"My mentor David Hubbard was fond of saying that hymns contain "compacted theology." His favorite example was the line from Edward Mote's hymn, "My hope is built on nothing less" (ca. 1834), which reads: "His oath, His covenant, His blood, / Support me in the whelming flood." "There are several centuries of theology packed into those lines," Hubbard would say.

My own theological reflection is greatly enriched by thinking about the contents of hymnody. An illustration is this verse from Matthew Bridges' "Crown Him with many crowns" (1851):

Crown Him the Lord of love;
Behold His hands and side,
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified:
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends His wond'ring eye
At mysteries so bright.

The imagery here not only captures important theology, but it does so in a way that impresses the theological point on your consciousness as no scholarly treatise can do. I may know theologically that Christ ascended into the heavens as the victorious Crucified One, the Lamb who was slain. But the theological point is underscored--it becomes graphic--through the marvelous words about his "Rich wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified"--wounds that create a sight so full of mysteries that the celestial hosts cannot bear simply to fix their gaze on them." by Richard J. Mouw

Many times, when singing at church, I focus on the melody, occasionally focusing on one word that moves me, or a line of the chorus, or a phrase in one stanza. I do this with casual singing as well - singing a song maybe 30 times before I really start to pay attention to what the song is actually saying. I might even know all the words, but haven't thought to put it all together. Until one day, it hits me, and I really worship the Lord. Most worship music, I realize, I don't actually worship to. Even as I sing with the choir during rehearsals for our Christmas cantata, I'm much more concerned about singing it right than singing it to God. I know this shouldn't be, but I have a lot of excuses:

1. I don't know sometimes half of the songs we sing. At a new church, with different songs, and a worship leader who likes to keep things fresh, I find it hard to really "get into" the song when I'm learning it for the first time.
2. The songs we're learning to perform, I want to get right so that the people listening can be worshipful and not hindered by any mistakes I or we might make.
3. If I really worship God while singing, I frequently get so choked up that I can't actually sing - a bad thing for performance music in particular.

But, Lord, I stand against these lies. There is no reason I can't stop worrying about the technicality of my voice in favor of the most important thing. These are worship songs, and should affect me at least as much as the sermon, my prayers, service, community sharing, communion, and every other kind of worship that happens in church and beyond. If I'm singing Christian music just to sing, I suppose that's better than singing secular music, but I'm missing half the benefit. I should approach sacred music as sacred. They usually contain scripture or at the very least, theology, and I should be ready to receive what You have to say to me through them. I feel as though I've been partially deaf! Maybe that's why our deaf ministry touches me so! :)

Lord, I thank You that as an American I can freely sing whatever songs I want. I don't have to worry about being caught praising You - the One True God. My church is not hindered from meeting, from choosing biblically sound songs, from preaching the whole truth. My radio stations can teach and sing all types of songs about You. They accept new and "different" people from all walks of life, with all personality types, with all kinds of abilities and disabilities, gifts and talents, problems, skin colors, denominational backgrounds, at all different points of their Walk. They yearn for MORE diversity! My church is a GRACEland. You are so good to direct me there as I begin to remember signs of ungrace in my history.

Grace is truly THE unique asset (besides being TRUE, obviously!) of my Christian faith. And I desire to be a grace vessel to the hurting people around me. Thank You for Michael's boss, for my mom and dad, various relatives, neighbors - all unbelievers who need grace. For that matter, ALL of us could use more grace in such a graceless world. Even though in this country we are "free," it isn't without judgment, competition, gossip, condescension, hatred... Yet there are shining examples of grace where we might not expect it. I love You. Be Lord of my life, Lord of this day.