Worship


“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16)

I was reading an article at the Lutheran Hymn Revival website entitled “Optism: A Plea to Lutheran Pastors” by Mark Amberg Preus that discusses the importance of doctrinal strength in the music of the Church. [UPDATE: As of Oct. 18, the aforementioned post seems to have been taken down from the Lutheran Hymn Revival Site.] There’s some good things to think about there, but I had a few comments and concerns. Alas, Lutheran Hymn Revival only allows comments from Google and Blogger accounts – neither of which I currently have. What follows is the comment I intended to leave on the site.

I just stumbled across your site and I thank you for your voice in the blogosphere. I’ve had a chance to glance at your hymns and am quite excited to find strong theological content blended with similarly strong literary style – a delicate balance frequently missed in the current era.

While I sympathize with much of what you say, I must admit I’m always curious as to how people interpret Colossians 3:16. Most intriguing to me is your interpretation of “songs” as a particular type of “doctrinal hymn” – a suggestion that I have never come across in my own studies.

Kretzmann’s classic Popular Commentary (published by CPH back in 1921-1924) suggests that the three genres correspond as follows: “This can be done also by the use of psalms, the incomparable poetry of Holy Writ, hymns which are intended chiefly for use in church services, and spiritual songs, such as are more popular in form and content, but also tell of the wonderful blessings of God for our salvation.”

Now I’m not suggesting Kretzmann is necessarily right. In truth, I am doubtful that Paul actually intended to distinguish three particular “genres” of worship music at all. The fact is that the words for “psalm” “hymn,” and “song” utilized here are used in Greek to refer any number of musical/poetic genres. ‘Psalmos’ merely means something like ‘a tune played on a stringed instrument’ or ‘a strain or burst of music’ (Liddell and Scott). The word is derived from ‘psallo’ Grk. for ‘to pluck/twang’ (as on a harp). ‘Hymnos’ means a ‘festive song’ typically sung ‘in honour of gods or heroes.’ And ‘hode’ (transliterated ‘ode’ in English) is used to refer to all kinds of music: songs, lays, strains, etc. In the plural (as it appears Colossians) it can even simply mean ‘lyric poetry’ (something accompanied with music, but not necessarily sung per se).

Taken together the phrase “psalms, hymns and songs” would merely imply “all kinds of music”. The addition of the word “spiritual”, as you point out, restricts the meaning to “spiritual” or “religious” meaning. So we might read “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” to mean simply “all kinds of spiritual music”. This would make sense in the larger literary context of the verse as it then balances “all wisdom.” Thus, the verse could well be understood to mean something like the following:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing all types of spiritual music, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

In any event, I agree that whatever music we sing must be doctrinally pure. The imperative to “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” is balanced with “teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom”… and all of this in the context of letting “the Word of Christ dwell in [us] richly.” Luther in his sermon on Colossians 3:12-17 reminds us that this means that we should be grateful (v. 15) for “preachers” who “handle the Word” and deliver it us. This Gospel Word delivered to us must forever indwell all we teach and all we sing.

This is the harvest, the crops full and ready,
Prepared by God’s hands and now given to men.
Render thanksgiving with hearts full of gladness
To God who in mercy brings harvest again.

This is the harvest, how fruitful the labour!
The fields have matured at our Saviour’s command.
Come, gather in all the sheaves and the produce,
The gifts God has brought forth from out of the land.

This is the harvest, the bounty exceeds us,
And we are blessed richly with more than we need.
Move us, O Spirit, to share this abundance,
The weakened to nourish, the hungry to feed.

This is the harvest, give thanks to the Father,
And lift up to Jesus a joyful refrain.
This is the harvest, give thanks to the Spirit,
To God who in mercy brings harvest again.

Mathew A. Block
October 11, 2009

In a follow up to the previous post, I want to draw your attention to an interview with Bryan Chapell at Christianity Today‘s website. Chapell, President of Covenant Theological Seminary (in St. Louis, Missouri), the seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America, has recently released his newest book Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape our Practice. In “Transcending the Worship Wars” , Chapell discusses the importance of getting past musical preference in the debate over worship and digging into the real theological issues – primarily, “letting the Gospel shape” our understanding of what worship is and how it should be done. And he identifies ‘rewriters’ (see last post) as evidence of a growing “new balance and maturity in the church” in its theological approach to worship.

In the past decades, there have been few issues which have so split the Church as has that of worship. Traditionalists call for fealty to the historic liturgy, arguing that the form which has served the Church for so long is intrinsically good in and of itself. Its theological strength, and likewise the theological strength of hymns, stands in opposition to the frequent shallowness of contemporary worship songwriting and service patterns. Proponents of contemporary worship counter that their musical genres better meet members of our culture where they are, without alienating people unnecessarily – something traditional worship can undoubtedly do. As a companion who once accompanied me to my home church’s worship service (traditional, of course) afterwards confided to me, “I honestly kept thinking I was in the Church of Thor, what with all the chanting and ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s.” He had been unable to get past the surface appearance of the service to the Gospel message underneath; to him, that particular setting of the divine service had seemed no more relevant than did Norse mythology.

Of course, both sides make important points. Traditionalists rightly point out that our worship should not be shallow. Contemporary worship advocates are equally correct in reminding us that worship must be understandable to its participants. If each group would be willing to just quiet its pride for a moment and listen to the other, perhaps the debate would cease to be so venomous. And perhaps a more constructive approach to the discussion would be taken, where the benefits and drawbacks of each side were honestly weighed and considered… where the positive aspects of both sides would be adopted and the negative aspects diminished.

Some worship songwriters are attempting to do just that. Here, I want to identify two camps and their “new” approaches to worship music writing in particular. The first I shall call ‘rewriters’; the second has already been called by others ‘new hymnody’ or ‘modern hymn writing’.

‘Rewriters’ are distinguished by their practice of “rewriting” hymns. They keep the words but tend to fashion new musical settings for hymns. As Indelible Grace Music puts it, the goal is “not change for change’s sake, but to rekindle a love of hymns and invite many who never associate rich passion with hymns to actually read the words.” If I might state it in linguistic terminology, the songwriters ‘translate’ the songs into musical styles whose emotional connotations are better comprehensible to people today – people for whom traditional music styles represent another ‘language’ with which they are not familiar. The practice is not in actuality new; the church has always rewritten the music of hymns in every era. Every era, that is, except the current one. Rewriters are bringing back this great tradition to the Church. One other praiseworthy note? Rewriters are bringing back incredible hymns that in some cases have completely fallen out of use in the Church. For an example of rewriting, see Matthew Smith’s new musical version of Josiah Conder’s  1836 hymn “My Lord I Did Not Choose You”.

‘New Hymnody’ or ‘Modern Hymn Writing’ has similar sympathies with rewriters – and it’s not surprising therefore to find artists who fit both categories. New hymnody is the approach of songwriters who are attempting to write completely new pieces which reflect the theological richness of traditional hymns while utilizing contemporary literary and musical styles. Perhaps the most famous proponent of this genre is Keith Getty. Maintaining that “what we sing becomes the grammar of our belief,” Getty strives to write contemporary worship music that teaches us about our faith as much as it allows us to express that faith. Consider, for example, the theological depth of “In Christ Alone,” written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend. What traditionalist would consider this song ‘shallow’?

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all –
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid –
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death –
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till he returns or calls me home –
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.

As we seek to create worship resources for the current era, perhaps we will consider the sterling examples of rewriters and modern hymn writers. Or, I suppose, we could just continue arguing from both sides of the worship debate – arguing how hymns are intrinsically better or contemporary songs intrinsically more relevant. For surely that will bring about the Church unity Christ desires.

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For more information on the songwriters referenced above, please visit the following websites:

Indelible Grace Music
Matthew Smith
Getty Music

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