“O God Our Help In Ages Past” is a venerable hymn on God’s eternal faithfulness. Isaac Watts wrote the text as a paraphrase of Psalm 90:1-6, looking to God as the one constant in a changing world, a rock in the midst of the passing stream of time.
Hymn Guide: Great Is Thy Faithfulness
With Lamentations 3:22–23 in mind, Thomas Chisholm wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” after declining health forced him to leave the pastoral vocation he loved. He knew disappointment; he knew God’s faithfulness.
Hymn Guide: Holy, Holy, Holy
“Holy, Holy, Holy” is not only a classic hymn about the Trinity; it is also a song of adoration and personal worship of the triune God. Every verse begins with the thrice-holy acclamation of God upon his throne.
O, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus: Carried By His Current
Before I understood theology, I understood this: the love of Christ was not something I had to reach for. It was something I was already being held within. We do not learn the love of Christ by mastering it, but by receiving it.
Hymn Guide: The King of Love My Shepherd Is
If Psalm 23 had been written by Saint Peter rather than King David, the result would be something like “The King of Love My Shepherd Is.”
Hymn Guide: Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness
We may put on this facade because of social pressure, self-deception, or a theology that forgets that Jesus himself wept, suffered, and died. Then there is also the opposite temptation, to wallow in sadness, as if our Lord did not rise again from the grave. “Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness” is a hymn that addresses these complex emotions with honesty, beauty, and authentic hope.
The Bread of Life: Healing and The Eucharist
The risen Christ showed his scars—healed and transformed—to his disciples. The Eucharist joins us to that same reality. Not to minimize suffering or explain it away, but to acknowledge it. The table knows that we often need care before we consciously recognize it.
Cædmon of Whitby and the Hymn of Creation
Cædmon may find his ultimate legacy with those who have crafted songs of praise in the centuries since, especially those who have done so in the singable verse of everyday language.
O Sapientia: O Wisdom From On High
In the original O Antiphons, and still to this day on the church calendar, “O Wisdom” was the first of the seven
Hymn Guide: Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending
“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” is Charles Wesley’s great hymn on the second coming of Christ, and one of the most majestic congregational songs in the entire repertoire.
Hymn Guide: For All The Saints
Long before I thought about its lyrics, I loved to sing “For All the Saints.” The marching rhythm, the majestic tune, the repeated Alleluias: these would stir in my heart and inspire devotion to God. How wonderful, then, to discover that the hymn is also deeply theological, offering a profound reflection on the meaning of…
Hymn Guide: Ye Holy Angels Bright
“Ye Holy Angels Bright” is a majestic exhortation to the everlasting praise of God, even in the midst of persecution or trial. Inspired by Psalm 148, it addresses multiple categories of creation: angels, saints in heaven, saints on earth, and finally the singer’s individual soul. Richard Baxter, a 17th-century Anglican of the Puritan party, composed the…
