If you haven’t already selected your Bible reading plan for 2022, I hope you take these last few days of December to select a plan. If that sounds daunting, take heart! There a multiple Bible reading plans that include reading through the whole Bible (chronologically, thematically, canonically, etc.), reading through just the Old Testament or just the New Testament, or even reading through Paul’s epistles. If you want to peruse different plans, check out the Bible Reading Plans from BibleStudyTools.com. They offer a wide range of studies to choose from!
As you are selecting your plan for 2022, let me encourage you to utilize a hymnal in your daily devotions. Whether you use the hymns as poetic reading or singing, they will enrich your daily Scripture meditations. When I think of great hymns from Christian history, my mind immediately recalls Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. Watts wrote the great hymns, “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed,” “Joy to the World,” and “Blest be the Tie that Binds.” Wesley wrote such beauties as “Love divine, all loves excelling,” “Christ the Lord is risen today,” and “Come Thou Almighty King.” These hymns, and many others, help us to further meditate on Scripture through well-composed lyrics set to beautiful melodies. As you sing through the hymn in your devotional time, the melody will be carried with you into your day, helping you connect biblical truths to your heart through music.
Hymns play an indispensable role in Christian spirituality. As portable doctrinal confessions, they both articulate and shape our theology. As doxological expressions, they provide language of praise, prayer, lament, and petition.
Matt Boswell
Watts and Wesley are two powerhouses in Christian hymnody, but there are many others who have contributed greatly to our heritage of singing. Whether the hymns were originally written in Latin, German, or French, and later translated into English, or if the hymns were written for an English-speaking congregation, we have much to benefit from by utilizing these in hymns in our daily lives. I would provide a word of caution here: as you look for hymnals, be sure to choose one that emphasizes God and His mighty acts over man’s interpretation of them. In other words, select a hymnal that incorporates more hymns like the ones mentioned above, and less of the Gospel hymns that emphasize man’s response over God’s character. Not that Gospel hymns are bad or not worth using! My caution is because we receive more of a steady-diet of Gospel-type hymns that emphasize our response or our interpretation of God, rather than emphasizing God himself.
I know many churches do not utilize hymnals on a weekly basis any more. If you find yourself wanting to acquire a hymnal for your own personal use, let me offer a couple suggestions of where you can purchase one. My standard go-to hymnal I use in personal and family devotions is Hymns to the Living God. This hymnal was compiled in 2017 by Religious Affections Ministries and includes some wonderful hymns not found in other hymnals. I often find myself referencing the indices in the back when I am studying a specific biblical topic. There is such joy to be found in combining Scripture study and hymns!
The hymnal that I will be using in my devotions this year is Charles Spurgeon’s Own Hymn Book. Spurgeon was a nineteenth-century minister in England, and he compiled his own hymn book for use in his church. I have selected this hymnal for use this year because he includes Psalm-singing, with paraphrases of all 150 Psalms. Because my church will be studying through the Psalms collectively this year, Spurgeon’s hymnal will make a great addition to my daily Bible reading.
Not content to rest on shelves alongside a medley of other works, hymnbooks tended to stay ready-to-hand on tables, chairs, desks, pulpits, and pews. While designed to lead their readers to think on heavenly things, hymnbooks experienced more of the world than most others books did.
Christopher Phillips
We do not have to look far into Christian history to see the importance that hymns played in the personal lives of Christians. Before churches printed hymnals and housed them in the buildings for weekly worship, families used their own copies of hymnbooks that they carried to-and-from church with their Bibles. Christopher Phillips discusses the use of the hymnal in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in his book The Hymnal: A Reading History if you would like to read more on this topic.
I encourage you to select a hymnal and incorporate it into your personal and family devotions in 2022. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!
For further reading, see Hymns on the Lips of our Children.
