The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching

E L I Z A B E H A C H I EMEI ER
Visiting Professor of Homiletics
Union Theological Seminary of Virginia
Understanding the form and content
of the Bible's hymns allows the sermon
to share their principal characteristic:
praise to the honor and glory of God
I
F WE WERE TO CHARACTERIZE the greatest preaching of the
Christian pulpit, we would have to describe it in several ways: It is firmly
anchored in the biblical message; it therefore speaks to human beings as
they really are, in all of their glory and misery; its language is eloquent and
yet simple and pictorial; and it flows out of the preacher' s unshakeable
belief in and experienced knowledge of the Lord of the church. Above all,
we would have to say that the greatest preaching is preaching about
Godabout who God is as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ through
the Holy Spirit, about what God has done in sacred history, about what he
is doing now in our world, and about what he has promised he will do in
the future. Great preaching is concerned with God. He is its primary
subject. Descriptions of him and of his character and doings take up most
of the sermon, and everything else falls into place in relation to his holy
person.
When one hears or reads sermons characterized by such concentration
on God, however, one is struck by the fact that they share much in common
with the hymns that are found in the Psalter and in many other portions of
the Scripture, for it is precisely the hymn-form or genre, first described by
Hermann Gunkel, that is primarily concerned with God. Indeed, the
hymns in the Bible have one purposeto glorify and honor Godand
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The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
t hey call on i ndi vi dual s, t he covenant peopl e, and even all nat ur e and
nat i ons to j oi n in t hat glorification:
O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him victory (Ps. 98:1).
Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth (Ps. 98:4a).
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the Lord, for he comes
to j udge the earth.
He will j udge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity (Ps. 98:7-9).
Fur t her , God is glorified in t he hymns by telling what he will do, as in t he
last two lines above, or by telling what he has done, as in this passage from
t he same psal m:
The Lord has made known his victory,
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the
nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God (Ps. 98:2-3).
Somet i mes God is glorified in t he hymns by descri bi ng his per son:
Clouds and thick darkness are round about him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries round about (Ps. 97:23).
Thus , God forms t he subject of t he hymns' sent ences, and t he descri pt i on
of his per son or deeds is pur e, clean, almost objectified t est i mony to his
self-revelation. Hu ma n needs ar e not i gnor ed ("He has r e me mbe r e d his
steadfast love and faithfulness/ t o t he house of Israel"). Th e consequences
of God' s activity ar e set fort h ("All t he ends of t he ear t h have seen/ t he
victory of our God"). But t he hymn concent r at es on God; and in t he
process of t hat concent r at i on, t he life of ear t h is seen to be set in its pr oper
or der ("He will j udge t he worl d with ri ght eousness/ and t he peopl es with
47
equity.") and under s t ood in its pr oper perspect i ve.
Th e same t hi ngs ar e t r ue of hymn- f or ms in t he New Tes t ament . The y
objectively descri be t he per son and action of t he di vi ne:
. . . Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in
human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross (Phil. 2:58).
They also descri be t hat di vi ne per son and activity by whi ch t he ear t h is put
ri ght and seen pr oper l y:
He has shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy . . . (Luke 1:5154).
Obviously, such hymns ar e powerful witnesses to God and bear in t hei r
messages t he very hear t of t he biblical good news. It is t her ef or e no
acci dent t hat numer ous ser mons of gr eat pr eacher s of past gener at i ons
have utilized t he hymn- f or m in por t i ons of t hei r procl amat i ons. Consi der ,
for exampl e, this excer pt from a ser mon on Zephani ah 3:17 (t ransl at ed as,
" He will rest in his love") by Charl es Ha ddon Spur geon, one of t he gr eat
Ref or med pr eacher s of t he end of t he ni net eent h cent ur y:
Now you see the Lord Jesus Christ laboring in his love. Love fetched him
from his home in heaven; love disrobed him of his glories; love laid him in
Bethlehem's manger; love led him through this weary world three-and-
thirty years; love took him to Gethsemane; love oppressed him till he sweat
great drops of blood; love made him the great standard-bearer in the fight;
love made him stand erect, the focus of the war, when the storm gathered
round his brow, and every arrow of the foeman found a target in his heart;
love made him stand calm amid the bewildering cry, confident of victory;
love made him bow his head, and give up the ghost, that he might redeem his
people. Now, now that he is more than conqueror, he rises to heaven, and he
rests in his love.
1
Tha t is pur e, objective, hymni c descri pt i on of t he wor k of Jesus Chri st
1. "The Saviour Resting in His Love," Sermons VI (New York: Funk and Wasmalls Co
n.d.), p. 303.
5
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The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
descri pt i on which does not i gnor e t he consequences of Chri st ' s work for
huma n life, but which sets t he stage for spelling out t hose consequences by
concent r at i ng on what God has done in his Son.
Similarly, some of t he gr eat pr eacher s of t he past used hymni c descri p-
tions of t he person of God in his Son. Th e following quot at i on illustrates
this from a ser mon on Isaiah 53: 3 by t he r enowned ni net eent h cent ur y
British pr eacher , F. W. Rober t son:
That which Paul was for a time [i.e., all things to all men], Christ is forever.
That which Paul was by effort and constraint, Christ is by the very law of his
nature. He is all things to all men. He is the countryman of the world. He is
the mediator, not between God and a nation, but between God and man. He
was the Jew and the Gentile, and the Greek and the Roman, all in one. He
can sympathize with every man because he has, as it were, been every man.
There is not a natural throb which ever agitated the bosom of humanity
which Christ has not felt. The aspirations of loftiest genius and the failure of
humblest mediocrity, the bitterness of disappointment and the triumph of
success, the privations of the poor man and the feebleness of corporeal
agony . . . . He came into this world the Son and the heir to the whole race of
man . . . "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
2
Her e Robert son is telling who Chri st is in his per son, much in t he same
ma nne r t hat Psalm 97 tells who God is in his per son, and t he me di um
which Robert son chooses for his t est i mony is t hat of t he hymn.
Such uses of hymns in pr eachi ng ar e by no means f ound only in t he
ser mons of past gener at i ons, however. Thos e pul pi t voices t hat c omma nd
at t ent i on ar e still telling about God and his activity by bor r owi ng t he
hymn' s objective prai se. Consi der for exampl e t he following excer pt from
a Lent en ser mon on t he scarlet t hr ead of J os hua 2:1819 by Ga r dne r
Tayl or , a vet er an black pr eacher recogni zed some t i me ago in Time
magazi ne as one of t he t en out st andi ng pr eacher s in t he Uni t ed States:
Christ is that scarlet thread behind which our souls are safe when the enemy
comes and the storm of battle rages. Christ is that scarlet thread behind
which we who trust Him may have the blessed assurance that it is well with
our souls. Christ is that scarlet thread, the sinner's perfect plea, the seeker's
end of the search, the saint's everlasting rest, a hiding place when the storms
are raging. I speak of Christ as the scarlet thread of safety and security when
enemies besiege our souls, when friends fail us and forsake us, as bread in a
starving land and rivers of water in a dry and barren place. Christ, our
Passover, Christ, the firstfruits of them that sleep. Christ, the end of the law
2. The Preaching of F. W. Robertson, ed. Gilbert E. Doan, Jr. , The Preacher' s Paperback
Library, Edmund Steimle, consulting editor (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964), pp.
79-80.
49
and the first of many brethren. Christ, Mary's baby and older than Abra-
ham. Christ, our great High Priest. Christ our Scarlet Thread!
3
Taylor is quite aware here of the significance of Christ for human life, but
he chooses to set forth that significance by concentrating, not on human
beings, but on the person and work of his Lord. He hymns Christ by
making him the subject of most of the sentences in the passage. Everything
else then falls into proper perspective.
Surely the modern pulpit could profit from these examples of the use of
hymnic elements in preaching, for it is characteristic of many modern
sermons that they concentrate largely on human beings. Human need,
human hungers, and human evil command the principal attention. In-
deed, many modern sermons seem almost to exult in telling congregations
of their faults or of the faults of American society, and the healing for
those faults is then set forth in moralistic admonitions to "go out and do
good," or to believe more strongly. In content and tone, such sermons
have the characteristics, therefore, not of the Bible's hymns but of the
Bible's lamentsthe sinful situation of human life is lamented at length
and in multitudinous illustrations. Compare, for example, the following
excerpts from some of the Lament Psalms, any one of which could easily fit
into many modern sermons:
In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor . . . .
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart,
and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord (Ps. 10:2a, 3).
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak (Ps. 12:2).
Yea, dogs are round about me;
a company of evildoers encircle me . . . (Ps. 22:16).
The difference between these biblical laments and those of the modern
pulpit, however, is that all of the laments are: (1) directed as prayers to
God, and (2) usually end up by turning into hymns and thanksgivings. For
example, the Lament of the Individual in Psalm 22 ends with a hymnic call
to praise:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel! (v. 23).
It then gives that description of God's activity so typical of the hymn:
3. The Scarlet Thread (Elgin, 111.: Progressive Baptist Publishing House, 1981), pp.
19-20.
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The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted;
and he has not hid his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him (v. 24).
4
The Bible's laments end in such a fashion because the poets who sang
them were well aware of the fact that their true rescue could come only
from God, and they assured their listening congregations, by means of
public testimony, that God had indeed so saved them (for other examples,
see the Laments of the Individual in Pss. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and many others).
They hymned God's activity on their behalf or on behalf of their people
(for such a Communal Lament, see Ps. 124), and that hymn became a
glorification of God's person and activity. In short, they did what every
preacher is required to dothey proclaimed the good news of God's
saving deed and word. The modern pulpit sorely needs to follow their
example, and we therefore need to inquire how that can be done.
Before we can incorporate hymnic elements into our preaching, it is
necessary that we understand the form of a hymn, because those preachers
who use hymnic elements in their sermons often do so by imitating
elements of the hymnic form. Psalm 96 can serve as a standard example of
the genre. The hymn opens with a call to praise:
O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples! (vs. 12).
There is then a transitional device, represented here in Psalm 96 by the
little word "for":
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols;
but the Lord made the heavens (vs. 45).
4 In The Praise of God in the Psalms, trans Keith R Crim (Richmond John Knox Press,
1965, Claus Westermann has classified a description such as this in Ps 22 24 as "declarative
praise," whereas Gunkel would have named it an "individual thanksgiving," but both base
their classification on the fact that the verse is describing a particular activity of God in
relation to an individual, rather than describing the person or activity of God in the general
terms of the hymn H H Guthrie has recently shown that hymn forms and thanksgiving
forms often occur together in the same passage in the Old Testament, and that thanks-
giving for God's deeds in history was typical of Israel's theology as a whole (Theology as
Thanksgiving [New York Seabury Press, 1981])
51
Tha t "for" means "because" (in t he Hebr ew, t he particle ki), and t he
phr ase it i nt r oduces gives t he r eason for t he prai se, namel y, t he theological
justification for glorifying God, whi ch is t he hear t of t he witness. "For " is
t her ef or e one of t he most i mpor t ant wor ds in this psal m, as i ndeed it is in
many passages in t he Bible.
Th e body of t he hymn t hen picks up t he descri pt i on of God given in t he
t ransi t i onal phr ases and descri bes God' s per son or activity f ur t her :
Honor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary (v. 6).
Oft en, by way of concl usi on, a hymn will t hen r epeat t he same st r uct ur e,
and t hat is t he case her e with Psalm 96:
Ascribe . . . )
Ascribe . . . )
Worship . . . ) Call to praise,
vs. 7-12.
Say . . . )
Let the heavens be glad . . . )
for, he comes, ) Transition,
for he comes to j udge the earth. )
He will j udge the world with righteousness )
v. 13a & b.
Body, v. 13c & d.
and the peoples with his truth. )
In short , what we find in t he hymn' s descri pt i on of God ar e a series of
phrases, in bot h t he t ransi t i onal section and in t he body, set t i ng fort h t he
nat ur e of t he deity.
Tha t is qui t e similar to what we find in a passage such as t he following
excer pt from a ser mon by Frederi ck Buechner :
The vulgarity of a God who adorns the sky at sunrise and sundown with
colors no decent painter would dream of placing together . . . the vulgarity
of a God who created a world full of hybrids like ushalf ape, half human
and who keeps breaking into the muck of this world. The vulgarity of a God
who was born into a cave among hicks and the steaming dung of beasts only
to grow up and die on a cross between crooks.
5
Buechner uses t he repet i t i on of t he phr ase "t he vulgarity of a God" to
i nt r oduce each of his descri pt i ons of God' s activity, and t hese ar e set in t hat
sequence so typical of t he hymni c form. On t he ot her hand, Ed mu n d
Steimle uses a series of ger unds ("breaki ng out , " "shat t eri ng, " "burst i ng")
5. The Hungering Dark (New York: Seabury Press, 1969), p. 67.
52
The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
to describe God and thus constantly to widen the testimony to him:
"Among you stands one whom you do not know . . . ." Unrecognized,
different, strange. Breaking out of our neat little holy places, because where
he is, every place is sacred, holy; shattering our safe and impossible ideals
because he lives them out in unpredictable ways; bursting our safe, neat
propositional statements because how can you possibly package fire and life
and love and hope and judgment? "Among you stands one whom you do not
know "
6
An even closer approximation of the hymn form is seen when we compare
a hymn like Psalm 103 with an excerpt from a sermon by Helmut Thie-
licke. Psalm 103 has the standard form of the hymn, although the call to
praise is formed by the psalmist's address to his own self (vs. 12):
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
Then instead of using "for" as a transitional device, this psalm makes the
transition from introduction to body by the use of a series of phrases
beginning with "who" (a translation of participial phrases from the He-
brew):
who forgives all your inquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (vs. 3-5).
The body of the hymn follows in verses 619a much longer body than
that found in Psalm 96and the hymn then concludes with a renewed call
to praise, this time to a universal company (vs. 20226) and finally once
again, to the psalmist's own self (v. 22c).
It is those "who" phrases that especially interest us here, however, for in
a sermon entitled "Journey without Luggage," Thielickeprobably not in
conscious imitation of the hymn-form, to be surewrites a series of
phrases beginning with "how," which remind the reader of the hymn' s
"who" phrases, and afford the preacher the opportunity of setting forth
God's activity in a descriptive series that constantly enlarges the portrayal
of God:
6. "God's Strange Glory," From Death to Birth (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973), p.
103.
53
We have the signed statement, sealed by the sufferings of Christ, that now
those who go aimlessly stumbling through life are literally surrounded with
joyful surprises because they will learn (on this one condition, that they really
dare to trust God) how God is always there, that his help is supplied with an
almost incredible punctuality. They learn how he sends some person to help
us up again; how he allows us to catch some word (which need not even be in
the Bible) to which we cling; how he brings money into the house and bread
to our table; and how in the hour of our greatest sorrow he may perhaps
send the laughter of a little child.
7
Now certainly all of t he exampl es t hat we have given of t he use of
hymni c el ement s in ser mons have been r at her l engt hy, but it is also a fact
t hat hymni c el ement s within a ser mon can be qui t e brief. Wher ever one
finds even a shor t series of phr ases within a ser mon t hat descri be t he
per son or activity of God or of Jesus Chri st or of t he Hol y Spirit and t hat
make t hese per sons t hei r subject, one is deal i ng with t he hymn' s objectified
witness t o t he di vi ne. It is a hal l mar k of some of t he gr eat pr eacher s of our
t i me t hat t hey punct uat e t hei r ser mons with such bri ef hymni c el ement s,
and this has t he effect of mai nt ai ni ng t he concent r at i on of t he s er mon on
God even in t he mi dst of a discussion of t he h u ma n si t uat i on.
No one was a gr eat er mast er of this t echni que t han was J ames St ewart of
Scot l and. Stewart' s ser mons all have about t hem a lyrical, t r i umphant
quality, a clean objectivity t hat l ends to t hem a soari ng power not often
f ound in pr eachi ng; and Stewart' s ser mons achieve t hat quality by con-
stantly i nsert i ng i nt o t hei r discussion phr ases descri pt i ve of God. Consi der
t he following exampl e of his pr eachi ng from a ser mon ent i t l ed " Vanguar d
and Rear guar d, " based on Isaiah 52: 12:
"That vanguard on in front," [Isaiah] says, "that is GodGod at the head of
the hostthe spearhead of humanity' s advance! That rearguard following
after," he continues, "that too, is God, God coming up behind, God holding
the post of danger at the army's rear!" That is Isaiah's vision"Onward goes
the pilgrim band," with God in front, and God behind, and your marching
soul in the midst, encircled by God, barricaded in by God, surrounded by
God as by a wall of steel and iron. And that is the promise which rings out
deathlessly to cheer us on our way: "The Lord will go before you; and the
God of Israel will be your rearguard. "
8
Not e t he descri pt i ons of God in such a passage: "God at t he head of t he
host t he spear head of humani t y' s advance . . . God comi ng u p behi nd,
God hol di ng t he post of danger at t he army' s r ear ! . . . God in front , and
7. The Twentieth Century Pulpit, I, ed. James W. Cox (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978),
p. 249.
8. The Gates of New Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972), pp. 84-85.
54
The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
God behind . . . God as by a wall of steel and iron." Those phrases are
hymnic praises of God's activity.
To be sure, Stewart's preaching has occasionally been criticized for
being excessively objective, and there is some justification in the criticism
when one considers that much of his preaching was carried on during
World War II and yet rarely mentioned that global conflict! On the other
hand, it must be said that Stewart's sermons are timeless and that they can
be read today with quite as much profit in our situation as they lent to his
situation in the 1940's. They remain inspiring homilies, which speak forth
the word of God, much as the hymns of the Psalter still speak to every
generation, and they achieve that quality by their unrelenting con-
centration on God rather than on the human situation.
This problem of the relation of objectivity to relevance in the proclama-
tion of the sermon does raise a warning flag, however, for there is no doubt
that the use of of hymnic elements in a sermon can be overdone. One can
be so objective in one's testimony to God's person and deeds, so trium-
phant in trumpeting his victories, and so concerned with telling about God
that one never deals with human beings with their failings and their
miseries and their terrible, terrible needs. The preacher must never
forgetas I do not believe James Stewart ever forgotthat God sent his
Son into the world, and it is that meeting of God with world with which every
sermon must be concerned. Nevertheless, our modern attention in our
preaching has usually been focused on the world, to the neglect of God,
and it is the restoration of hymnic elements to our sermons that can
overcome that serious failing.
Where, then, do hymnic elements belong in the sermon manuscript?
They can be used, in the form of brief phrases, throughout a sermon, as
Stewart's preaching utilizes them. However, it is also clear that longer
hymnic passages can occur at the end of the sermon as a way of summing
up the thought of the whole. Such was the placement in the sermon ofthat
excerpt which we quoted from Gardner Taylor; and when hymnic pas-
sages are so used, they serve to recall the entire message of the sermon.
Most importantly, they serve to concentrate the attention of the congrega-
tion, at the end, fully on God's person and activities as attested to in the text
for the day. It is the Lord thensolely the Lordto whom the congrega-
tion is prompted to respond, and no rhetorical device could be more true
to the Gospel.
In the same manner, hymnic elements used in a sermon can serve to
hammer down a final point in the proclamation and bring the con-
gregation to a decision. Consider the following quotation from a sermon
55
entitled "The Journeythe Choice," on Deuteronomy 30:1520 and
Matthew 7:13-29:
It is hard to enter into life. But really, it is easy too. Because who can help
loving the God who has brought us thus far on our journey. He has been by
our side every step along the way. When we were still in our mother's womb,
his hands shaped and fashioned us. In the marvelous words of Job, he
clothed us with skin and flesh, and knit us together with bones and sinews.
Day by day, he has sustained our breath and lavished on us his careplacing
us in home and family, surrounding us with a world of wonder. Every
morning his mercies are new, every evening his watch over us unfailing.
When we walk through some dark valley of the shadow, underneath are his
everlasting arms. When we know only joy and bright gaiety, he increases
gladness, by pouring out the glories of the morning, creating color and
bird-song and light to aid us in celebration.
And now here we are, you and I, with that crucial decision before us . . . .
9
It is a truism that homiletics students and even practiced preachers
sometimes have difficulty ending their sermons. They can develop the
first two points, laying out the situation of the text and the situation of the
congregation. Sometimes they can even bring text and congregation
together and apply the insights of the text to their people's lives. But then
how to end it all? How to bring the congregation to confront the text
firmly, without wavering or turning aside from it? How to prompt the
congregation to response and decision and action? How to affirm the faith
the people already have or how to prompt them to deeper faith? Some
preachers leave their congregations only with questions about how they
will respond. Some fall back on the feebly expressed hope or prayer that
their congregations will respond appropriately. But a hymnic ending to a
sermon, in which the message about God in the text is trumpeted in a series
of vivid pictures, can prompt response and decision and commitment in an
overwhelming way, as can be seen so clearly from the excerpt by James
Stewart quoted above. The good news in the text is summed up, mag-
nified, and driven home; and it is, after all, that good news which gives
birth to genuine faith.
Hymnic elements can also be used to good effect within the body of the
sermon, and the quotations from Buechner and Thielicke given earlier
were taken from the middle of their sermons. Consider also this quotation
from a sermon about worship, based on Exodus 19:10-19 and Hebrews
12:18-29:
9. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Preaching as Theology and Art (Nashville: Abingdon Press,
1984), p. 113.
56
The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
There descends here into the midst of our worship, the God of holy power,
whose breath withers or makes alive, whose word ignited the sun, who
shakes the earth and sifts the nations, and measures the seas in the palm of
his hand.
Were we ready to confront such power when we came in here tonight. . . .
10
Th e hymni c el ement s, i mi t at i ng t he "who" (participial) phr ases of t he
hymns of t he Psalter, simply hel p devel op t he t hought of t he poi nt bei ng
set fort h. In short , hymni c el ement s ar e appr opr i at e in ser mons whenever
and wher ever t he pr eacher wishes t o enl ar ge on t he witness to God.
Th e use of hymni c l anguage can also be an effective t eachi ng device,
because it can set fort h t he sacred history or a por t i on of it in s ummar y
fashion. Th e following excer pt from a ser mon on J o h n 14:111 gives such
a s ummar y and can be classified as hymni c, al t hough "we" and not Jesus
Chri st is t he formal subject of each sent ence. Th e passage does, however,
despi t e its sent ence st r uct ur e, concent r at e on Christ' s story, in t he ma nne r
of a hymn:
We have seen the Father in Jesus Christ, and we have heard all his com-
mandments. We have seen him attending a wedding at Cana and talking
with a divorced woman beside a well. We have seen him weeping with Mary
and Martha beside the tomb of their brother Lazarus. We have watched him
ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and we have seen him on trial before the
power of Rome. We have watched him die on a cross as soldiers gambled for
his garments. And yes, we have met him alive in a garden, at the first rays of
Easter morn, and we have traced with the finger of Thomas the marks of the
nails in his risen hands. And because of that sacred story, we have con-
fessed," My Lord and my God!" By the way of Christ, through the truth of
him, we have seen the Father.
11
Th e fact t hat hymni c el ement s enabl e a pr eacher to give cont i nual l y
devel opi ng pi ct ures of God and cont i nual l y expandi ng lists of his deeds
also l ends to a ser mon a feeling of movement and of pr ogr essi on of
t hought , and this enabl es t he congr egat i on to be led al ong in a cont i nual l y
deeper under s t andi ng.
Finally, t he use of hymni c el ement s in a ser mon can also devel op a
met aphor from t he biblical t ext to t he fullest ext ent . As a final illustration
of hymni c pr eachi ng, I woul d like to pr esent an excer pt from a ser mon
ent i t l ed " The God Who Leaves Man Al one, " wri t t en by Paul Scherer, one
of t he two gr eat pr eacher s of t he past gener at i on (James St ewart bei ng t he
ot her ) , on t he texts of Hosea 4 and 11. Thi s is hymni c pr eachi ng in its most
10. Ibid., p. 96.
l. Ibid., pp. 89-90.
57
compl i cat ed form. In fact, some may ar gue t hat this is not a hymn. Yet in
its use of a series of phr ases whi ch wi den t he t hought cont i nual l y, and in its
concent r at i on on God al one, it capt ur es t hat exal t at i on of God whi ch
bel ongs to t he genr e. It is a l engt hy quot at at i on, t aken seri at i m from t he
ser mon, but it is mar vel ous pr eachi ng and cons ummat e art :
He was torn as a father is torn who must leave some wayward, angry child to
itself before he can ever win it back; waits and remembers it still, yonder in
the years that are gone, with its little uncertain steps, his hands holding it up;
longs for the day to come when the sulking disobedience will be over; yet
denies himself every deep impulse to gather it swiftly in his arms and sweep
the barriers down! . . .
That' s the loneliness of God. I wish you'd think of it, and not of your own
. . . a Love with its eyes wide open, struggling to hold its peace; letting you fail
if need be, and caring; letting you sin, and still caring! Standing there with its
hands I think gripped tightly behind its back, biting its lips! "I taught
Ephraim how to walk," holding him in my arms. How can I give him up?
How can I let him go? I am God, not man! . . .
It's the heart of God you' re seeing, and the inevitable loneliness of it; that
awful severity with Himself, keeping back behind the bar of its own lips this
eternal passion: "I taught Ephraim how to walk" . . . Jesus died with that
pent up inside of him, spreading over our mute earth the speechless shadow
of a cross; until now it rests on all that we do to ourselves, and to one another,
and to God . . . .
Nothing over any of this broken world now but Calvary; and the silence,
which is God waiting, gripping His hands behind his back, biting His lips! "I
taught Ephraim how to walk!"
12
Because hymni c el ement s used in ser mons concent r at e so on God, t hey
can i nspi re in a congr egat i on all of t he react i ons to t hei r message t hat we
find in t he Psalter. A hymn can i nspi re prai se (see Pss. 8; 95100) and t rust
(see Ps. 46). It can give knowl edge of t he holy hi st ory (see Pss. 68; 78;
103- 105; 114; 135136). It can waken gr at i t ude and t he r esponse of
service (see Ps. 119) or of mi ssi onary activity (see Pss; 96; 145). It can give
hope and security for t he f ut ur e (see Pss. 33; 47; 103). It can i nspi re
r epent ance (see Ps. 19). It can afford ant i ci pat i on of t he comi ng Ki ngdom
of God (cf. Pss. 47; 96- 98) .
Since hymni c el ement s used in ser mons ar e able to do all t hese t hi ngs, we
may well ask how we can pr each wi t hout t hem. Th e pr ope r subject of t he
Chri st i an ser mon is God, as he has been reveal ed to us in Jesus Chri st
t hr ough t he Hol y Spirit. If a s er mon does not i l l umi ne who God is and
what he has done and is doi ng and will do, and if it does not call fort h a
12. The Place Where Thou Standest (New York: Harper and Bros., 1942), pp. 19-22.
58
The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching
Interpretation
response to that divine person and activity, then certainly it has not
interpreted the biblical message.
To be sure, there are other rhetorical devices for preaching the Gospel,
such as the use of the genres of narrative and parable, of question and
answer (diatribe), of straight-forward exposition and exhortation and
teaching (wisdom and Torah teaching). In fact there can be proper usage
in preaching of the genre of the lament. Yet somewhere in all of those
forms, if God is magnified, hymnic elements should also creep in, for
ultimately it is the Lord with whom the Christian sermon is concerned, and
it is for God's glorification alone that the Christian preacher labors. One
may therefore call the modern pulpit to the task of hymnic preaching with
a summons from the Psalter:
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together! (Ps. 34:3).
59
^ s
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