A lot of old hymns are not that great either.

Steve Holmes, a Baptist minister, presently employed to teach theology in St Mary’s College, St Andrews, Scotland, comments on John Stackhouse's post on Tomlin's songs by giving examples of bad hymnody in the past.

Holmes writes:

What of the claim of weak theology? John says ‘We are the most educated Christians in history, and yet our lyrics are considerably stupider than our much less educated Christian forebears…’ Well, for starters I’m not sure about this – once again, one would need to look at what they actually sang, not the classics that have come down to us. Victorian hymnody was full of sentimental claptrap with no discernable doctrinal content at all (check out ‘Blessed Assurance’ for the best of the genre, that has been judged good enough to survive).

Read the rest here. Holmes takes on charismatic worship here.

Old Hymns In New Ways

Justin Taylor points us to:

Page CXVI is a project started with the idea of making hymns accessible and known again.They are some of the richest, most meaningful, and moving pieces of music ever written.

Chris Tomlin’s Worship Songs

Dr. John Stackhouse of Regent College sounds off in his blog posting "Chris Tomlin’s Worship Songs: We Have Got to Do Better":

Why else take Brother Tomlin to task? Because those of us who want to praise God with our minds as well as our hearts, as our Lord taught us to do, cannot just ignore bad lyrics. None of us can just ignore repeated wrong notes sung or played by worship leaders, and these lousy lyrics go “twang” and “clunk.” They distract from the worship they are supposed to foster just as much as a lazy or untalented musician distracts us when his guitar isn’t tuned or he keeps playing the wrong chords on the piano. So don’t come back at me with “Well, just ignore it and praise the Lord anyway and appreciate his heart” and all that. Chris Tomlin is a professional songwriter. He’s not a sweet little kid doing his best in a Sunday School concert.

Let’s be clear, furthermore, that there’s lots of blame to go around here. Brother Tomlin’s music producers are happy to keep churning this stuff out. Worship leaders keep programming it. And we keep singing it without protest.

Well, that's enough. We are the most educated Christians in history, and yet our lyrics are considerably stupider than our much less educated Christian forebears–the people who sang lyrics by Fanny Crosby or Charles Wesley or Isaac Watts.

Read the rest here.

Another Blogger Who Will Probably Do This Better

Rich at Sound Doxology has just come on line, and he has some interests in common with mine. He also appears more qualified than I to speak on many of these issues. Welcome to the BlogOSphere, Rich!

"Give us clean hands" doesn't give us a Christ or a cross

Give Us Clean Hands by Matt Redman and Charlie Hall

This song lacks Christ and Him crucified.

We are powerless to do all of the good things proposed in the song. Our hearts are idol factories. And we can have none of this without Christ's death on the cross, his burial and resurrection and our repentance and faith in Him.

Yes, we need the Spirit to make us humble, but first we need Him to regenerate us and give us faith in Christ.

It seems that here "the law" isn't so bad and "the gospel" isn't so sweet.

Michael Horton in Modern Reformation Magazine says

The church exists in order to change the subject from us and our deeds to God and his deeds of salvation, from our various "missions" to save the world to Christ's mission that has already accomplished redemption. If the message that the church proclaims makes sense without conversion; if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time, so that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it is not the gospel.

Give Us Clean Hands by Matt Redman and Charlie Hall

We bow our hearts, we bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let this be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

We bow our hearts, we bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands, oh God and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

Oh God of Jacob
(Give us clean hands)

So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands, oh God and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

Oh God of Jacob
Oh God of Jacob

Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands, oh God and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

Oh God of Jacob

Simul Justus et Peccator

“Righteous and at the same time a sinner.”
(Martin Luther)

Luther recognized that although we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and judged righteous on this basis, we remain sinners before our ultimate glorification at the end of the age.

The song Amazing Love by Billy James Foote contains these oft-repeated lines:

Amazing love, I know it’s true:
It’s my joy to honor you.
In all I do I honor You.

News flash: In all I do, I do not honor God. I cannot sing these words without lying. I wish those who would impose this song on a congregation would tighten up the theology.

Kauflin on Top 10 Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs

Bob Kauflin posts his "Top Ten" list.
Note particularly:

6. Make sure the majority of your songs talk about what we do and feel rather than who God is and what he’s done.

and

10. Forget about Jesus and what he accomplished at the cross.