Home Worship Planning Music Resources The Power of the Hymn

The Power of the Hymn

The Christmas 2004 earthquake and tsunami disaster in southern and southeast Asia and Indonesia has prompted hymn and liturgy writers to compose a wealth of new material. The same thing happened following the Iraq war, the space shuttle explosion, and the September 11th terrorist attacks. I have learned that in the face of such unfathomable suffering, death, and loss, people seek answers, comfort, and a word of hope from their faith and from the church. This can come in the form of a prayer, a hymn, a sermon, a simple word of assurance from a worship leader or pastor, or perhaps it comes from simply being part of a group of similar seekers in a sacred space, all sharing the same grief, numbness, and needs.

For artists, musicians, and preachers, we do what we've always done in such events. We create. That is sometimes how we pray, how we seek answers, how we experience the presence and assurance of God. This act of creation is actually an act of communication between ourselves and the divine, while at the same time it produces something that somehow does the same thing for the people. It is our hymns, prayers, paintings, poems, dances, and liturgies that allow others to find comfort and answers.

I have received a good number of hymns written following the tsunami disaster which are available elsewhere on the Discipleship Ministries worship-preaching-music website, along with prayers and other worship resources submitted by writers. I notice that there are basically two kinds of these disaster hymns. There are the hymns that speak vividly of the horror and suffering, and our natural reaction to question how God can allow such suffering. Some of these speak directly of the idea of questioning our faith in such a God. Where is God and how can a loving God permit something like this to happen? The second type of disaster hymn is not unlike the first, also speaking in vivid terms and pictures of the horror and suffering; but this type, rather than calling our faith in God into question, goes on to point us to continued, even renewed faith in an ultimately loving and compassionate God, always present, even in the suffering, loss, and grief.

This tragedy has once again demonstrated to me the tremendous power of the congregational hymn. Many, perhaps most, people lack the abilities to take in such a tragedy intellectually and emotionally, to assess it and integrate everything into an appropriate response. For so many of us the only thing we can do is to be paralyzed by the horror, grief, and suffering. We have no response. We can only feel and perhaps be immobilized. I suppose we are in a state of shock. The wonder of the hymn is that it puts words into our mouths so that we can express our emotions, our anger, our grief, our pleading, as well as our hopes and prayers for the victims. It allows us to continue to give thanks and praise to God for life and the promise of eternal life. Hymns help us to pray when we cannot pray for ourselves. We are unable to bring our own thoughts together and form our own words to speak, but hymns give us that ability. What a power and gift hymn writers possess!

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