Worship, Revised and Expanded Edition: Reformed according to Scripture

by Hughes Oliphant Old

Many of the earliest Wesleyan hymns were written to follow the preaching of a particular sermon. After the preaching of the sermon, the newly written hymn would be lined out so that the congregation could affirm the Word that had been preached. It belongs to a covenantal theology of worship that God is worshiped when his people, having experienced his grace, confess and bear witness to that grace. This is what the typical Wesley hymn does. It is thanksgiving in its most biblical form, a witness to God’s saving power and a confession of the obligation we therefore have to God of living out that salvation. The Wesleyan hymn—and in fact this is true of the hymnody of Pietism in general—is a confession of faith. It is a creed sung by the congregation in thanksgiving to God and in witness to the world.