Biblical Truth Musically Proclaimed
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. —Colossians 3:16
No other event in the history of the world has brought forth such a full chorus of song as the resurrection of Christ from the dead. More music has issued from Joseph's empty tomb than from all the concert halls of the world since the dawn of the first civilization. The resurrection was the fact. Hymnody is the response of faith to that fact.
The story of Easter might be told in some fullness of detail by merely stringing together in their proper order lines and verses from our classic hymns. Take for instance the restrained but intensely joyous Latin hymn,
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The strife is o'er, the battle done; Now is the Victorís triumph won;
Now be the song of praise begun—Hallelujah!
There we have pure theology, with an exhortation and an exclamation added. The rest of the hymn develops the doctrine further:
The powers of death have done their worst, But Christ their legion hath dispersed;
He brake the age-bound chains of hell; The bars from heaven's high portals fell.
To each of these couplets is added a joyous call to praise and the ejaculatory Hallelujah! This is hymnody at its best. It does not seek to reveal anything; it assumes that the facts are already known, and sets them forth in a manner that makes praise and song the natural result.
Prayer
Thank You, Father, for the musical setting of biblical truth. Thank You for hymns that edify, encourage, challenge.
Thought
Singing theologically sound psalms, hymns and spiritual songs proclaims the Good News and expresses praise and worship to our God. The Risen Christ does declare that "The strife is o'er, the battle done; . . . The Victor's triumph won"!
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