With so many older hymns that utilize common meters, it’s an easy task to write new hymns with the saome rhythmic patterns, allowing composers to mix and match new and old songs together easily. We’ve discussed this in the past, so this post is more of an exercise in how to go about writing in this style.
Let’s use “He Hideth My Soul” as an example:
He Hideth My Soul
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me,
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.
11.8.11.8
As you can see, the first line contains eleven syllables, followed by eight in the second line, then the pattern repeats. This is an “11.8.11.8” meter. I’m going to write a new hymn, with the goal of matching both the theme and meter of the original, then blend the two together to create a singable mashup of both.
I’ll start by creating a spreadsheet. Don’t laugh, this is actually a useful technique, as it lays out a visual framework of the meter. I’m not worried about the tune yet, although there are parts of it that are going to run through my head as a write, but at this point I’m focused primarily on the words.
As you can see, each gray box represents one syllable. The first line has room for 11 syllables, and the second line has room for eight. This is exactly the 11.8.11.8 meter we’re trying to match. I’ve also left room for a few pickup syllables (in orange) at the beginning of each line. This is a bit of a cheat, but I’ve found that’s it’s useful from time to time.
Now I can get started. Thinking about the meter, I notice that my musical measures start at syllables two and eight, so I place bold borders there to visually cue me in. Starting with the verse, I fill in one syllable per square, until I have a first verse and chorus.
Right away I can tell that the chorus needs a bit more space, and when I think about He Hideth My Soul, I realize that Fanny Crosby added an extra line to the chorus to close it off. I think I’ll do something similar. I add another two lines, both with 11 and 8 syllables each, to create an 11.8.11.8.11.8 chorus. It looks like this:
Keep in mind that while I have a bit of tune running around in my head, right now all I really have is a poem in a modified 11.8.11.8 meter. However, I already have a poem that flows very nicely, both in terms of theme and meter, with my original hymn.
Protector, defender, my Savior divine, How blessed to call Jesus my own, He'll never forsake me, nor leave me in fear, I'm never, no never alone He lifts me above on His almighty wings, Aloft above earth and its pain Renewed like the eagle, my heart starts to sing, As he quietly calls out my name. I'll rest by his side & I'll know I am safe, At peace in His presence again. When darkness o'erwhelms and my heart starts to fade, When nothing but trials I see I'll remember the day that the stone moved away, And He's still moving mountains for me. And He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, That shadows a dark, dreary land He hideth my soul in the depths of His love, And covers me there with his Hand, He hideth my soul in the depths of His love, And covers me there with his Hand, When weariness comes & my heart starts to fade, When I have no strength of my own, I'll watch for His coming, I'll quietly wait, In prayer at the foot of the throne. I'll watch for His coming, I'll quietly wait, In prayer at the foot of the throne. And then He that has tarried, will tarry no more, And let His dear presence be known.
You can find the completed song here, and I think it’s a great example of how leveraging old techniques from the early days of hymn writing can bring fresh new songs to life today. Give it a try in your own writing, and see how it works for you.
In the late 19th century, Charles Finney led multiple revivals in New York. A tireless preacher, abolitionist, and musician, Finney figured largely in what became known as the Second Great Awakening in the United States. A contemporary in New York wrote, “The whole community was stirred. Religion was the topic of conversation in the house, in the shop, in the office and on the street. The only theater in the city was converted into a livery stable; the only circus into a soap and candle factory. Grog shops were closed; the Sabbath was honored; the sanctuaries were thronged with happy worshippers; a new impulse was given to every philanthropic enterprise; the fountains of benevolence were opened, and men lived to good.“
As the revival passed, Finney observed that a desire for the effects of revival was causing new preachers to skip the step of repentance and Godly sorrow for sin, and instead structure their services to evoke an emotional response that mimicked the revivals he had taken part in. This led him to write a series of letters to American pastors, now known as Finney’s Letters on Revival. In these letters, Finney encouraged ministers to create revival by provoking their congregations to holiness, instead of creating a cheap emotional counterfeit to true salvation.
Today, modern worship teams often choose to counterfeit God’s intended role for music in the church, instead opting to evoke an emotional response in the way they structure their performances. Instead of leveraging music to teach & encourage believers to a closer walk with God through prayer and consecration, this entertainment-driven experience evokes a false emotional reaction that only mimics the true spiritual change that can be achieve through a deeper walk with Christ.
Long sustained chords, whispered phrases, a slow-burn of repeated mantras leading to a drum fill and an emotional key change — these readily and equally evoke physical and emotional reactions at a Celine Dion concert in Las Vegas, or in your local church. When the lights dim, the fog machines spin up, and the synthesizers hum, the congregation knows it’s time to “turn on” the worship.
If preachers are called to focus on the core message of the gospel, utilizing the truth of God’s word instead of cheap emotional rhetoric to encourage congregants to change, then musicians should be held to the same standard. What if music leaders chose to structure a set of hymns and choruses to cause the congregation to sing together, thinking and dwelling on the goodness of God? What if the goal was not to engender emotion, but was instead to remind believers that they are in church, to set aside the outside concerns that they brought into the sanctuary, and to prepare their hearts and minds to consecrate to a deeper walk with Christ?
What if the song service is equally tempered to both praise the Lord, and to teach new attendees about the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice and how they can be saved? This is the role of music in the church, and as musicians our job is to present the gospel in song. Anything else is cheap fakery, and we shoud avoid it all costs.
But, you might ask, what about venerated hymns that often bring about emotional reactions? Doesn’t the chorus of It Is Well With My Soul utilize repeated phrases? Absolutely it does. However, it is coupled with doctrinal teaching in the verses that anchor the repetition in scriptural truth. My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought… is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
There is nothing wrong with having an emotional reaction to the message of the Gospel — in fact, a youth minister in my home church in Los Angeles was often heard to say “If that don’t light your fire, you’re wood’s wet,” and he was right! However, the emotion should arise as a reaction to the truth of a Biblical message, not in response to a songwriting device that triggers the reaction regardless of the song’s lyrical content.
Compare that to Jesus Culture’s “Spirit Breaks out.” The lyrics seek revival, but only in the context of “praise.” There is no sense of repentance, no call for a deeper walk, no theological underpinning.
Spirit break out, break our walls down
Spirit break out, Heaven come down
King Jesus You're the name we're lifting high
Your glory shaking up the earth and skies
Revival we wanna see Your kingdom here
We wanna see Your kingdom here
Compare that to Jesus Culture’s “Spirit Breaks out.” The lyrics seek revival, but only in the context of “praise.” There is no sense of repentance, no call for a deeper walk, no theological underpinning.
OK, not really, but in a way, it is. Try singing the words to Amazing Grace, but to the tune of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night. For that matter, you can also sing it to the tune of Joy to the World. It works, and that’s not the only song that works this way. You can also sing Amazing Grace with All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, or Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed, or with O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, or with I Sing the Mighty Power of God, and Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, and dozens more.
You could run a month’s worth of song services mixing and matching lyrics and tunes from the list above, and still have music to spare. It’s really quite amazing, and yet it isn’t. Historically, hymns weren’t written with music at all. They were often written without melodies — as poems only, with a specified meter that was very common.
This allowed composers to then take those poems, and to match them to well-known songs with the same meter, and to introduce those to their church congregations. Churches could take songs that their local congregations knew well, and apply new lyrics (with new messages) that their congregations could learn quickly. This eased the burden of learning new music, especially for the musically-uneducated, and allowed the message of the lyrics to take precedence over the tune itself. It was a teaching tool extraordinaire, and it worked.
Fanny Crosby utilzied this technique extensively. She was largely a poet, writing over 8,000 hymns, although many without melody. However, she utilized common meters so that composers could then take her songs and set them to music. Many were set to common tunes of the time, including folk tunes and bar tunes, allowing churchgoers (and even unbelievers) to sing her songs with ease.
How many times have you found yourself humming part of last Sunday’s sermon to yourself while doing the dishes? Probably never. But a catchy tune stuck in your head, along with a gospel message, can carry weight well into the week, and serve as inspiration to seek God long after you walk away from your Sunday pew.
Compare this to modern music today, where tunes are uncommon, song ranges are both extremely high and extremely low, rhythms are complex and syncopated; and you have a recipe for songs that take a long time to learn, during which the user can’t focus on the message because they are instead trying to learn the song itself.
While we can’t borrow today’s tunes due to copyright law, let alone their associated content, there are songs that are relatively well known and easy to sing that have entered the public domain just recently. For example, Gene Kelly’s performance of Singin’ in the Rain just entered the public domain in 2025, and Yes We Have No Bananas did so in 2024, and would make an excellent Sunday School song with new lyrics. Elvis’ Love Me Tender enters the public domain in the early 2050’s, which isn’t all that far away any more, should the Lord tarry that long.
Of course, there is a place for performance-level songwriting that requires more talent and skill to sing, especially in choral performance (for example). But we would be well advised to follow in the example of those who came before us as Christian songwriters, and to start writing accessible songs that allow believers and non-believers (and shepherds) to learn of God’s Amazing Grace.
Are you looking to engage your youngest congregation members with a fun song that leverages the latest in clean slang? Look no further than The Language Song, no cap! This fun song leverages all the new buzz words from Generation Alpha in a way that will excite them and have them laughing, all while spreading the important message that we can all worship together, despite our generational differences.
BRUH! Big yikes, life was ick, low key. I had main character dreams, was just an NPC. Ghosting God, I was living in sin, until I low-key gave up and let Jesus in. ‘Cuz Jesus is different, He’s bussin’ no cap. He glows up my heart, oh He’s all that. He’s so giving joy, I’ll never turn back, ‘cuz Jesus is different, NO CAP.
youtube:V3qmXftKs8I
Purchase the digital download for this song, and receive a lead sheet with chords & song lyrics, a 4K music video (with and without voiceovers), and Powerpoint slides for screen-based congregational singing.
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