Church Blog

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

A member wrote me the following note about our plan to memorize 10 hymns together as a church. I love the way he’s seeking to apply Scripture:

I am writing to say that I am very excited about the new emphasis on learning great hymns, not because I love hymns, but because I love to see us obey God’s word with faith and excitement, because that is the way that I want to live and to be led. My perspective on the importance of knowing hymns went up another level recently when I read and started to meditate on and memorize Ephesians 5:15-21.  The fresh revelation that I got was that God wants us to actually take these words literally and live by them—what a concept.  So I was thrilled to hear you announce a few days later that the whole congregation is going to be encouraged to learn hymns.  I trust that when we are taught from Ephesians 5, we will also be encouraged to speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  I have already begun to incorporate that practice into my life and relationships with others recently.  I started by leading my family in memorizing Ps. 100 and practicing saying it to each other with one person starting with the first sentence and then each person taking turns reciting following sentences until we are through.  I also want to consciously practice speaking words from psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in casual conversation, such as saying “this is the day the Lord has made” and “the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.”
—Steve

I hope you can join us this Friday night at a “Hymn Sing” where Bob Kauflin will lead us through the hymns we’ll be memorizing over the next 10 months. Next month we’ll give out a CD with all 10 hymns to help you and your family memorize.