Songs of Old

How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond measure.

I love the old hymns. The intensity of the language is always something that moves me even when I was too young to fully understand what I was singing.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

As I have gotten older, I have come to have a better understanding of those amazing words that I have uttered for some many years.

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine; for thee all the follies of sin I resign.

One of my favorite hymns has been on my heart for weeks. I find myself spontaneously humming or breaking out into song as I go about my day.

Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of God's unchanging love.

Your wellspring of blessings overflows transforming my heart and to me sing of your grace. Your never ending mercy brings me to sing praises to at the top of my lungs. Teach me the beautiful songs that are sung by angels. I am unwavering on your foundation of unchanging love.

The poetry of old cannot be fully broken down into modern language doesn’t really do the hymn justice. However it causes me to stop and think about what I am singing. I realize that it is the cry of my heart as I sing something that comes to my head.

Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee

The songs of old are overflowing with intensity, complete surrender and reckless abandon. I can only imagine the intense relationship these authors had with their Savior.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.

It saddens me that these beautiful songs are becoming less and less known today. I have been thinking that I would love for the kids to learn and hopefully come to love the songs of old. My ultimate goal for educating them is to teach them for the eternal. In other words, everything I teach them, I want it to have an eternal value not just a here and now value. We have such a small amount of time to learn as much as we can, I want it all to really count. So I am thinking I am going to do a hymn study with the kids during the next few months. It will be a great way to introduce them to the poetry of old and even Shakespeare.

Jimmie has a great selection of links to resources for doing a hymn study. My goal is to at least scratch the surface of some of the most powerful hymns in the next few months.

Do you have a favorite hymn?