Enjoying Hymns

To know the hymns, we have to know some of the crucial points of the contents of the hymns. First, we must be familiar with some of the hymns on the blessing and experience of the Triune God. The word blessing is used here not to refer to the good things the Triune God has given us, but to the praise, the blessing that we offer to Him. An example of a good hymn on the blessing of the Triune God is #7–“Glory, glory, to the Father!” A good hymn on the experience of the Triune God is #608–“What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit.” It is also important to know hymns on the praise of the Father and the praise of the Lord.

We also need to know hymns concerning identification with Christ. We are not just united to be together with Christ, but we are actually one with Christ. A number of these deeper, excellent hymns by A. B. Simpson are included in this section of Hymns.

The experience of Christ is another crucial point of the content of the hymns. Hymn #499–“Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” and #501–“O glorious Christ, Savior mine” are excellent hymns in this category. We also need to know that hymns on the crucial points of the inner life, the church, the assurance of salvation, consecration, and comfort in trials (see #720). We should also be familiar with the hymns on the crucial points of spiritual warfare, the gospel, the church meetings, the hope of glory (#948 and #949), and the ultimate manifestation (#972).

To know the hymns requires knowledge of the standard of the hymns. Some hymns are of a lower standard, others are of a higher standard, and others are of the very highest standard. The matter of the standard of the hymns can be illustrated by three of the entries in hymns: 70, 154, and 152, concerning our love for the Lord and His love for us. The standard of hymn #70–“Oh, how I love Jesus”–is lower in life, truth, experience, and revelation than the other two. Hymn #154–“It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine”–is of a much higher standard. The first verse of this hymn says:

It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine,
My Savior, Jesus; yet this soul of mine
Would of Thy love in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
Know more and more.

Hymn #152–“O how deep and how far-reaching”–is of the highest standard, compared to the other two hymns. The first verse of this hymn says:

O how deep and how far-reaching
Is Thy love, dear Lord, to me!
Far beyond my pow’r to fathom,
Deeper than the deepest sea!
It has caused Thee death to suffer
And to me Thyself impart,
That in Thee I might be grafted
And become of Thee a part

A.B. Simpson’s hymns on the believers’ identification with Christ are of the highest standard. Hymn #481 is a very sweet song on our being identified with Christ’s death and resurrection. Verse 2 says:

’Tis not hard to die with Christ
When His risen life we know;
’Tis not hard to share His suffrings
When our hearts with joy o’erflow.
In His resurrection power
He has come to dwell in me,
And my heart is gladly going
All the way to Calvary.

Do you feel that it is hard to die? Here is a word that tells us it is not hard to die. To die with yourself is hard, but to die with Christ is not hard. It is not hard to die with Christ “when His risen life we know.” This hymn refers to Philippians 3:10 where Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Writing Hymns

To write a good hymn is not an easy task. A hymn must have the proper thought and proper poetic wording to accommodate of the rhyme and the rhythm.

The secret of learning anything is to do it again and again. In learning to do something, we make mistakes and are trained by learning from those mistakes. When Witness Lee wrote hymn #501–“O glorious Christ, Savior mine,” he polished, corrected, and adjusted it close to one hundred times. Some hymns were written in a quick and light way, which is not proper. Spiritual songs and hymns are the cream, the culmination of a person’s writing, thought, learning, life experience, and spiritual experience. Someone could not have composed the hymn–“Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” without having had the experience of living Christ. That hymn is the cream of the author’s experience, thought, learning, and writing.

Hymns are poetry, and every poem is an expression of the writer’s sentiment. The word “sentiment” denotes more than just a feeling. This word implies feeling, realization, understanding, and appreciation. The more one considers his sentiment, the more he will be inspired to write poetry. The kind of sentiment expressed in a particular hymn is a measure of that writer’s enjoyment of Christ; it indicates the extent to which the writer has experienced and enjoyed Christ. Thus, Wesley wrote his hymn on the incarnation of Christ according to his sentiment, and Darby wrote his hymn on the exaltation of Christ according to his sentiment. Both hymns were written according to the measure of the Christ enjoyed by the writers.

Look to the Lord in this matter of composing hymns. There is a need for good composers and writers. When a hymn is written, it must be polished, adjusted, and improved again and again. The best writers and composers make use of lexicons. To write a hymn is a difficult task, but there is the need.

To sing the psalms of the Old Testament is beneficial, but nonetheless somewhat according to the Old Testament dispensation. There is also the need for some melodies to be put to the New Testament which help the believers get into the feeling of the New Testament. Songs are needed for the book of Ephesians, in particular on the truths from Ephesians 1:3-14 and 3:3-11. Verses can be rewritten to fit the meter and rhyme while maintaining their revelation and truth. There is the need for a few modern-day Charles Wesleys. His writings and his melodies were really marvelous. One of his great melodies is the one for “And can it be that I should gain” (#296). A. B. Simpson is another excellent writer and composer of hymns who should be a pattern to us.

Speaking Hymns

According to the New Testament, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are profitable not only for singing, but also for speaking. Sometimes we are inspired by singing. But on other occasions, speaking that is filled with the Spirit may be more inspiring than singing. If we are flat, short of the Spirit, then our speaking will afford no inspiration. But if we are full of the Spirit, then our speaking will have impact and will inspire others. This is not eloquence; it is utterance with impact. The practice of speaking hymns in the meetings, with Christ as the center and with the exercise of the spirit, refreshes, nourishes, edifies, and builds up the church. If all the brothers and sisters practiced speaking the hymns in meetings, the meetings would be living, refreshing, and rich. This provides a way for all the believers to share their enjoyment of Christ with one another.

First Corinthians 14:26 says, “What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” This reveals to us that whenever we meet, everyone should “have” something. Whatever each one has, he must release it by his speaking. According to Ephesians 5, even our hymns are primarily not for singing, but for speaking. Verse 19 says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” We should treat the hymns in a very living way. While we are speaking to one another in this way, we are able to prophesy and thus build up one another mutually, resulting in the building up of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:16).

Also related to speaking the hymns is the matter of praying according to the hymns. In Ephesians 5:19, Paul encouraged us to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Here he did not mention singing, but speaking.

Speaking Christ, pp. 73-87

Testimony of Enjoying a Hymn

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