Songs from Scripture?

Writing songs and hymns with our Bibles open has been a life-changing experience for us. There are well over a hundred songs written for you to hear and use both in your church and for personal devotion.

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Word-centered singing

The heart of the project

The “why” behind everything we write

Use the “Guide” on the main site to help you navigate and find a song. Here’s what we hope you and your church gains from this music—and the “why” behind everything we write:

Watercolor artwork from Songs from Scripture

Meditation · Memory · Love

Songs and hymns from Scripture help us to better know and love God by meditating on His Word.

What if a pastor were to stand behind a pulpit and tell some great stories, motivate you and make you laugh but never spoke from the Word of God? Should the words we sing in church be any different? Just as Word-centered preaching is so critical to the health of a church, so is Word-centered singing. Songs from Scripture help us to meditate and focus on the life-giving Word. (And memorization is almost inevitable when words are set well to music.)

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night... (Joshua 1:8) / I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11) / Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Mark 13:31)

Belief · Prayer · Formation

What we sing shapes and expresses what we truly believe about God and what He has said.

Songs from the Bible teach us to think and pray with the Scriptures that have guided the people of God for over three thousand years. God has not revealed everything that there is to know in this vast universe He created. But everything we need to know for life and salvation, He has graciously revealed in His Word. Songs from Scripture teach us to know and love Jesus more.

...from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:15-17) / Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21) / “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow Me” (John 10:27)

Ancient · Modern · Rooted

We treasure the hymns of past centuries for their faithful love and devotion to God's Word. But that same Word calls us, over and over, to “sing to the Lord a new song.” (Psalm 33, 96, 98, 149, Isaiah 42:10)

We don't often think about it, but in the end, even the greatest hymns of past centuries are valuable only as far as they are faithful to God’s Word. We believe the healthiest worship values both the ancient and modern, the old and the new, all rooted in the Word that will never pass away. More important than questions of hymns versus modern worship, is whether in either the Word comes first. Songs from Scripture have a way of leading us beyond mere intellectual assent to biblical truths by engaging both the heart and mind together. The separation of heart and mind is a tragedy because it leads to a disintegrated faith: emotion without content is superficial and fleeting while truth without passion is lifeless and cold. But a well written song from the Word can help lead us into a greater sense of love and wonder anchored in what God reveals in His Word because it integrates both “knowing” with our minds and “knowing” with our hearts.

[Jesus said], “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13:52) / I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever... (Psalm 89:1)

Honest worship · Lament · Hope

To re-center our worship of God away from trite platitudes to the surprising, refreshing and deep honesty of God’s very words.

The Bible welcomes rather than avoids difficult, uncomfortable questions and emotions that are a very real part of this life. Our hearts were made for the One who made us and all things. But living in a broken world often clouds that reality from our vision. In the Bible, we have a Word from another world. It tells us that though it doesn’t always feel like it, we have not been left alone in a cold universe groping in the darkness and desperately trying to discern our origin, meaning and ultimate purpose. The objective and holy Word we hold in our hands was given to us by God so that we might know Him. And as we begin to know Him more, we love Him more. And as we love Him more, we want to know Him even more. And so the virtuous cycle goes on for all eternity where we will be “forever with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Still, life is hard and how kind our Father is who knows what we experience and has given us words to express to Him our grief, complaints, lament, confusion and bewilderment in the trials of this life:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1) / Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1) / My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees. (Lamentations 3:49-50)

Preaching · Study · Understanding

To come alongside biblical preaching and personal study to help correct the misunderstandings we all sometimes have and to grow ever more familiar with the words of the Bible.

Songs and hymns from Scripture encourage us to seek a deeper understanding of the Word because as we sing, repeat and hear the words of Scripture over and over, we are often prompted to consider more deeply what it all means and how that part of God’s Word can and should impact how we think and how we live.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) / …faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) / Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19) / See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority (Colossians 2:6-10)

Purple watercolor Scripture artwork from Songs from Scripture

Spiritual warfare · Victory · Faith

The sword of the Spirit

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:12-18)

2 Chronicles 20:22 recounts ancient Israel experiencing the power of holy song with victory in warfare: “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush…so that they were routed.” When Paul and Silas were imprisoned, “praying and singing hymns to God,” a great earthquake immediately followed opening prison doors and unfastening their bonds (Acts 16:25-26). Martin Luther wrote, “Music…is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us.” As his great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” tells of the prince of darkness’ fate: “One little word shall fell him,” referring either to Jesus or all of Scripture, both called the Word of God.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) / for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:4-5) / see 1 Peter 5:8 and also Luke 10:19

Sanctification · Comfort · Change

We are changed as we worship God with the sanctifying power of His Word.

As our hearts and minds are saturated with Scripture, it comforts us, challenges us and changes us. A holy song functions much like Jesus’ parables. In His infinite wisdom, Jesus did not limit himself to a list of propositional statements for our mental assent—because He wants us to know that the truth is far more than just a set of ideas, but is ultimately a Person (John 14:6). His parables cause the listener to lay down their defenses as they hear and enter into the story He is telling. Jesus knew that his stories would connect us far more deeply to life-changing spiritual truths, and do it in a profoundly holistic way (mind, body, heart, soul and spirit). He loves us too much to leave us with nothing but a deeply limiting and soul-crushing, disengaged, hyper-rational intellectualism. And that’s exactly how we believe a well-written song from Scripture works.

Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. (John 17:17) / …My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) / All Scripture is…profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:15-17)

Jesus · Fulfillment · Worship

The written Word reveals the Word made flesh.

Not worship of Scripture Worship from Scripture

But our focus is not ultimately on the letters filling the pages of our Bibles, though they are God’s own words (not worship of Scripture). The purpose of the written Word is to reveal the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, to whom the Bible is always pointing (worship from Scripture).

Many unfortunately think of the Bible as mostly a book of rules, regulations and random stories. But the Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, saying something extraordinary: that the Bible is all about Him. Jesus unambiguously underscores the point by saying it twice in the 24th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.

In verse 27, “...beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” and in verses 44-45, “...everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures...”

May the Lord open our minds, as He did with the disciples in Luke 24, to see Jesus in all the Scriptures to the praise and glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

And so our prayer is: “O Teach My Heart to Love Your Word.”