Songs Worth Singing: Hymn Writing 102 by Jerry Davidson

It is now the year 2021. It was over 380 years ago that the first English book was printed in North America, and that book was called The Bay Psalms Book (published 1640). Without going into the vast history behind this work, it was a massive effort by the Puritans to translate every single Psalm into metered verse to be easily sung by congregations. They cared very deeply about preserving the words and meanings of Scripture as they went. To ensure the Psalms would be simple enough to learn by any congregation, they created 13 individual tunes and categorized all 150 Psalms by the tune with which their metered translation would pair. The 9th edition of the Bay Psalm Book (published in 1698) has each tune printed with one of the Psalms.

As this doubtfully interests many, there is a component here that modern Christian worship music often misses: the preservation of pure Biblical doctrine in song. For example, the popular worship song “What A Beautiful Name” holds a line that goes as follows: You didn’t want heaven without us, so Jesus you brought heaven down. This is flat wrong. God sent His Son, His incarnation, down to us, which may be the spirit behind this line, but the doctrine of Scripture teaches that we had no way to become worthy of heaven, and because of our sin and God’s holiness, God couldn’t lower His standards just because He “didn’t want heaven without us.” If that were the case, the implication is then that God wants us in heaven so badly that He’ll do anything to get us there, even compromising His own nature! That is untrue. God is just, but God is also love. Therefore, He sent Christ to take on our punishment so that we may become righteous and thereby enter heaven and God’s presence, having been fully justified by grace through Christ’s death and resurrection. The standard for heaven never changed, though. Grace entered the equation.

We can now understand why the Puritans put so much effort into translating the Psalms into English meter to be sung. You can’t go wrong with singing direct Scripture. When writing songs for the worship of God by anyone, we must ensure that we are writing songs worth singing–songs that don’t mislead, give vague or intangible definitions of God, or romanticize Jesus and his work.

There are generally three types of corporate worship songs: teaching songs, emotive songs, and experiential songs. Each of these can overlap, but they tend to separate themselves. Teaching songs fall more in the realm of hymns, songs that focus more on the nature of God and His work throughout redemptive history. These are lacking in today’s contemporary worship style songwriting, but there has been an uptick in churches writing these kinds of songs (see Sovereign Grace Music and Immanuel Worship).

Emotive songs are the middleman of worship music, overlapping with usually only one of the other categories. Regardless of which category they blend with, the melody is usually one that elicits a very strong emotional reaction from the congregates who are singing it.

Finally, experiential songs tend to deal with our position and experience of Christ’s and the Holy Spirit’s work in us. This is certainly the most treacherous territory of music writing since 1) we don’t bear any glory for salvation and 2) our experiences and emotions are still caught up in the sinful flesh we are bound to in this life, so it can lead us to feel something doctrinally wrong. Nonetheless, all three categories bear equal significance in the corporate worship platform.

As we learn to write new and better songs for personal and corporate worship, we need Scriptural truth guiding our emotions and the words of our music as well as poetic knowledge and understanding. If you are considering writing worship songs, whether casually or for your church, here are some basic rhyming schemes to consider (A and B indicate a new line with the last word in that line rhyming with the line of the same letter; X indicates a new line that does not have a matching line to rhyme with it):

• AAAA

• AABB

• AABBA

• ABAB

• ABABB

• AAB

• ABBA

• ABAAB

• XAXA

• AXXA

• AAXA

• AXAA

Get input on the doctrine of your songs. The Scriptural accuracy of your words is most important. The ease and enjoyment of your song to be corporately sung is secondary but still vital. I highly recommend the book Sing! by Keith and Kristyn Getty for an overview of the gift that singing is and our responsibility to ensure the purity of what we sing and worship with. If you are called to write songs for the worship of God, ensure that they are songs worth singing.

O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he has done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, has gotten him the victory. ~ Psalm 98:1 KJV 2000

Jerry A. Davidson lives in Alexander, AR with his wife, Amy. He is a hymn writer, vocal coach at Davidson Vocal Coaching, author, as well as worship leader at CrossPoint Church in Bryant, AR. His desire is to write stories and songs that bring glory to God through a deep understanding of His Word and design for the world.