Biblical songs for corporate singing are to be found throughout both the Old and New Testaments. The earliest recorded song is the Song of Moses (Exod. 15:1–18), and the last song is found in the book of Revelation (Rev. 19:1–8). This article lists the most important biblical songs, which are sometimes called canticles, and notes how these biblical songs are sung in the contemporary church.
The Old Testament repertoire includes the Song of Hannah (1 Sam. 1:1–10), the Song of Jonah (Jonah 2:2–9), the First Song of Isaiah (12:2–6), the Second Song of Isaiah (26:9–21), and the Song of Habakkuk (Hab. 3:2–19), as well as the Psalter and other poetic passages.
The Psalter itself is made up of texts that are sung corporately by all of God’s people. These one hundred and fifty selections probably represent many other unrecorded psalms which were sung responsively by a leader and the congregation or antiphonally by two groups of singers. Thus, from Old Testament times singing was a part of the public praise of God.
Several New Testament songs were sung in Christian worship. This repertoire includes the Song of Mary (the Magnificat, Luke 1:46–55), the Song of Zacharias (the Benedictus, Luke 1:68–79), the Gloria in Excelsis or Greater Doxology (Luke 2:14), and the Song of Simeon (the Nunc Dimittis, Luke 2:29–32).
Other New Testament songs or fragments of songs are found in Ephesians 5:14; Philippians 2:6–11; Colossians 1:15–20; 1 Timothy 1:17, 3:16, and 6:15–16; and 2 Timothy 1:11–13. These passages are chiefly doctrinal and didactic. However, in the case of Ephesians 5:14, the baptismal phrase, “Awake, thou that sleepest,” is liturgical. Moreover, the devotional songs of the book of Revelation discussed in Robert E. Coleman’s inspirational text Songs of Heaven (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1980) usually include a doxological stanza of praise. Three of the best known songs of this type are the Song of the Creator (Rev. 4:11), the Song of Judgment (Rev. 11:17–18) and the Song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 15:3–4).
Contemporary Use of Biblical Song
All of these biblical songs are still in current use as translations or paraphrases of the original text. Their use is a part of the current renewal of interest in biblical songs in many Christian churches, liturgical and nonliturgical, traditional and contemporary, charismatic and noncharismatic.
An early impetus to this increasing use of biblical song for congregational singing came from a number of English hymn writers in the 1970s. These concerned writers participated in an effort to provide relevant material, hoping to make psalm-singing more accessible to participants in Anglican worship and informal gatherings alike. Psalm Praise (Chicago: GIA Publications, 1973) contains contemporary texts based upon scriptural passages and new music by the editor Michael Baughen and committee members Timothy Dudley-Smith, Christopher Idle, Michael Perry, Michael Saward, James Seddon, Norman Warren, and others.
Their efforts were also evident in Psalms for Today (Michael Perry and David Iliff, eds. [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990], available from Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, Ill.) designed to provide contemporary communal worship songs based upon what they called the basic hymnbook of the Christian church—the Psalms. This superb collection includes psalm texts for chanting, metrical versions for singing, special arrangements for choral speaking, along with popular known hymn tunes and new tunes.
Although psalm-singing has been a form of congregational song in churches for centuries, it has had a significant revival throughout America during the latter part of the twentieth century. Always a part of Orthodox and Reformed worship, the practice of psalm-singing continues in the worship services of the various Presbyterian and Reformed churches in America. This is quite evident in the 1987 Psalter Hymnal (Emily R. Brink, ed. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: CRC Publications, 1987]) of the Christian Reformed Church, with its clearly defined section of one hundred and fifty psalm selections, and in the 1990 edition of the Presbyterian Hymnal: Psalms and Spiritual Songs (Linda Jo McKim, ed. [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990]), with its section of one hundred psalm paraphrases and hymns based upon selected psalm texts.
Scripture Songs
These same two volumes of the Reformed tradition also contain a number of non-psalmodic biblical songs. For example, the Psalter Hymnal offers a versification of the Song of Hannah, settings of the Song of Mary and the Song of Simeon, and a text-based upon the Song of Zacharias. Likewise, the “Service Music” section of the Presbyterian Hymnal includes musical settings of the songs of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon. Finally, the nondenominational hymnal, The Worshiping Church (Donald P. Hustad, ed. [Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing Company, 1990]), has a designated section of “Psalms and Canticles.” Here the reader will discover the First Song of Isaiah in a version by an American, Carl P. Daw, Jr., and the Second Song of Isaiah paraphrased by an Englishman, Michael Perry. Of particular interest in this section is the inclusion of eight separate Scripture readings divided by the repeated singing of a musical phrase. For example, the text of Psalm 98 is divided into three sections, with each spoken section concluding with the singing of a musical setting of the first verse by Hal Hopson, a noted American church music composer.
Besides this, contemporary versions of numerous scriptural songs and others based upon Scripture are to be found in recent publications, of which the following are representative. A British publication, Come Rejoice (Michael Perry, ed. [Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing Company, 1989]) contains Brian Black’s setting of the Song of Christ’s Glory (Phil. 2) along with Christopher Idle’s version of the Song of Mary. In Go Forth for God, a collection of hymns by J. R. Peacey (Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing Company, 1991), “Awake, awake: fling off the night!” is offered as a paraphrase of Ephesians 5:14 according to the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. In this same genre of music, eighteen metrical canticles can be found in A Year of Grace (Carl P. Daw, Jr., ed. [Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing Company, 1990]). These canticles have been published separately under the title To Sing God’s Praise (Carl P. Daw, Jr. [Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing Company, 1992]).
