Hymns: Great Are You Lord

In this series, I survey some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. I try to be positive. Not everyone is positive about modern hymns.

“So many hymns today (if “hymns” they deserve to be called) are full of maudlin sentimentality, instead of Divine adoration. They announce our love to God instead of His for us. They recount our experiences, instead of His mercies. They tell more of human attainments, instead of Christ’s Atonement. Sad index of our low state of spirituality!” Arthur Pink

Pink said that he disliked the hymns “of the past 50 years” because they were man-centred. Interestingly, Pink himself passed away back in 1952, so he was speaking of hymns of the early 20th Century. One wonders what he’d think of 21st Century hymns 😀.

Because there are different movements within the evangelical world, it’s all too easy to dismiss those outside our own comfort zone. The Apostle Paul touched on this in 1st Corinthians where he mentioned how different church members aligned themselves to different leaders.

1 Corinthians 1:11-12
¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

Some even stated that they followed Christ, probably implying that they were the only ones who truly followed Christ.

I see no harm in liking some leaders or some music styles more than others, but surely we should rejoice that anyone is praising God. And when I study the lyrics of modern hymns, I find very little fault with them.

It’s quite short and simple lyrically. But we can focus on a single thought as we sing.

It's Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise

If I were writing it, I would write “sing out your praise” or “shout out your praise”. But we mustn’t allow ourselves to get irritated. If I were the devil, that’s exactly the thought that I would put into people’s minds when they start to sing. I would stop them worshiping God and get them to criticize the “pour out our praise” line. So, don’t be irritated. Better to spend your time irritating the devil by praising God 😀.

So, God is the one who gives and sustain our lives.

Genesis 2:7 — “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

And it’s God who gives us new birth from above:

Ezekiel 37:5–6 — “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel is the inspiration for the Dem Bones hymn. For my atheist friends, I found a version that doesn’t mention the Lord (the second video).

And I think of other hymns that speak of God breathing life into us.

1 Peter 1:3
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”