What's the Difference Between Hymns & Worship Songs?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here’s this week’s question:  “Dear Dave and Tom, I’ve received the following commentary on hymns and choruses in an e-mail from a friend, and I’m not sure where the person got it.  Evidently, the author is a bit smarter than the two of you because he left it unsigned to keep the controversy from parking itself on his or her personal doorstep.  Although I have my suspicions, I’m curious to hear how you handle the enclosed submission.”  

Tom:

Dave, we don’t usually don’t take submissions of any length, but I thing this is definitely an exception.  “An old farmer went to the city on one weekend and attended the big city church.  He came home and his wife asked him how it was.  Well, he said, It was good, they did something different however, they sang praise choruses instead of hymns.  Praise choruses, said his wife, what are those?  Oh, they’re okay, they are sort of like hymns only different, said the farmer.  Well, what’s the difference, asked his wife.  The farmer said, Well, it’s like this, if I were to say to you, Martha, the cows are in the corn, well, that would be a hymn.  If, on the other hand, I were to say to you, Martha, Martha, Martha, O Martha, Martha, Martha, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the cows, cows, cows, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in corn, are in the corn, the corn, corn, corn.  Then if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus.  As luck would have it, the exact same Sunday, a young new Christian from the city church attended a small town church.  He came home and his wife asked how it was.  Well, said the young man, it was good. There was something different however, they sang hymns instead of regular songs.  Hymns, said his wife, what are those?  Well, they’re okay, they’re sort of like regular songs only different, said the young man.  Well, what’s the difference asked his wife.  The young man said, well it’s like this, if I were to say to you, Martha, the cows are in the corn, well, that would be a regular song.  If, on the other hand, I were to say to you, oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry, incline thine ear to the words of my mouth, turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by to the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth, for the way of the animals who can explain, there in their heads is no shadow of sense.  Harkenest, they in God’s Son in His reign, and less from the mild, tempting corn they are sent.  Yea, those cows, in proud bovine, rebellious delight, have broken free their shackles, their worn pens eschewed.  Then goaded by minions of darkness and night, they all, my child, Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.   So, look to that bright shining day by and by where all foul corruption’s of earth are reborn, where no vicious animal makes my soul cry, and I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.  Then if I were to do only verses 1, 3 and 4, and do a key change in the last verse, well, that would be a hymn.  Now Dave, I think we’ve got two extremes here, and this is, I appreciate this, but what are we talking about when we’re talking about hymns that glorify God? Those that have content.

Dave:

Like your news article and it’s a little bit difficult to take this one seriously.  Extreme is right, but I would say there is definitely a difference between so-called praise songs and hymns.  It doesn’t mean that every hymn is the best, or that every praise—

Tom:

It makes a point here with their rendition of a hymn.

Dave:

I don’t know hymns like that, and maybe some people would say, Well, I don’t know praise choruses like that, seven-eleven songs, seven words repeated eleven times, or whatever.  The hymns, you can take your pick, you can take your pick of praise choruses, you can take your pick of hymns, [and] there are a lot of hymns in a book.  And I know some fantastic hymns, and I know hymns that have biblical content, that have doctrinal content that bow you in worship before the Lord, because they biblically declare who He is, and what He has done in beautiful straightforward language, not this kind of stuff—

Tom:

A regular song in terms of content and communication.

Dave:

I’ve also been present when so called praise songs, or whatever they call them, from the worship team, and I find words about, I love to worship you, I love to worship you, I love to worship you, and I’m sitting there thinking, well then, why don’t you worship Him.  Worship is not words about worship, praise is not words about praise, and love is not words about love.  If we begin to declare the glory of the Lord, the wonders of His love, and there are wonderful hymns that state that in very clear powerful terms.  Then we are worshipping, then we are praising, there must be some content to this.  So I must say that I have found an awful lot of these new choruses content-less, shallow and repetitive.  On the other hand, there are some that are quite good, and there are hymns that maybe are not quite as bad as that one, but some.  So I think what we have to do is decide, do we really want to praise the Lord, do we really love the Lord, then let’s find something from wherever it comes from that really expresses this clearly.

Tom:

Dave and it goes back to the point we made in our future article.  If you’re going to love God, you are going to love Him on the basis of knowing Him, knowing Him better and better; what He’s done, what He’s about, as you said before, what He has done for us.

Dave:

Who He is.

Tom:

Just who He is, and that’s a learning, growing situation of knowledge, of understanding Him.

Dave:

Maybe they need to give more attention to the lyrics, to the words than to the beat, because it seems like people can be very caught up in the beat.  And I’m not opposed to clapping your hands, or whatever.

Tom:

Something up beat.

Dave:

There has to be some content, some cerebral understanding of who God is and why we are praising Him rather than just clapping our hands and getting into a rhythm.

Tom:

Yeah, it becomes mindless emotion if that’s the case.

Dave: 

Right.