God's Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship through Old Testament Songs, Douglas Sean O'Donnell - Book Review

Have you noticed that some biblical themes are largely absent from modern hymns and choruses?  Do you feel pumped yet somehow empty after singing praise and worship choruses?  There is a reason for both of these and other phenomena within the realm of worship music.  The evangelical church has lost its biblical moorings in hymnody.

Douglas O'Donnell has given the church a needful, scathing analysis of what is being sung and passed off as worship. He does this by analyzing six lesser-used songs in the OT canon in order to build the case that themes common to these are found throughout scripture—Genesis through Revelation.  Those songs are:¹

The Song of Moses: Te Deum of Triumph (Exod 15:1-18) The Song of Yahweh: An Exodus from Israel's Apostasy [Deut 32:1-43] The Song of Deborah: A Punctured Temple, a Pouring Out of Joy [Judges 5:1-31] The Songs in Samuel: The Barren Woman and the Fertile King [1 Sam 2:1-10; 2 Sam 22:1-51] The Song of Habbukkuk: A Time to Wait—for Wrath [Hab 3:1-19]

The author concludes with his four commonalities, each of which form a chapter in the second section of the book dealing with application. The common themes are:

1. The Lord is at the center; that is, our God is addressed, adored, and "enlarged."
2. His mighty acts in salvation history are recounted.
3. His acts of judgment are rejoiced in.
4. His ways of living (practical wisdom) are encouraged.²

Next, O'Donnell compares 25 classic hymns (CH) with 50 contemporary Christian choruses (CCC) with the idea of comparing them to the four themes above.  His song-selection criteria is somewhat subjective, which he freely admits, but the balance of those songs omitted bore no significant difference.

The first theme is common enough in Christian circles.  Almost every song gives praise to God, Jesus, or Trinity in some form.  The glaring lack is in the last three.  To be sure the themes are present in some small measure but are sorely lacking.  This is a travesty in view of the emphasis the Holy Spirit has taken to ensure they are present in holy writ.  Admittedly, the theme that took me most off guard was joy in judgment.  The author pointed out that this was clearly visible in the Psalms and Revelation but almost completely absent in our hymnbooks.  Christian sensibilities have become so skewed that the Lord's righteous acts have been systematically edited out, and CCC have almost no mention of wrath or judgment.

I have noticed that Christian music is going to the dogs and recommend this book highly as a resource to see the truth and right the course.

¹ I use the actual chapter headings adding the appropriate reference.
² Douglas Sean O'Donnell, God's Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship through Old Testament Songs, (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2010), 113.


An interview with the author