"Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus," "Through Gates of Splendor", Jesus I am Resting, Resting...", "And Is It So? I shall be like Thy Son?"  there are so many...
by A.B. Simpson, Zinzendorf, the Wesleys, my goodness, what a heritage we have as believers!

Those who never have experienced diving into the hymns have forfeited a great part of their heritage, and are missing out.

@tialoca_talks@xanga wrote "not the ones that are fake humility types
(you know the ones...just an old sinner, saved by grace or begging God
to help you...none of that is necessary nor is it biblical)."

I guess I used to feel that way about many of those hymns but now I'm loving those since now I see that's the only way I come to God, appealing to God's mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, since nothing in me commends me to God, only by Christ's blood can I come to the table to eat and drink of our Lord. Certainly we can't have fake humility, but
we must be humble when coming to God. God does not despise those who
are humble and contrite in spirit (Is. 66:2). O, Grace greater than ALL my sin! Grace that will pardon and cleanse within! Hallelujah! Wonderful theology in many of those hymns. Often better than many sermons that are preached...

@dedwinhedon@xanga wrote, "God hates hymns almost as He hates those miserable Psalms. They're sooooooo depressing."

Question: If God hates the Psalms, then why did Jesus pray them and why are they quoted throughout the New Testament?

* * *
I am appreciating old hymns now more than ever and have only recently discovered William Cowper's hymns (he wrote "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood"). I think I so appreciate Cowper's hymns because they come from the depths of His troubled soul and so my soul can resonate with so many of the lyrics even though they were written over 200 years old.

And as @battle_scar@xanga wrote there are many great new arrangements of old hymns, as well as some wonderful brand new hymns being written by gifted musicians in the Body of Christ.

A couple of my favorite hymns (today's list anyhow):

"God Moves in a Mysterious Way" (Cowper)
"Arise, My Soul, Arise" (Charles Wesley, Kevin Twit's arrangement)
"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (Robert Robinson)

I grew up in a fairly liturgical church and learnt to love hymns.  "Amazing Grace" is one of my favourites (we played it at both my parents funerals).

I grew up with hymns and in a children's choir that traveled and competed (so yeah, we had to pass an audition at young ages), so I have a great love of the sound of them.  Not only do they have a special majesty, a place for great harmonizing, but they are usually (not always) great portions of accurate theology and even scripture.  They do waaaay more than worship songs in reminding me of God and how big he is.

Favorites?  wow....too many....today, the ones I can think of are;
I Know That My Redeemer Lives (the old one that Bob Bennett sings)
Holy Holy Holy
For I Know Whom I Have Believed
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Great is Thy Faithfulness

But the best one to get the congregation singing in parts is always going to be: Wonderful Grace of Jesus!!!

I love the "old" hymns too --- "Great is Thy Faithfulness",  "Abide with Me", "Take My Life",  "My Saviour's Love"  "A Mighty Fortress"  "The Church's One Foundation".  and so many more.

But I also have a deep appreciation and love for the Psalms.  No matter how many "hymns" there are or how many beautiful God glorifying praise songs are produced,  God has given us a ready made 'Psalter'  with the 150 Psalms.     I know of so few churches who actually sing the psalms - and I don't get it.   The Book of Psalms is full of all human emotions - joy, love, faithfulness, sadness, despair and even anger.  Yes, I know - there are anumber of lamenting songs and imprecatory songs in there - but there's also so many beautiful psalms - like Psalm 42 and Psalm 100 and Psalm 116 and Psalm 150!    And if you study the book of Psalms extensively you will find they point to Christ.      In the church I attend we sing mostly psalms and have a collection of 65 hymns at this point.    The psalms we sing are from the 15th century or thereabouts (same time as the Reformation) and the tunes used are known as the Genevan Tunes.     I am thankful for this heritage and hope my children grow up to love the psalms AND hymns as much as I do today.

Yes! I love hymns, they have so much substance to them (unlike, in my opinion, some of the modern ones). And the music is beautiful, and more complex. My favorite is "It is Well With My Soul." 

I really love hymns.  I like the newer praise & worship style songs but sometimes, nothing says it better than a hymn.  I'm glad David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, etc, are going back to hymns, or writing new songs in the similar format.

My favorites would be:  Nothing But the Blood, Doxology, How Great Thou Art, and a little one called, "Christmas Has Its Cradle"...it has a haunting kind of melody and a really wonderful message.  I also like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

Oh, and "He Arose" you know, the one where the chorus goes, "Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes."

@askdante@xanga - You're missing out on some good stuff.

Come Thou Fount, Be Thou My Vision, It is Well, and of course Amazing Grace.

I thinks it's also especially interesting to learn about the lives of the authors. Such as Horatio Spafford who wrote It is well (link it to an entry I wrote about him) after losing his children and having everything he owned destroyed, or John Newton who started as a slave trader but at the end of his life was working to end slavery.

I love hymns. As much as I love contemporary worship, there is something so beautiful about hearing a congregation sing a hymn with just a piano or guitar. My favorite would have to be how great thou art.

sacred music by JS Bach.

I absolutely love hymns!  I wish we sang more of them; it seems like a lot of churches I visit don't really sing them any more.

Tough to pick a favorite though; I really like "This World's Not My Home" and "Oh Victory in Jesus." (Not sure I got those titles right...)
I tend to like the ones about going home and being in heaven.

@naphtali_deer@xanga - I like your replies to those comments. I thought about making a point too, but you hit it so well. By the way, have you heard of Indelible Grace Ministry? They have some of Cowper's hymns modernized... I don't know if I like all of them, but this was the first time I actually hear these hymns in songs. (Unfortunately I didn't grow up with hymns and I am the praise leader currently at my church's English ministry, so I don't get too many exposures to hymns even though I love them :/) Anyways, God bless you! Have a blessed week!