2-22-2021
While I love many modern-day praise songs, there’s something about those traditional hymns that really get my mind centered on the amazingness of God. It’s almost a lost form of worship in our ever-changing culture.
Every time I hear one of these classic songs, I imagine myself walking into an open sanctuary with stained-glass windows and full of God’s people. I find an empty seat on a long wooden pew next to a multigenerational family. Someone on stage says, “Open your hymnals to page 328. We will sing the first, second, and last verse. Please stand.” Soon, the well-known lyrics are sung in harmony by the congregation, and the melody swirls up into the high ceiling.
Today, the hymn “It Is Well” was the focus in my personal Bible study. It’s also quoted on the wall above my fireplace and mantel in the living room. It *might* be my favorite hymn. If you know it, I’m sure you’ll be singing in your head as you read these next lines where I’ve included the first, second, and last verses (as was common to sing when I was growing up). You can find many versions on YouTube if you don’t know it or would like to listen to it again.
It Is Well
by Horatio G Spafford in 1873
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well (It is well) with my soul (with my soul), It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well (It is well) with my soul (with my soul), It is well, it is well with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well (It is well) with my soul (with my soul), It is well, it is well with my soul.
I not only enjoy this hymn, but I also love several others that I grew up singing in church. My brain has no chance of wandering as I focus on the theology bits in the words. I can trace certain lines back to the scriptures embedded in my mind. Of course, when I read these verses they pull me back to the hymns as well.
Then, the song writer’s faith shines through, giving me encouragement in my own journey with Christ. For some of the hymns, I know the story behind the song. Maybe something drastically horrible happened in their life, and they had only Jesus to trust. Perhaps, they lived with unending pain and writing poems based-off the psalms helped them feel God’s presence. No matter their story, their memory lives on to give hope to the next generation.
Jesus sang hymns too...not the same ones we sing today, but I think He sang familiar tunes probably from the psalms that all the disciples knew. In Mark 14, the text mentions that after the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples sang hymns before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane. This shows me that fellowship, corporate praise, and prayer are very important in times of trouble. Those are the things Jesus did when the worst was upon him.
Later in scripture, in Acts 16, we find Paul and Silas in prison singing hymns and praying right before an earthquake opened all the jail doors. The men were able to witness to the jailor, and the jailor and his family were all saved and baptized. This is another example of worship in a difficult time that convicts me to seek God similarly during my trials in life.
We know that these men were praising God even if we don’t know exactly what their hymns sounded like. Thinking of other people singing praise many years ago is a heaven moment. Worshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ through hymns is a heaven moment. Fighting mental and spiritual angst with song is a heaven moment. It’s a deep peace that washes over me.
Colossians 3:16-17 “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. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father there through him.” Jesusgiving thanks to God the Father through him.”
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