Common Objection #2: "We only sing new songs these days--never any old ones!"
Issue 2
This is indeed the case in most churches. But is it a bad thing? Psalm 98:1 says “O sing to the Lord a new song,” and why? Because “…He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for him.” In Revelation 5:9 “…they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’ ”
These verses not only tell us to sing new songs, but they also tell us why we should do so: because of the things which the Lord has done for us. Songs of praise to the Lord can be especially potent if they speak of things which He has recently done, though of course we shouldn’t limit ourselves to thinking only of the present. Throughout the thousands of years of Biblical history, the story of the Exodus is referenced extremely frequently, meaning that even when new psalms were being composed long after the occurrence took place, it was still important and worthy to be sung about.
Other mentions throughout the Bible about composing new songs include Psalm 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 144:9, 149:1, Isaiah 42:10, and Revelation 14:3. Clearly, allowing our creativity to grow stagnant is not encouraged.
However, the dissenters have a point. Singing only new songs ignores the heritage of worship that has been handed down to us through the hundreds of generations of Christian history. Thessalonians 2 ends with an exhortation to “stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught”. To ignore the teaching of our spiritual parents in the faith would be folly on an extraordinary level. We are not without our own blind spots, and to ferment in nothing but the whims of our own time period does not lead us in helpful directions.
We have a multitude of songs in English dating back to the time of the reformation with many more having been translated from those which were composed during and before the reformation. We also have the Psalms in English, a full songbook, inspired by God and rarely sung by His children, who instead prefer the most recent, catchy song of their own making. This is the state of vast majority of churches today, even amongst the reformed camp. I’ve been in the reformed crowd for about fifteen years, and it’s only been within the last four or five years that I even heard about singing Psalms.
I think a fairly noncontroversial case can be made for singing a mixture of both old and new songs, provided we take careful pointers from the scripture and from our previous generations as we compose new items to be used in worship. It has struck me recently that many of the folks I know who advocate for more of the “old hymns” and a return back to the way things used to be make the same error of chronological snobbery that is made by advocates of our modern worship songs. As it turns out, the “old hymns” they refer to mostly consist of 1900s-era travesties written by people who seem to have poor theological grounding and little fear for the Lord of Hosts. As it turns out, the plea to sing “old hymns” is actually a request to sing the hymns which were popular during my time. It is not a bad request, but I am saddened to see the lack of awareness in this area. There were good hymns composed in the 1900s, but also many theologically and even musically bad ones. And there seems to be very little distinction made between these and the vast amount of solid hymns composed over 200 years ago.
The distinction which is made—and for good reason—is the difference in style of worship. “Old hymns” defined in Will’s dictionary means [noun] any churchy-sounding poem set to the style of music commonly used in churches between the time of the protestant reformation until 40 years ago. The only distinction which is made by most of the older crowd who appreciate this style is just that—the style. Style of worship music is a topic for another time, and it is of far greater importance than our enlightened, rationalistic society likes to attribute to it.
Hopefully it is clear that a return to the old hymns is long overdue, but for far more reasons than are typically given. Do not neglect the older songs which have helped build our world. And especially do not neglect singing the songs which have been given to us by God as inspired scripture. In addition to this, we should know that singing a new song is not an evil thing in itself, but rather a worthy thing to pursue if done properly and ordered according to a biblical fashion.