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... a worship resource offering you a newly written hymn based on the Revised Common Lectionary every week...

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Trinity Sunday Your Fingerprint by Brenton Prigge © 2005 New Hymn

Why sing new hymns?

Why sing? Because surely we must! Five times the Bible commands us to "sing to the Lord a new song"! (Don't take my word for it - go and make sure for yourself. You get some wonderful Bible web sites these days - Try e-Sword or Bible Gateway and look up the following: Psalm 33:3, 96:1, 98:1, 149:1 and Isaiah 42:10).

At the same time, let us not completely abandon our rich heritage of thousands of years of poetry and creative labour that are contained in our traditional hymns. In some cases there is a need to rework them, rewrite them, or rephrase them, for it must be said that their language and socio-historical context in which they were written make them not just inaccessible but downright foreign to most (but not all) twenty first century Christians and non-Christians alike! Nevertheless I would consider it to be a mistake to abandon all our traditional hymns as though none of them had anything to offer us.

Why new hymns?

Why hymns? All right, so the Bible commands that we sing a new song. Why new hymns, though? Isn't that a bit old-fashioned in this day and age when the world-wide church is being flooded with with such wonderful songs of praise and worship?
First of all, the word "hymn" actually means nothing more than "a song of praise", so the distinctions we tend to make between hymns and "praise songs" are false distinctions to start with. That's neither here nor there. The point I would like to make is this: While we do in fact have such an abundance of new songs geared towards that part of a worship experience in which we either praise, thank or adore God, we have a relative paucity of musical contribution to the various other integral parts of the dialogue between God and His people that should be part of a meaningful encounter of worship: confession, absolution, healing, intercession, petition, conviction, commitment, renewal, proclamation.

There is so much more to worship than praise and thanksgiving. There is so much more to worship than a song.

What we lose where the traditional hymns are no longer sung and new hymns are not introduced is the kind of song that the Bible is speaking of when it commands us to "sing of all His (the LORD's) wonderful acts" (1 Chronicles 16:9 NIV) and "Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day" (1 Chronicles 16:23 NIV). Our songs are not just a way of praising, but also a way of fixing God's words and deeds in our hearts and minds; when we sing of God's words and deeds, it becomes a way of discipleship and of teaching in obedience to God's command: "teach (these words of mine) to your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 11:18-19 NIV).