Hymn Recommendations

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heartoflesh

Puritan Board Junior
Being altogether disappointed with the praise songbook I had been restricted to using for family devotions... (although I have been utilizing a psalter someone sent me--thanks, Andrew :D)... I went ahead and ordered a couple of Trinity Hymnals. My wife plays piano and it's worked out great. I'm not familiar with a lot of hymns. Some of my favorite hymns are...

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Immortal, Invisible
Rock of Ages
How Great Thou Art
Great Is Thy Faithfulness

And a few more...


What are some of your favorite hymns? I'm looking for suggestions to incorporate into family devotion time. No EP vs. Non-EP stuff please.

Thanks!
 
In no special order:

#599 The Sands of Time are Sinking
#146 Lift yo your heads, ye mighty gates
#132 Wondrous King all Glorious
#133 O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
#56 O Splendor of God's Glory Bright

and a few dozen more. :)
 
Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness
Hallelujah Praise Jehovah
How Sweet and Awesome is the Place
Jesus Shall Reign
 
At The Name Of Jesus
Be Thou My Vision
Of The Father's Love Begotten
Jesus Shall Reign
Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor


Check out the "Cantus Christi" hymnal. It has Psalms and Hymns that are theologically sound.
 
I don't know a whole lot yet.

Those I do know and cherish:

A Mighty Fortress is Our God
All Creatures of our God and King
Be Thou My Vision
My Jesus, I Love Thee
Thy Lovely Source of True Delight
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour
Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts
There Forever Stay
I Need Thee Every Hour
 
Originally posted by Saiph

Check out the "Cantus Christi" hymnal. It has Psalms and Hymns that are theologically sound.

Thanks for the info. I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover the Trinity hymnal contains the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism. I almost feel like a Presbyterian now.

Almost.
 
I'll second Be Thou My Vision. Also, I'm partial to Living for Jesus, but especially to How Vast the Benefits Divine.
 
By first line:

Thou Art Coming, O My Saviour
When All Thy Mercies, O My God
Lamb Of God Thou Now Art Seated
Before The Throne Of God Above
Jerusalem The Golden
For All The Saints
Abide With Me
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Mighty God While Angels Bless Thee
O For A Closer Walk With God
There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood (although we use a different tune from the one I always heard growing up, which I like much better)
Our Years Are Like The Shadows
The Sands Of Time Are Sinking
Jesus Thy Blood And Righteousness
A Sovereign Protector I Have
A Debtor To Mercy Alone
 
A Debtor to Mercy Alone
Jesus, What a Friend of Sinners
The Church's One Foundation
None Other Lamb
And Can It Be
Not What My Hands Have Done
There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood

. . . and a lot more. It would be easier to ask which ones out of the Trinity I DIDN'T like! :)

Plus a lot more that aren't in the Trinity . . . Before the Throne of God Above, I Hear the Words of Love . . .
 
The Solid Rock is one I've always loved. The lyrics humble the singer and exalt Christ, which is always a good combo.
 
Originally posted by Rick Larson
Thanks for all the recommendations. Sounds like I'd better learn "Be Thou My Vision".

I love that hymn. Add a penny whistle and my eyes will start to water. But I don't see it in my Trinity Hymnal. (I have an older blue model).

I also love # 135, "I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art", mainly because it is old. It is sourced from both the Strasbourg and Geneva Psalters at the time that Calvin was in those places.

Vic
 
Vic:

In my hymnal that song, the lyrics at least, are attributed to John Calvin.
 
Originally posted by JohnV
Vic:

In my hymnal that song, the lyrics at least, are attributed to John Calvin.

John, I always suspected that, but I had never seen found any documentation of it. Interesting.

Vic
 
#421 "Rock of ages"

#710 "I need thee every hour"

#699 "Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him"

#27 "Great is Thy faithfulness"

#129 "Fairest Lord Jesus"

#704 "In the cross"

#582 " My hope is built"

#400 "Come thou Fount of every blessing"
 
Originally posted by JohnV
How do we go about verifying that?

John, I don't know. I Googled it and found a lot of places that plainly said it was by him, others, more careful, attribute it to him. I found a few articles that said his authorship was in doubt.

Regardless of whether he wrote it, I do think that he knew it and sang it, because it was in his psalter at Strasbourg and Geneva Psalters.

Vic
 
Let us love and sing and wonder
Alas, and did my Saviour bleed
The Church's One Foundation
 
How about
"Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord...." and
"Come, Now is the Time to Worship"

Hee hee, just kidding!

Here's some I wrote down when we sang them in church and I liked them. Perhaps not all can be found in the Trinity Hymnal:

The King of Love my Shepherd Is
Glory Be to God in Heaven
Praise My Soul the King of Heaven
Christ We Do All Adore Thee
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name
O Sacred Head Now Wounded
O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus
What Wondrous Love this Is
How Firm a Foundation
Immortal Invisible God Only Wise
Lift High the Cross
O God Beyond all Praising
Rock of Ages
O Worship the King
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
Come, thou Almighty King
 
Originally posted by JohnV
How do we go about verifying that?

Comments on the authorship of "Salutation à Jésus Christ" ("I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art"):

Sometimes it is suggested that Calvin, after all, did not think that inspiration was necessary in worship song, because it has been claimed that Calvin was the author of the non-canonical hymn "Salutation à Jésus Christ,"(178) which appeared in the Strasbourg psalters of 1545 and 1553, though without an attribution.(179) In 1867 the editors of the Calvini Opera included the hymn in their collection.(180) Two years later, Philip Schaff, promoting a liturgical expansion in the Reformed church, ascribed the piece to Calvin when he placed a translation of it in a hymnal he edited.(181) However, there is no evidence that Calvin was the author of the hymn, and the historians of the Geneva Psalter have been skeptical of these claims. Orentin Douen observed: "This item is not at all, one sees, a translation of the Bible, but a free composition which does not fit Calvin's manner, and of which Garnier is perhaps the author."(182) Pierre Pidoux, who has compiled an exhaustive collection of documents, texts and tunes pertaining to the history of the Geneva Psalter, lists the authorship of the hymn as "unknown," and comments: "Attributed to Calvin by the editors of the Calvini Opera, and to Jean Garnier by Douen. The first attribution is very improbable for reasons of style; the second is hypothetical."(183)

Pidoux notes that the hymn was reportedly in the 1545 Strasbourg psalter, was left out of the Strasbourg psalter of 1548, and appears a second time in the Strasbourg psalter of 1553.(184) The one Strasbourg psalter in which Calvin had a hand was that of 1539, for which he supplied metrical versions of several Psalms. Calvin left Strasbourg on September 2, 1541(185) and arrived back in Geneva on September 13,(186) four years before the hymn was first published. The hymn never appears in the Genevan psalters, or in any psalter on which Calvin worked.

The most likely supposition respecting the authorship of the "Salutation à Jésus Christ" is that it was produced by the man who bore primary responsibility for the only two psalters in which it was included. The editors of the Calvini Opera, and the historian François Ritter, judged that the 1545 Strasbourg psalter was published at the initiative of Jean Garnier, who came to Strasbourg on June 22, 1545 and was pastor of the French congregation in that city until 1555.(187) This involvement leads Pidoux to suggest that Garnier might be the author of the hymn.(188) Douen agrees that the 1545 Strasbourg psalter "was undoubtedly published by Jean Garnier," a scholar esteemed by Bucer, Bullinger, Calvin and Farel,(189) and notes that the 1553 Strasbourg psalter (in which the hymn appears again) was also the work of Garnier, who revised the psalter's translation and prepared the preface.(190) The title-page of the 1553 Strasbourg psalter bears the device of Garnier.(191)

Notes
(178) John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 148, calls the hymn Calvin's "best poem," but provides no justification for attributing it to Calvin, and erroneously asserts that the hymn originally appeared in a Genevan psalter. McNeill's assertions are repeated by Peter A. Lillback, "Introduction," in Our Songs in God's Worship (Philadelphia: Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, n.d.), p. 2. A translation of a portion of the hymn appears as number 135 in the Trinity Hymnal (1961).
(179) Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier Huguenot Du XVIe Siècle: Melodies et Documents, v. 1: Les Mélodies (Basel: Bärenreiter, 1962), p. 150.
(180) Calvini Opera 6:223.
(181) Philip Schaff, Christ in Song: Hymns of Immanuel Selected From All Ages, With Notes (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph and Company, 1869), 678-80. Cf. Armin Haeussler, The Story of Our Hymns: The Handbook To the Hymnal Of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1952), pp. 306-09.
(182) Douen, Clément Marot et Le Psautier Huguenot, 1:452.
(183) Pidoux, Le Psautier Huguenot Du XVIe Siècle, 1:150.
(184) Ibid.
(185) Douen, Clément Marot et Le Psautier Huguenot, 2:649.
(186) Garside, Origins of Calvin's Theology of Music, p. 16.
(187) Calvini Opera 6:xvi; François Ritter, Histoire de L'Imprimerie Alsacienne aux XVe et XVIe Siècle
(Strasbourg: F.-X. Le Roux, 1955), p. 577.
(188) Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier Huguenot Du XVIe Siècle: Melodies et Documents, v. 2: Documents et Bibliographie (Basel: Bärenreiter, 1962), p. 30.
(189) Douen, Clément Marot et Le Psautier Huguenot, 1:451; cf. 2:650.
(190) Ibid., 1:557.
(191) Pidoux, Le Psautier Huguenot Du XVIe Siècle, 2:65.

Source
 
Many of my favorites have already been mentioned in this thread, and I am not going to repeat them. Here are a few good ones that have not been mentioned as far as I can tell. I could not remember for sure if Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul is in Trinity Hymnal.

Arise, My Soul, Arise
Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul
Jesus I My Cross Have Taken
O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go
Out of My Bondage
Whate´er My God Ordains is Right


Also, somebody recommended the (awesome) song Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder. The tune in Trinity Hymnal is horrendus, don't let that scare you off from the song.
 
Thanks, Andrew. That seems to settle it. There are a lot of suppositions, though. Its not proof, but its what you might call an educated guess.

We find this at the end of this section of Mr. Isbell's article:
"Now what Saint Augustine says is true, that no one is able to sing things worthy of God unless he has received them from Him. Wherefore, when we have looked thoroughly everywhere and searched high and low, we shall find no better songs nor more appropriate to the purpose than the Psalms of David which the Holy Spirit made and spoke through him. And furthermore, when we sing them, we are certain that God puts the words in our mouths, as if He Himself were singing in us to exalt His glory."
...a direct quote from Calvin.


Reading just this section of Rev. Isbell's work impresses me. If he were writing it to refer back to the dominant opinions of men such as Beza and Calvin, as if that were normative for the church, I would object. I don't find that very beneficial. But he goes to the "why's" of what was held, and that impresses me.

I find that the modern church is run too much by opinions, views on this and that and everything else. ( Don't run away, I'm getting to hymns. ) For example, casting doubt on the six-day creation scheme seems for many an excuse to think the other schemes to be equal as legitimate points of view or interpretations. And so it is done with a lot of other teachings: cast doubt on the certainty of a particular doctrine, and then all theories which can fit the text are legitimately equal. So what we tend to do in answer to that is to go back to find what the opinions of the great fathers of the church were. But that's all wrong. It doesn't matter what their opinions were; it matters what their rulings were as fathers of the church, no more, no less. All we're doing is justifying doctrine on men's opinions, however holy they may have been, and that's against the very creeds of the church.

And Rev. Isbell dispel's this attitude in this brief article. Not only does he bring a case against the authorship of Calvin for that anthem, but he pushes us away from trying to cite the opinions Calvin to justify hymns. He cites the practices and actual cases, as best he can.

I'll need to read the whole series to comment on the impact this has on the inclusion of hymns in worship. I'm interested in what they ruled, and for what reasons, not just their personal opinions. Were hymns ruled out because they believed that only the Psalms may be sung? Does Calvin's comment ( above ) mean that hymns are not welcome before God? And more questions like these.

[Edited on 11-11-2005 by JohnV]
 
I think we need to discuss just what we mean by a regulative principle of worship. The more I read, the more nebulous it becomes.

May I ask the moderator of this forum to move this part ( from Andrew's quote, excluding Mike's post ) of the discussion to another thread, if this wants to be pursued? Not just an EP thread, but a RPW thread as it is defined by EP proponents.
 
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