Comments on: Favorite hymns

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:31:31 +0000

Some interesting lists of favourite hymns! I have several on my blog, Wordwise Hymns (click on the Topics tab). There you can find the “Top 10 Hymns” of 1953, of 1990, and the results of a recent poll taken on my blog.

By: Larry Smith

Larry Smith — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:07:05 +0000

My favorites:

1. Be Thou My Vision
2. We’ll Build a Land
3. God Be with You Till We Meet Again (Vaughan Williams version)
4. For All the Saints
5. O God Our Help in Ages Past
6. Come My Way, My Truth, My Light
7. Immortal Love (set to Dundee–sounds really great if sung a capella in a New England meeting house)
8. God of Grace and God of Glory
9. Jerusalem — Parry (English, purely English)
10. Sweet Hour of Prayer (an elderly Universalist woman once sang this to me and I’ve loved it ever since)
11. Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire

By: Shawn Koester

Shawn Koester — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:46:49 +0000

The original list reduced to my top ten are:
1.Abide with Me
2. Precious Lord, take my hand
3. Great is thy Faithfulness
4. Be thou My Vision
5. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
6. I want Jesus to Walk with Me
7. Wade in the Water
8. Shall we Gather at the River?
9. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?
10. The King of Love my Shepherd is

By: Leland Ross

Leland Ross — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:25:11 +0000

Stephen, I think, misrepresents the position of British radio listeners on “Shine, Jesus, Shine”. At least according to the summary published at christiantoday.com, “Shine, Jesus, Shine” was ranked not “least favourite” among all hymns, but “tenth most favourite” of all, hence “least favourite among the top ten”.

And Shawn, that’s way more than ten. Are they in order, i.e. are “For all the saints” through “Must Jesus bear the cross alone” your top ten picks? (I know it’s impossible to whittle that deeply, but it must be done.)

By: Shawn Koester

Shawn Koester — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:40:26 +0000

For all the Saints
The King of Love my Shepherd is
Joyful, Joyful We are Adore Thee
Immortal, Invisible, God only wise
All Souls, O Lord, are thine
Unto Thy Temple, Lord we come
Abide with Me
Jesus Loves Me
Jesus Loves the Little Children
Must Jesus bear the Cross Alone?
Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed
Go now in Peace
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Oh Freedom
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Enter, Rejoice and Come in
Wade in the Water
We’re Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table
Nuct Dimittis
Shall We Gather at the River
Every Night When the Sun Goes In
I Don’ Feel No Ways Tired
Let everything that Hath Breath
I want Jesus to Walk with Me
Precious Lord, take my hand
O Come, you longing, thirsty souls
Will the Circle be unbroken?
Panis Angelicus
Be thou my Vision
Great is thy Faithfulness
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Hush! Somebody’s Callin’ my Name
Forward through the Ages
Lift High the Cross
Guide my Feet
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
His Eye is on the Sparrow
We Shall Overcome
For the Beauty of the Earth
Holy, Holy, Holy
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Tis a Gift to be Simple
We’ll Build a Land
Bring Many Names
God be with you til we meet again
Take, O take me as I am
Praise to the Lord the Almighty
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed
Oh Freedom
Blest be the Tie that Binds
I’m on my way to the Freedom Land
Go down Moses

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:06:13 +0000

BBC Radio 4 did a poll of the nation’s favourite hymns about a year ago and I think the top one was “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (quite univeralist, I suppose). People also voted on their least favourite hymn and that came out as “Shine Jesus, Shine” which to me means the Radio 4 audience are quite stuffy. I understand that a lot of churches will over-use that one if they have a service once a month where they try to be a bit charismatic and praise-y. It probably doesn’t stand up that well to that kind of unimaginative repetition; but nevertheless I quite like it.

Favourites off the top of my head might be “I the Lord of Sea and Sky” “We’ll Build a Land” “Bring Many Names” and “This is my song, O God of all the nations.”

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:46:05 +0000

I like a lot of those, but my two favorites (the ones I want at my funeral), are “Abide with me” and “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”