Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

There are plenty of reasons why our church will always sing old hymns. It’s not just so that those among us whose hair has a ‘grey tinge’ can reminisce about the days of old – it’s for all of us.

For starters, it’d be such a shame to turn our backs on the musical and lyrical gems that’ve been written over the years. You only need to think of songs like “Amazing Grace”, “How Great Thou Art”, or “What Can Wash Away My Sin?” to know what I’m talking about. We’ll never tire of singing or benefiting from these beauts.

Then there’s the benefit we gain from fellowshipping with Christians of ages past. In a very real way, when we sing the words of Christians who’ve endured before us – and who are likely to already be with Christ in heaven – we’re spurred on to continue enduring today, as we struggle on following Jesus ourselves. It’s the musical version of being spurred on by Christian biography – singing the words of a faithful believer penned a hundred years ago or more.

But I reckon the greatest argument we have for singing hymns today can be summed up in a single word: Richness. The lyrical richness of hymns of old, by and large, far surpasses the lyrical richness of Christian songs today (Keith Getty and Stuart Townend are notable exceptions, with songs like “In Christ Alone”, “How Deep the Father’s Love”, and “Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer”). One of the Church’s great failures in the 20th-21st centuries is to produce so few songs with lyrical richness – especially in comparison with previous centuries. Don’t hear me wrong – it’s not that we haven’t produced any – it’s just that we’ve produced so few. Musically we’re coming up with plenty of great stuff. But lyrically, we’re often wading around in the shallow end of the pool, if not in the land of heresy. We’d be fools if we didn’t mine the riches available to us in hymns of old, whose words put most of our modern lyrics to shame. That’s why we’ve recently added some hymns to our church playlist – “Come Thou Fount”, “All Creatures of Our God and King”, “Take My Life”, and “Rock of Ages” (a few of which you’ll find on out Featured Items Page).

One of our new songs – “Here Is Love” – is another great example. The words are wonderfully rich – beautifully expressing biblical truth. They were written in 1876 by a pastor named William Rees. The music is a modern adaptation by Matt Redman.

On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast a gracious tide

Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love

That’s rich. Songs like this help the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly. They help the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Church to become a reality: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

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