AP

Review: The Sing! Hymnal

Keith & Kristyn Getty, Creators and Chief Editors. Crossway: Wheaton IL, 2025. 1,020 pages. $42.99.

When I started pastoring my new church in 2023 the congregation was using hymnals and there were no screens.

We continued with this, and so our welcomers hand out our hymnals with the weekly paper service-sheet-cum-bulletins. This fits the aesthetic of our 1890 limestone building, pews, and pipe organ. In fact, we now describe ourselves as “screen free” and visitors and newcomers often say how much they like this. In a world of 24/7 smartphones, desktops, and televisions it is refreshing to give our eyes and minds a break from LCDs and OLEDs.

Six months ago, we changed from the old Rejoice! hymnal to the cloth-bound 1990 Great Commission Trinity Hymnal. They retail at $70 each so we thank God for two sister churches who generously donated the ones they held in storage. We replaced the plastic covers, and they look as good as new. Although weighing a bit more and having a slightly smaller font than Rejoice! the Trinity Hymnal has the advantage of using the classic old words, lower keys, and putting the verses between the musical staves.

It also contains the creeds, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism, and the Psalms set out for responsive reading. It is brilliant to be able to refer people to these texts during the service. But we are not tied to the hymnal only and when we sing more recent hymns we include the lyrics in the service handout.

We are also striving for greater participation in our worship services, and I ask people to join me in reciting together the call to worship, the prayer of repentance, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. Our Anglican brethren have known forever that when the tongue is activated the mind and spirit are also more active and engaged, and that intelligent weekly repetition is powerful. Good hymnals make this kind of participation more straight forward.

So I was thrilled to see this new collection, The Sing! Hymnal, with elegant and durable binding, premium paper, and the clear Trinité typeface in black with red numbering.

Sing! contains 497 hymns. Two out of three would be classed as old classics and are taken directly the 1990 Trinity Hymnal – they are set out with the identical SATB four-part arrangements, keys, and words. The other third are “modern classics”: The Power of the Cross, How Deep the Father’s Love, Yet Not I, but Christ in Me, and so on.

The hymns are arranged not alphabetically but according to subject. Various indices – source, meter, tune, Scripture, topic, title and first line – make it straightforward to choose the most appropriate hymns for corporate worship.

An excellent “Hymn Stories” section gives brief descriptions of the stories and motives behind the hymns.

Intriguingly, Sing! intersperses the hymns with 403 liturgical readings. Most are Scripture verses but there are also quotations from classic creeds and texts as well as modern authors like C.S. Lewis, John Piper, Timothy Keller, Joni Eareckson Tada (“Song of Suffering”), and Billy Graham (“Sinner’s Prayer”). Time will tell whether these readings will become a kind of “classic spiritual quotes” collection, or really useful for corporate church worship.

In the preface the Gettys write that with all the online resources now available to us, good hymnals serve as “a trustworthy selection of that which is both substantial and true.” Was this their goal in this project?

To enable and encourage churches, families, and individuals to do what God’s people have always done: tell of his salvation from day to day, worship him in the splendour of holiness, and find that the joy of the Lord is their strength.

If you want a hymnal that gathers together the best of the old and new classics, as well as some hidden treasures to be discovered, then Sing! is a must-have. There is very little dead wood in this forest.

It won’t be replacing our Trinity Hymnals, but it sits on my desk as a valuable liturgical resource.

– Campbell Markham