Favorite Hymns

[DScott]

What are everyone’s favorite hymns?

[Awkward Potato]

I really like Oh, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and Christ Arose. I am blanking on other hymns at the moment, but there are plenty more.

[DScott]

Which one do you prefer?

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Be Thou My Vision are probably my two favorites.

[Bekah]

The Old Rugged Cross and In the garden

[Masøn M.]

Hmm… What’s technically considered a ‘hymn’…

[Awkward Potato]

I’d say if you can find it in at least one hymnal, it’s a hymn.

[Jeff Ross]

There are so many hymns that I enjoy singing! My favorites right now are “To God Be the Glory” by Fanny Crosby, “Holy, Holy, Holy” by Reginald Heber, and Isaac Watt’s “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed”. My grade school didn’t just require Scripture memorization, but also hymn memorization, so there are plenty of times that a hymn I haven’t looked at for years will suddenly just come out of me. Oftentimes, I’ll hear what I’m singing and suddenly realize the meaning of the depth of the words that I didn’t grasp when I was younger, giving me a whole new excuse to sing the hymn again. 🙂

[Jeff Ross]

“Count Your Blessings” by Johnson Oatman, Jr. (sounds like a superhero of some sort) is my favorite hymn today. I may have a new favorite tomorrow. 🙂

[Joshua S.]

I love How Great Tho Art, The Steps of A Good Man, and The Comforter Has Come. I love hymns because my homeschool choir sang them a lot but those are a few that first came to mind

[Dawn]

JOSHUA HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!

Also, I love For the Beauty of the Earth, and some others that are escaping my memory currently

[Awkward Potato]

Dang, how could I forget about How Great Thou Art? And For the Beauty of the Earth reminded me of Bringing in the Sheaves.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Yeah For the Beauty of the Earth is also really good. I’m not familiar with the Sheaves one…

[Jeff Ross]

Bringing in the Sheaves! My dad used to sing that all the time around the house when I was little, so there’s an extra nostalgia component to that hymn for me.

[Jeff Ross]

“Bringing in the Sheaves” by Knowles Shaw is a hymn based upon Psalm 126. 🙂

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Ah, I shall have to look it up.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “He Keeps Me Singing” by Luther Bridgers. I want to highlight the second verse of the hymn:

All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain,
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirred the slumb’ring chords again

I sang this hymn this morning and the second verse stood out to be because of the word “Discord”. Having tested out the Aux Cable Discord server with Chris & Ryan, I recognized the word as a software before remembering what it actually means. Then I examined it in the context of the verse and realized, “IT’S A PUUNNNNN!!!!!!!” “Discord” can mean either “disagreement between people” or “unpleasant combination of musical sounds”. So the word “Discord” in the verse plays off of the “sin and strife” AND the musical imagery of the latter two lines of the verse. Super cool!

The rest of the verses of the hymn may not have puns, but they are excellent. If you’re looking for a good hymn to sing today or memorize for tomorrow, be sure to check this one out. 😀

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “O Dearest Jesus”, Catherine Winkworth’s translation of Johann Heermann’s excellent hymn “Herzliebster Jesu”. (There is another translation into English from Robert Bridges entitled “Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended”, which is good too.)

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “What Is the World to Me”, August Crull’s 1923 English translation of G.M. Pfefferkorn’s German hymn “Was frag’ ich nach der Welt”. It’s a great reminder that worldly riches and worldly recognition are not primarily what this life is about.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “Jesus, Shepherd of the Sheep” by Henry Cooke. At the grade school I went to, it was one of the first hymns that we were taught and assigned to memorize. It isn’t a very long hymn, which is probably why every hymnal online that I could find it in contained all five of its verses.

[Joshua S.]

One of my favorites is leaning on the everlasting arms because my it was one of the first songs my choir did when I joined

[Jeff Ross]

That hymn is one of my favorites too, partly because it’s a great hymn, and partly because it was referenced on the Andy Griffith Show multiple times. I grew up thinking that it was the hymn that everyone knew.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymns of today are “Love Lifted Me” by James Rowe and “Tell Me the Story of Jesus” by Fanny Crosby. They each have three verses and a refrain, but they are different in their focus.

In “Love Lifted Me”, the first verse talks about being rescued, the second verse explains the response of thankfulness by the singer, and the third verse calls upon anyone listening to receive the same rescue. The refrain is a simple joyous exclamation of amazement and gratitude.

In “Tell Me the Story of Jesus”, the first verse talks about the birth of Jesus, the second verse lists the sacrifices Jesus made while He lived, and the third verse covers the death and resurrection of Jesus and its consequence for the singer. The refrain repeats the call to action of reminding the singer about the love that Jesus showed us.

Both of these hymns are deep, yet written from a strong sense of emotional gratitude for salvation. The combination of substance and feeling make these outstanding hymns to sing. Neither of these are worship music, as they are written from the perspective of one person singing to another, rather than singing to God…and yet they bring God glory and inspire worship as an immediate response to singing them. Amazing.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymns of today are “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther of Germany, and “God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage” by Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig of Denmark.

Martin Luther’s classic four-verse hymn is usually sung to the original tune that Martin Luther wrote for it. It is a paraphrase of Psalm 46, but written from the perspective that the psalm is talking about Jesus, His victorious conquest for us, and its impact in our lives and futures as Christians.

N.F.S. Grundtvig’s hymn is sometimes sung to that same tune, since the syllable structure is the same, and is only one verse long. It emphasizes the importance of God’s Word, Its consistency, and Its endurance.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is Amazing Grace by John Newton. I’m actually surprised this hymn hasn’t been mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Awkward Potato]

My favorite hymn today (which we coincidentally sang in church) is “It Is Well with my Soul” by Horatio Spafford because it reminds me that even when everything seems like it’s going down the tubes, God is with me. And nothing can change that.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “Onward Christian Soldiers” by Sabine Baring-Gould. He apparently composed the lyrics in about 15 minutes, and it was to be played during a processional. The hymn started to gain popularity six years later when Arthur Sullivan composed the tune that most associate with the hymn today. From what I could find, the Salvation Army adopted this hymn as its preferred processional, which contributed to its popularity.

I like the hymn because it reminds us that although we are in the midst of spiritual warfare during this lifetime, we are facing a defeated foe, and none of us have to face that foe alone. I find it to be a very encouraging hymn.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn of today is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” by Joseph M. Scriven. Apparently he wrote it as a poem to his mother entitled “Pray Without Ceasing”, but it was later renamed and set to music by Charles Crozat Converse. I find the hymn to be an excellent reminder to pray, and considering its lyrics brings to mind Philippians 4:6-7.

[Jeff Ross]

My favorite hymn, finishing off 2018, is Martin Luther’s “Vom Himmel Hoch, Da Komm Ich Her”. It’s a neat hymn that is written in the form of role playing around the story of the first Christmas. Luther intended one adult to dress up like an angel to sing the first verses, and for a group of children to sing the rest of the verses in a church service. I liked the hymn so much that I attempted my own translation into English and performance thereof, all by myself. Even though the performance didn’t turn out optimally, it was still a fun endeavor. Here is the link to my performance attempt:

[Jeff Ross]

The most popular English translation of that hymn is “From Heav’n Above to Earth I Come” by Catherine Winkworth, but there are others that have been attempted over the centuries. Mine is just the latest one, as of the time of this post.

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