways to assure our songs are biblical. First, we can sing the inspired words of Scripture directly (or as directly as possible, as all songs set to patterns of English poetry are in a sense paraphrases of the original Greek or Hebrew). This would include the Psalms (see Paul’s admonitions in Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), which have been sung throughout history:
A historical study of sung psalms in worship of the church reveals multiple traditions: from Gregorian psalmody to the metrical psalms of Calvin’s psalters, to the early American Bay Psalm Book (1640), to Anglican chant; and from the psalm-hymns of Martin Luther, Isaac Watts, and James Montgomery to small- and large-scale psalm settings by a great many composers. In other words, the psalms must be sung.[7]
It would also include the Bible’s doxologies (e.g., Rom. 11:33–36; Rev. 1:4–7), canticles (e.g., Mary’s Magnificat and Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis), and Christ hymns (see next paragraph). As Christ’s disciples, it is imperative that we sing songs that worship our Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. 5:12), reflecting the great truths and promises of God’s gospel. He is the center of the canon!
Poetic texts in the New Testament are often thought to be “Christ hymns” or “hymn fragments” of early Christian songs (Phil. 2:5–11; Col. 1:15–20; 1 Tim. 3:16; perhaps John 1:1–5, 9–11; Rom. 10:9ff.; 1 Cor. 12:3; Eph. 5:14; 1 Tim. 2:5–6; Heb. 1:3; 1 Pet. 3:18c–19, 22).[8] They focus on the person and works of Jesus, at times highlighting his divinity. The most obvious example of the worship of “the Word [made] flesh” (see John 1:14) is the Song of the Lamb (Rev. 5:9–10).[9] We are to sing to this “Man,” to slightly revise Pliny’s observation of early Christian worship, “as to God.”[10] Therefore, like the lyrics of the early church, the lyrics we write, select, and sing must proclaim the gospel and uplift the only name under heaven whereby we can be saved. We must join in the chorus of 1 Timothy 3:16:
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh [incarnation],
vindicated by the Spirit [death],
seen by angels [resurrection],
proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world [Pentecost and its aftermath],
taken up in glory [ascension].
Second, beyond the songs of Scripture, we can sing other biblical texts. We applaud the growing trend of taking non-poetic texts and setting them to music. If you are preaching through Jonah or John, Ecclesiastes or Ephesians, why not flip through the scriptural index in a few hymnals, search the Web to see what songs have been written, or commission your church musicians to write new contributions to the local and universal church?
Third, we can sing the great doctrines and themes of Scripture. Following Scripture’s lead—notably the Psalms[11]—we can rehearse together God’s attributes and acts displayed in creation and redemption. We can select and sing lyrics that echo and teach the great history of redemption—God’s saving work from Genesis to Revelation. The hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts has done this:
God’s people have learned many times throughout history how important it is that we tell the whole story of God—from creation to re-creation. . . . It is this story that forms the outline for the first half of Lift Up Your Hearts. Beginning with creation and our fall into sin, through the Old Testament narratives and the hope of Advent, to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and onward to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the promise of the new creation, we find our story woven into the fabric, creating a beautiful testimony to the grace of God in our own lives.[12]
And we must write new songs that recount and celebrate the works of Christ, such as the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend song “In Christ Alone.” The lyrics of the song address major themes:
Incarnation—“In Christ alone, who took on flesh”
Death—“Till on that cross as Jesus died”
Resurrection—“Up from the grave He rose again!”
Return—“Till He returns or calls me home”
Songwriter Caroline Cobb is another good model. Starting with creation and ending with Christ’s return, she has created songs that tell the greatest story ever told (see her album The Blood and the Breath: Songs That Tell the Story of Redemption). Cobb has also written three insightful, encouraging, and practical posts on writing scriptural songs: “When the Power of Scripture Meets the Power of Music,” “How to Write a Song from Scripture,” and “Six Ideas for Writing Song from Scripture.” These can all be found on the Gospel Coalition Worship blog.
Join the movement! Return to singing God’s Word in worship.[13]
Our Lyrics Should Edify Others and Exalt God
Have you ever noticed that many of the great hymns have us singing to one another? Think of “Come, Christians, Join to Sing,” of that famous Christmas carol, “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” or of one of my favorites, “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee”:
If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,And bear thee through the evil days.
At first, we might think that such a focus is out of place in a worship service. But in Scripture, singing to one another is not merely condoned but in fact commanded. Little is said about music and singing in the New Testament. And what is said often turns our attention toward one another. For example, in Ephesians 5:15–21, Paul is exhorting Christians to be careful how they walk. So, he writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (vv. 18–19a). With the Spirit in us, we are commanded to sing to “one another.” In Colossians 3:16, we find a similar command: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Our musical worship should engender opportunity, as Wilson has it, “to confess personal and corporate sins (Ps. 32:1), to receive comfort (Ps. 46), to find assurance of our faith and hope (Ps. 74; 77), to gain encouragement in times of trial and temptation (Acts 16:25; Ps. 102), to demonstrate the communion of the saints (Ps. 133:1–2), to remember God’s great love and mercy to all generations (2 Chron. 20:21; Ps. 101), to express heartfelt joy and gratitude with reverence and respect (Ezra 3:10–11; Ps. 100), and to declare our personal and corporate faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Phil. 2:10–11).”[14]
So, we are to sing God’s songs to one another. There is to be a horizontal dimension to our singing. But, of course, there is to be a vertical dimension as well. We are to raise our hearts and voices heavenward. Augustine defined a hymn as “a song containing praise of God.” He went on to say:
If you praise God, but without song, you do not have a hymn. If you praise anything, which does not pertain to the glory of God, even if you sing it, you do not have a hymn.
While Augustine’s definition is narrower than the horizontal dimension just discussed, it nevertheless makes the basic point of all the songs of Scripture: no focus on God, no hymn. In the Bible’s songs, God’s people sing to the Lord and also about the Lord. In his book Select Hymns (1761), John Wesley gives seven standards for “inspired singing,” the seventh being: “Above all sing spiritually.” He goes on to define that trait in this way: “Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other creature.” Amen! Our lyrics should exalt him and edify others.
Our Lyrics Should Be Theologically Comprehensive and Balanced
The lyrics we sing need to reflect the whole counsel of God. They need to be both comprehensive and balanced:
The range of our singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs should reflect faithfully the whole counsel of God and avoid the temptation of limiting our music to only some truths, or to some favorite text (Ps. 103:22). . . . Lyrics in public worship must not be limited only to some portions of the Word of God, but must reflect the fullness of God’s infallible revelation (Ps. 145:10). Just as there is one Lord, one faith, one hope, and one baptism, so our music must reflect and encourage the true unity of all believers throughout the world and through all ages (Ps. 31:23; 89:7).[15]
Part of this comprehensiveness is that our lyrics should reflect the essential doctrines of the Christian faith—convictions expressed in historic Christian creeds, confessions, and catechisms. Comprehensiveness also includes catholicity: the acceptance and promotion of old hymns and spiritual songs that have been part of the church throughout the ages. On any given Sunday, people should expect to hear and sing songs that reflect the whole of God’s work in history and in the believer’s life, promote sanctification, raise godly emotions, and embody all of the texts and themes of God’s sacred revelation, whether found in classic hymns or new songs.
This resource is part of the series Made Like Him: Reflections on Formation and Gathered Worship. Click Here to explore more resources from this series.
1. David G. Peterson, Encountering God Together: Leading Worship Services That Honor God, Minister to His People, and Build His Church (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2013), 143.
2. Austin C. Lovelace and William C. Rice, Music and Worship in the Church (New York: Abingdon, 1960), 203.
3. R. Kent Hughes, “Free Church Worship: The Challenge of Freedom,” in Worship by the Book, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 171.
4. Leonard Payton, “How Shall We Sing to God?” in The Coming Evangelical Crisis, eds. John H. Armstrong and R. Kent Hughes (Chicago: Moody, 1996), 194.
5. Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk: Essays and Forays in Practical Ecclesiology (Moscow, ID: Canon, 2001), 142.
6 Douglas Sean O’Donnell, God’s Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship through Old Testament Songs (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010), 113.
7. Paul S. Jones, What Is Worship Music? Basics of the Faith (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2012), 13. Also, as John M. Frame notes: “We can also learn from the Psalms about the variety of songs that may be used in worship. Some psalms are long, while others are short. Some are didactic, while others are more lyrical. Some are very simple, while others are highly complex. Some utilize elaborate literary forms such as acrostics and multilevel chiasms, other do not. Some are addressed to God, while others are addressed to human beings.” Worship in Spirit and Truth: A Refreshing Study of the Principles and Practice of Biblical Worship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1996), 136.
8. See Paul S. Jones, Singing and Making Music (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006), 104. For a list of New Testament hymns, see Daniel Liderbach, Christ in the Early Christian Hymns (New York: Paulist Press, 1998), 42–50.
9. Ralph P. Martin states correctly, “Christology was born in the atmosphere of worship.” Worship in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 33. Cf. Larry W. Hurtado, At the Origins of Christian Worship: The Context and Character of Earliest Christian Devotion (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 86–92. On the possible connection between the worship service (including singing) of the early church and the book of Revelation, see Oscar Cullmann’s chapter “The Gospel According to St. John and Early Christian Worship” in his Early Christian Worship (London: SCM, 1953).
10. In Ep. x, xcvi, 7 Pliny writes of Christians: “Camenque Christo quasi deo dicere” (“They sing a song to Christ as if to a god”).
11. In the preface of his German translation of the Bible, Martin Luther referred to the Psalms as a “small Bible reduced to the loveliest and most concise form so that the content of the whole Bible exists in them as a handbook.” Quoted in Payton, “How Shall We Sing to God?” 193. Payton adds, “In the 150 psalms, we find all the great biblical doctrinal themes presented poetically—themes such as our depravity, the Atonement, our redemption, God’s creation and providence, and so on.” 194.
12. Lift Up Your Hearts: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 2013), vii.
13. For my small contribution to the movement, see http://cardiphonia.bandcamp.com/album/canticles. See also his new songs to old tunes in God’s Lyrics, 179–187.
14. Wilson, Mother Kirk, 20.
15. Ibid., 19
Adapted from The Pastor's Book, Edited by R. Kent Hughes and Douglas Sean O'Donnell © 2015, Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
Douglas Sean O’Donnell is the Senior Vice President of Bible Publishing at Crossway. He previously served as the Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Elgin, IL. as a senior lecturer in Biblical Studies and Practical Theology at Queensland Theological College in Brisbane, Australia. He has authored, edited, and contributed to a number of books, including two children’s books, six commentaries on the Bible, and The Pastor’s Book with R. Kent Hughes. Doug holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen and is a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
