Worship and the Reformation

I just finished reading Douglas Bond’s new historical fiction book.
The Betrayal: A Novel on John Calvin

I was so encouraged to read about the influence Calvin had on the reformation of music. Up until that time, you may recall, the Scriptures and the music of the church were both in Latin. So was the Sunday sermon. The common man had no access to any of it.

All of this changed with the Reformation. As the Word of God was translated into the language of the people, the Gospel began to spread like wildfire. For the first time in a long time, people heard the Bible preached in a language they could understand. The Reformers insisted that people must also be able to praise God in their mother-tongue.

Calvin believed that words set to music have an incredibly powerful influence on the human soul, whether for good or for evil. He encouraged the newly translated Psalms to be metrically versified, like a poem, and set to music for corporate worship. Other Reformers, such as Martin Luther, wrote scripture-based hymns, and composed music which could be sung congregationally by untrained lay-men.

This spirit of marrying scriptural, theologically rich words with accessible music lives on today through the new hymn writers. My devotional life has been deeply impacted in the past year through the music of Indelible Grace, a group of musicians who are setting old hymns to new music.

The words of a hymn are far more important than the music. Yet I believe, as Calvin did, that a well-crafted tune is a vehicle to drive those God-exalting words more deeply into my heart.

Some people approach the hymns as sacrosanct and untouchable. I disagree. Throughout history, the fathers of our faith have embraced music that was new in their day. Why shouldn’t we do the same, if the words glorify God? If we truly believe the music is merely a vehicle for the words, we shouldn’t be afraid of test-driving a new tune now and then.

In fact, I’m so excited about what Indelible Grace is doing that it has inspired me to begin writing my own tunes to accompany old hymn texts. We’ve been learning them in our family worship.

Last week, Kristen left me a comment that her family recently learned the hymn No, Not Despairingly. I found the words but not the music, so I wrote music for it myself today, and we’ll be learning it next week in our devotions.