A Favourite Song - Jo Turner
“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:18, NIV, 2011)
I wonder if you have a favourite hymn or Christian song. Perhaps you’re a fan of the golden oldies, or maybe the latest CityAlight number is more up your street. Either way, chances are you’re unlikely to turn to the person next to you after the service on a Sunday and start citing that hymn or song to them word for word.
I’m pretty sure that’s not what Paul had in mind here!
In this verse, Paul is emphasising the importance of corporate worship as an expression of the Spirit among His people, and reminding us that everything we do or say should be infused with an attitude of joy, deep gratitude to our Father, and a desire to encourage others in Him. God wants the language and truths of our worship to infiltrate the way we speak to other believers (and indeed non-believers) and live out our lives.
But sharing our favourite hymns and songs with each other in one way or another, either by sitting down to read the words together, talking about a particular hymn after we’ve sung it in church, or sending each other YouTube links of our favourite versions of them can be a wonderful way of sharing blessings.
Because God really does bless us through the poetry of the hymns and Christian songs we sing. Poetry can express truths and sentiments with a deeper intensity than other forms of prose, using literary features which often have the effect of making those truths and sentiments more memorable. A helpful feature of English hymns and songs is rhyme, which is especially beneficial for those of us with memories like sieves, because rhyming verse has a peculiar ability to stick in our minds. Music and rhyme are stored in a specific part of our brains which can be accessed even by those with severe memory loss or brain trauma – it is more readily accessible to us and can be preserved for longer. This means that even when our minds are clouded – when we’re anxious, distracted, hurt, confused, depressed, full of conflicting emotions, strained, exhausted – at these times when we need God’s truths more than ever but our brains are struggling to invoke them, we can call them to mind through psalms, hymns and songs.
This can be a lifeline. Last year, during a bout of acute anxiety that lasted several months, one particular verse of one particular hymn came like balm to my addled mind:
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth;
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow;
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
In the midst of the exhausting restlessness of a brain held on high alert by the fight-or-flight chemicals pumping through my body, these beautiful words, penned by Thomas Chisholm in his famous hymn ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’, brought me comfort, peace, hope, joy, rest. It would play on repeat in my mind throughout the day, reminding me over and over again of the treasures I have in Christ, whatever my circumstances. Whilst it didn’t remove the anxiety, it was invaluable in redirecting my gaze and filling my heart with joy even despite the pain of the present.
This is the power of hymns and songs – they help the good news of the Gospel to stick with us. Speaking these things to each other, however that may look, is a wonderful way of encouraging one another and pointing each other to the things of God.
So, in the spirit of Ephesians 5:18, I’d love to share briefly how this precious verse of this precious hymn helped me to ‘sing and make music in my heart to the Lord’:
Pardon for sin: We are forgiven all our failures, no matter how far we fall and no matter how many times we need helping up again. If we are in Christ we are totally, completely, irreversibly pardoned. Our slate is wiped clean at every single moment. It’s not only as if we’ve never sinned, but as if we’ve lived the beautiful, perfect life that Jesus did. That is how God sees us when we are His.
And a peace that endureth: We might not necessarily feel this peace in our bodies, but it is a peace we can feel and know deep in our hearts and which goes beyond the confines of human rationality and time - it defies understanding and endures for eternity.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide: No matter how alone we feel, we are in fact never alone – not only does our Lord promise to walk beside us, to hem us in behind and before, to go ahead of us, but also He dwells inside us, His Spirit directing us and encouraging us from within.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow: His promises of strength and help (Is.41:10) are for the present – this is something we can claim expectantly and confidently right here, right now. And our future is bright, indeed it could not be brighter, because we will spend the rest of our life in this world resembling more and more our beautiful Saviour, and the rest of eternity in paradise with Him.
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside: This is just a short summary of some of the riches He has lavished on us. Thousands more verses could be written and not cover the full extent of these. The list could literally go on and on.
It is difficult not to worship our Father when these wonders play on repeat in our heads and our hearts!
We are blessed to have a very rich heritage of brilliant hymns and Christian songs in the English language. Their words help us express our hearts to God and lift each other’s eyes toward Him. Perhaps this week we can call to mind our own favourite, sing it in our hearts to the Lord, and share it with a fellow believer. It may just be a lifeline.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.
