What Songs Will Our Children Be Singing All Their Lives?

The Hymns Our Fathers Loved
Sitting at our dining room table one summer evening, my mother-in-law handed me a book she had picked up at a thrift store. The small volume was old but remarkably well-preserved with a plain dark-blue cloth cover, unadorned, except for a flowing script bearing the whimsical title, Vesper Chimes. It was a Presbyterian hymnal, dated 1930. I texted a hymnologist friend of mine to ask if he was familiar with it (he wasn’t). And so, with a bit of adventurous anticipation, I began turning the pages.
What caught my attention immediately was that I knew nearly every song. Some were unfamiliar, of course; every few pages or so, there was a song that thankfully had passed into obscurity. But the vast majority of the book’s contents, gospel songs from the early 20th Century and classic hymns from centuries before, I knew well. And it wasn’t merely because of my particular love of hymns and hymnals. As I started to sing phrases of songs amid the collecting of dinner dishes, I was joined by a chorus of my in-laws as they began to sing along. Some of these gospel songs we hadn’t heard for decades, but we all knew them. It was a flood of memories, one after another.
Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without him I would fall.
A few pages later:
The Lord’s our Rock; in him we hide,
A shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide,
A shelter in the time of storm. [dramatic pause]
Oh. . . Jesus is a Rock in a weary land. . .
And as we sang, I felt a bit of sadness for the end of an era. My children have the great privilege of growing up in a church that loves to sing old hymns (and many excellent new ones). But they didn’t know many of these hymns.
As I thought later about that evening, I marveled again at how these hymns and gospel songs had endured for so long. They represented a musical language of a different time, when change in the church came more slowly. And while I’m thankful to live in this modern era of rich new hymnody, the slower musical pace of my grandparents’ generation had its strengths.
The Sing! Hymnal
Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, John Martin, Dan Kreider, Douglas Sean O'Donnell
Curated by award-winning hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty, The Sing! Hymnal features timeless hymns to deepen corporate worship and unity among believers. With liturgical readings and a durable cover, this edition is ideal for regular church use.
A Heritage of Song
Psalm 78 describes the unique blessing of multigenerational worship: the older saints teach their children and grandchildren the works and ways of the Lord. But such instruction through song is far more difficult if you and your grandparents (or grandchildren) have no shared musical language of worship.
With voice as full and strong
As ocean's surging praise,
Send forth the hymns our fathers loved,
The psalms of ancient days. – Edward Plumptre
It has been several years now since I have stood beside my father during corporate worship, but the memory of his tenor voice rising above the melody is a beautiful reminder to me of the oft-repeated phrase in Scripture, “the God of your fathers.” My father’s God is my God, and many of my father’s songs are my songs too.
Not all of them, of course. If we are to enjoy fresh expressions of praise, some old songs have to give way to new ones. Every generation produces music that won’t last. That’s not something we should lament, nor avoid at all costs. Songs that come and go are a reminder that, while culture and creative expressions are perpetually changing, Christ’s plans for His church will never fade away. And yet the church should seek out, as much as possible, those musical expressions of adoration and doctrine that are enduring. When we mingle new songs with ancient ones, we’re recognizing that our local church is just a small part of the history of God’s people. We acknowledge that every saint of old who penned these lofty texts was someone “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17), prone to weakness and needing to be strengthened in their faith.
But if we cultivate a taste for only the latest hits and neglect the old songs, we’ll never develop a tradition of song. We’ll have a myopic view of corporate worship, imagining that this year’s songs are the only songs. And we will have no musical heritage to pass down to our children.
From Repetition to Memory
I don’t know how many times, when my heart has been full or heavy (or both), the song that has burst out has been “How Great Thou Art.“ Surely one of the reasons for the nearness of that hymn, besides its own merits, is that I have sung it my entire life. I’ve never known a time when it was new to me. There was never delight of discovery for me in this hymn, but there was always something more enduring: the comfort of deep familiarity.
Kevin DeYoung writes, “Pastors, parents, worship leaders: are you teaching any songs that can be sung a cappella around a hospital bed in 50 years?” That’s well said. It’s important to allow songs to get old. A song committed to memory for 50 years is a precious consolation to the soul.
My father’s God is my God, and many of my father’s songs are my songs too.
A Love of Old Things
Like modern appliances, much of our contemporary worship music is flashy and packed with the latest gadgets, perhaps, but with a short shelf life. We enjoy novelty and perpetual innovation but find ourselves simultaneously exhausted by them. Sometimes it’s a welcome relief to surround ourselves with old things.
Hymns represent a pause from the relentless cycle of the new and improved. While technology is constantly changing and passing on, some things are built to last. And it’s precisely this feeling of permanence that hymns capture so well. They give voice to our deepest beliefs and feelings: who God is, what He has done through Christ, and how we respond to Him in faith and obedience.
As to musical and lyrical quality, time is the best judge. We can perhaps recognize an instant hit, but it’s much more difficult to know what songs will stand the test of time. That’s not to say that all old songs are good. Quite the opposite: many of them were eminently forgettable. And most of those have been forgotten. But those who have endured have done so for good reason. They represent the best of the past.
Traveling Light
Perhaps modern music needs to slow down. By one recent estimate, there are some 100,000 tracks uploaded to digital streaming platforms every day. Perhaps we could admit that the flood of new music available to us could only be described as a glut.
Maybe we consume far too many songs and have let far too few sink deep into our hearts. We’re surrounded by a culture in which everything is meant to be consumed and disposed of. It’s counter-cultural to cherish things that are meant to be preserved and handed down. Maybe it’s best to travel light. Perhaps we don’t need 100,000 songs, all new and fresh and epic, to give voice to our worship. Perhaps a few hundred or so, a thoughtful mix of old and new, praise and lament, complex and simple, is enough for us, and for our children.
Dan Kreider is an editor with John Martin and Douglas Sean O'Donnell of The Sing! Hymnal created by Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty.
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