Special Article: Worship and Music

Sing to the Lord a New Song...and an Old Song...and a

Psalm... and a Hymn...and a Chant...

by Gretchen Cunningham

Consider ice cream. Some love chocolate. Others prefer vanilla. Still others think strawberry is the best. Now consider the Banana Split. What would it be without all three flavors of ice cream? It certainly would not be the multi-flavored, interesting dessert that has delighted young and old for many years. Although there is nothing right or wrong with any of the flavors, it is the combination of them which makes the Banana Split a special treat.

Now consider music. It, too, comes in many different flavors - classical, contemporary, pop, rock, jazz, folk. Religious music is no exception. It has been an expression of God’s people for praise, worship, reflection and meditation for centuries. To single out one type of music as “right” or “wrong” for worship would be to disregard the many different, interesting and beautiful forms that have been written throughout the ages. Of course, like ice cream, we all have preferences as to our own personal favorite, but that does not mean that other types are not just as meaningful and well-received by God.

In Colossians 4:16, Paul instructs, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Gerrit Gustafson, pastor, teacher, and part of the original Creative Team of Integrity Music, explains the differences among these types of songs in his article entitled A Paradigm for the Church of the Future:

Similar to what we today call choruses, a psalm, or song, is generally simpler, shorter, more testimonial and less theological than a hymn. A hymn would usually carry a greater sense of history; a psalm, or chorus, would be more personal. The psalm is also more contemporary and has a shorter life span. The spiritual song is even more a song-of-the-moment than a psalm. The spiritual song, which consists of spontaneous melodies and words, inspired by the Holy Spirit and sung around a chord or slowly moving chord progression, has been referred to as the song of angels because of its mystical, other-worldly quality. Even as the Spirit is the believer's down payment of the future age, the spiritual song must be a foretaste of heavenly worship itself...The command to employ psalms, hymns and spiritual songs requires a greater cultural flexibility than we have had so we can enjoy the variety of worship expressions.

He goes on to explain that the genius of these song forms is that each expresses a different dimension of God’s nature:

The hymn will satisfy our hunger for truth and depth of understanding; the psalm will speak to our need for encounter and experience; and the spiritual song will stimulate the visionary in us.

He describes a “new paradigm” where there is “unity within diversity” and which allows the contemporary and the historic to stand side by side. He challenges us to “be reverent and celebrative! Be objective and subjective! Structured and spontaneous! Testimonial and theological!”

Can we imagine what John described in Revelation 7:9? “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” Can we begin to imagine this multinational, multilingual, multi-cultural throng of saints from all the centuries standing before our Savior and praising Him with songs from their time, culture and in their language? What a glorious sound it must be in all its diversity as it falls on the ears of God!

Here at St. John’s Anglican Church in Park City, Utah in the 21^st century, may we open the ears of our hearts and strive in our humanness to hear the music of worship and praise from the ages as does the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. Alleluia!