There is a lot of interesting information in the green Christadelphian Hymn Book (2002) about the hymns we commonly sing. The hymn book has the lovely inscription on the front cover “Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs”. We are told to be filled with the attitude of Christ, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father” (Eph 5:19-20).
We are encouraged to use the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs contained in our hymn book to teach and give thanks to God.
“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Col 3:16-17).
Playing a hymn and thinking about the words, even at times when I do not feel like doing it, helps me do what Peter says when he admonishes us to REMEMBER. To remember God’s promises, blessings, and the joy that is set before us. “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you” (2Pet 1:12).
Here are some ways to bring even more value and meaning when we sing the magnificent songs in our hymn book.
1) Read the hymn. Sometimes the words used in a hymn are difficult to understand because we don’t know the meaning of the word. After I get the tune it’s necessary to understand what is being sung. The songs are poetry, and sometimes the way the lines are written so they can rhyme, or fit the music, can be confusing. When I encounter a word or a phrase I don’t understand in a hymn I find out what it means and write down the meaning beside it (yes, in the hymn book!). Examples:
- Hymn 14, v. 2 – “affiance”: it means trust, confidence, reliance
- Hymn 310, v.2 – “Robes whose lustre..” (or luster in the U.S.). It means the “quality of shining by reflecting light”!!
2) Echo…echo…. We are told to be aware of echoes in the Word as we read the Bible. Many of the hymns chosen for the Christadelphian hymn book teach various principles from the Scriptures. I have several of my hymns “Bible-marked” as I read phrases that remind me of a verse here and there. Years ago a brother gave a fantastic exhortation on Hymn 361, doing echoes for almost every line to an event in the Bible. Now that hymn really means something to me and I can sing it with more understanding and fervor (okay, enthusiasm). Examples:
- Hymn 435 “God be with you..”. Where did that phrase about God’s wings come from? Ruth 2:12 is one echo, or Psalm 36:7. See if you can find more!
- How about Hymn 340: the phrase in verse 1 about “with Christ in the vessel” immediately brings to mind Matthew 14:23-33. In the second verse, the broken cisterns come from Jeremiah 2:13, which we almost need to read to understand what the hymn’s author has in mind. And then in verse 3, we all know the passage about tribulation is from Acts 14:22.
- Finally: Hymn 347, verse 5: where does the phrase “thrice holy is the Lord” come from? Read Isaiah 6:3 to see if that’s the “echo”. Page 651 of our hymn book starts an Index of Scriptural References that is looking at “echoes” from the other direction. You know a Bible passage and want to see if there is a hymn in our hymn book for it.
3) Written by whom? How can you tell if the words were written or the music composed by a Christadelphian? On page 630 (in both the standard and pocket size!) is an index called “Source Details Listed by Hymn Number.” The introduction on that page informs us that, “An asterisk * indicates Christadelphian sources.” So what I have done is write by the hymn the name of the Christadelphian author of either the music or words or both. When I see that the hymn is written by a Christadelphian that hymn means even more to me when I sing it.
4) Tunes. When I don’t know the tune to a hymn, but I love the words, what do I do? Well, I do some mixing and matching. On page 642 the hymn book starts listing the Alphabetical Index of Tunes. Right after that, starting on page 646, the “Metrical Index of Tunes” is given. What are these used for? When you look at each hymn, at the top of the hymn, above the music, is the name of the music, and often, the “metrical” tune. The name for the music of the tune usually has an interesting history. For example, “Darwall’s 148th”, the tune as was used for hymn 73, is based on Psalm 148. The metrical tune is the beat, or rhythm of the tune. If you see a hymn with the metrical tune of 88.86, you can find that the words to another hymn with the same metrical tune and it will go with that original tune. Another example: you can sing the words to hymn 431 (88.86 metre) to the tune of hymn 405 (also 88.86 metre). On pages 646-647 you can also see by the headings what S.M., D.S.M., C.M., D.C.M., and L.M. mean!
5) First Lines. When asked “what is your favorite hymn?” we may answer, “Oh, the hymn starts with ‘Joy cometh…’ ” but you can’t remember the number of it! You can find the hymn number on Page 655 where hymns are listed alphabetically by their first line. Also, if you are searching for a particular theme, such as joy, or “holy”, there is a simple concordance available for your computer for the hymn book. (see http://www.christadelphianmusic.org/info/html for all this information and more!)
6) Prayers and Praise. It is sad to hear mournfulness in people’s voices when they are singing of the joy of being in the kingdom! Feel the emotions of the phrases being sung. Smile with joy when singing of rejoicing!! One favorite hymn that is a good example of various emotions is Hymn 135. We usually sing Verse 5 with emotion. We know to sing loud the two lines in Verse 5, “let sense be dumb, let flesh retire, Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,” and then go down to practically a whisper when singing the last two lines, “O still small voice of calm!” But what about the rest of that hymn? Verse three speaks of “rest,” and “calm,” and “silence”. Do we sing that verse that way? In verse four the first two lines are about being quiet, while the 3rd and 4th lines are louder, while the last two lines are peaceful and quieter. Do we sing it that way with feeling, meditating on the words as we sing?? It is helpful to prepare our songs of praise by reading over the hymn words, quietly and reflectively, thinking about the author’s words and their meaning.
All these are ways to help us to better give our God sacrifices of praise. As stated in Hebrews 13:15, “Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name”.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One