As a child I had very little appreciation for most of the hymns we sang in church each week. More than likely that was due to lyrics that were beyond my comprehension’s reach. I did enjoy a few hymns though. I sang in children’s choir, and for our processional we walked in two straight rows down the aisle singing “Joyful joyful we adore Thee God of glory, Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, praising thee their sun above…” (Henry van Dyke’s lyrics to Beethoven’s “Ode of Joy”) To be completely honest, I’m sure as a kid part of what I loved was the special feeling of wearing the choir robe with it’s big collar and bow. I loved singing…period! And to be in this processional with all eyes on us…I was the kid that loved that stuff! As for the words, well, I did love the idea of flowers opening up to the sun…their way of praising God. I’m sure there was other truth in the song that I understood and believed. But I couldn’t say how deep it all really went.

Now, as an adult, I would say that I am a lover of hymns! I’m sure there are many reasons for this change. One of them is that now a hymn speaks to me of the treasure of the writer’s heart, lyrics penned sometimes centuries ago!

Though we don’t know the detailed backstory of the majority of old hymns, as I read their lyrics I sense that they tell truth that surely resonated in the writer’s heart—whether a truth slowly learned over the course of time, or a truth newly discovered–perhaps as God breathed His life into a passage of scripture they’d just read. No matter how or when the songwriter wrote their song, I sense the exclamation points pounding in their chest with every phrase. The words seem to ring bells as from a steeple, proclaiming what the writer’s heart simply couldn’t contain—“This is my God! This is what He’s done for me—for us!”

It’s always a delightful discovery for me when I hear lyrics that resound with a truth that my own heart has now discovered. It’s as if the heartbeat of my spirit is somehow in sync with this person’s own pulse from so long ago. I smile because some of these are truths I’ve only begun to connect with, to truly understand. So for me, they feel new, or newly alive in me. And I smile as I imagine someone feeling this thrill as the Holy Spirit led them to these same truths so long ago.

An old hymn newly discovered or recently revived is a treasure to me. I think about how that this man (or woman) found pure gold in our Savior, and it fed and sheltered his soul through his own storms of life. At some point he took these gold nuggets and buried them in a hymn with lyrics that would reflect the solid truth of how God and His Word were a firm foundation in his life. And now, a hundred or more years later, as I “discover” these hymns, it’s like finding buried treasure. Singing them is like pulling the nuggets from the ground and using them to declare victory, defeat the enemy, and then store them in my own heart to be used again and again.

Father, this morning I find myself resonating with that “Joyful Joyful” hymn. My heart responds so eagerly morning after morning to the warmth of your love. Just as a flower, closed and bent after a sunless night, turns and reaches for the sunlight each morning, my heart looks for You in the warmth of Your presence and the light of Your Word. As I’m with You, hearing You whisper to the center of my soul, my heart smiles in delight. I think those flowers that unfold before You surely are smiling in response to Your love too! Surely the joy I’m feeling right now is what Thank You for all those old hymns. As a child I sang them, and over time learned to love them, and now, the older I get, I can say that I have lived them! They are treasures of so much truth! Thank You. My heart rejoices in You.