My wife is a singer and musician who plays piano and ukulele. She leads worship at our church. More importantly, she is led by God in her choices for songs in each service. I can't count the number of times that she has chosen a set of worship songs that fit in perfectly with what God wanted to say and do in our services and through the preaching of His Word. No one provides a list of songs to her and it's rare that she's asked to use a particular song. And yet, time and time again the songs connect to the words of the message that is preached and the atmosphere of the service at any given time.
Over the last couple of years, she has been on a quest that she calls, "Save the Songbook."
She has become something of a hymnal archaeologist, drawing out old beloved songs that have nearly been forgotten. She has tracked down old record albums to hear the songs. She has brought some of those hymns back into use in our worship services and it has been a refreshing experience revisiting them. There are powerful songs in those hymnals. There is great doctrine in the lyrics of many of those songs. Admittedly, we've both reached an age where our nostalgia has increased. We both grew up singing many of these songs. It's more than reminiscing, though. There is something about those old songs! More and more lately I read and hear discussions of the potential crash of modern-day worship services. Our church has newer and contemporary songs in some services that you won't find in any hymnal. But I think our worship leader chooses the songs in consideration of what made some of the older songs so powerful.
I love the way Rev. Martin Ballestero said it not long ago, "I know the Bible says sing unto the Lord a new song. But I never read where it said we had to stop singing the old ones."
(Visit my wife's YouTube channel to hear some of these great hymns revisited:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPWzN8k__BYetDTuvdyvB7w)
