The famous Danish author, Hans Christian Anderson, once said: “Where words fail, music speaks.” For a brief five words, this phrase seems to be all encompassing of the experiences the world has had with music; even when there is a divide between one group and another, music will serve as a unifying platform and bring coalescence. In Christianity, this divide is between the fallen world and God. Ancient hymns were composed with the intention to worship God and to praise Him through a means other than listening to the repeated recitations of the Scripture. Hymns became an active form of worship for Christians. Some may believe that such practice should be reserved only for Sundays/worship services, but this is a rudimentary belief. The habitual integration of ancient …show more content…
Hymns should pertain to Scriptural truths, and its purpose should be to praise God‘s glory. They are composed of the same objects one sees in the Kingdom of the Lord, yet the lyrics are subjected to the various methods of interpretations of the composers (Benson 11). These composers were fellow Christians who have transcribed their own experiences and feelings about how they have received and integrated God into all aspects of their lives. Hymns, while being used as a method of praise, also becomes a personal testimony of the glory of God for each composer. In his personal testimony, Dr. Visser concludes, “As a Christian musician, hymns for me have become like a “second” Bible, proclaiming theological truths in the form of poetry and song which continually enrich my faith journey" (Visser). The Scripture serves as the "revelation of the spiritual view of life," while a canon of hymnody is a "manual of the spiritual life” (Benson 12). As Dr. Visser and Professor Benson have stated, hymnody becomes a guide filled with scriptural truths about how to enact these teachings in one’s journey of spiritual