The Best-loved Hymns Can Touch Your Soul

The Role & Importance of Christian Music

Whether you prefer a traditional church choir accompanied by piano and organ, a rock band backed by guitars and drums, a bluegrass group featuring banjos, or a Gregorian chant, music plays an important role in worship services. Beloved old hymns and today’s best contemporary Christian music can touch your soul.

The best music has power and meaning. Power to quiet your chaotic mind and help you focus or energize your tired body. Power to put you in a reflective mood or send your soul soaring into the heavens. Power to draw you closer to God and give you peace. Power to touch your soul.

Music is a universal language that brings people together. And it has had a special place in the Christian church for 2,000 years and in Jewish tradition for even longer.

My 10 Favorite Hymns

As a church pianist for more than 20 years, I have numerous favorites. The best ones touch your soul.

My top 10 favorites are:

1. “Amazing Grace” (as sung by the incomparable Judy Collins)
2. “Mary Did You Know?” (Mark Lowry, who also wrote the lyrics)
3. “The Lord’s Prayer” (Jackie Evancho)
4. “Because He Lives” (Guy Penrod)
5. “To God Be the Glory” (orchestra and choir)
6. “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (U.S. Army Field Band)
7. “How Great Thou Art” (Home Free)
8. “Amazing Grace — My Chains Are Gone” (Pentatonix)
9. “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
10. “Ave Maria” by Gounod/Bach (Luciano Pavarotti)

(I’m not Catholic and am not sure whether “Ave Maria” is a hymn, a prayer or both, but it’s beautiful. That said, my choices for this post are mostly hymns that people can sing. Even I can warble through most of them, though I’m no singer.)

I also have a special request for Randy Travis singing a gospel tune. I selected “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Enjoy!

Great music sets the mood, whether you’re in church or a concert venue. And I have written about some of the best religious pieces in my recent post “From ‘Passion’ to ‘Messiah’ to ‘Ave Maria’: A Look at “Classical Christian Music.”

But I digress. What about you? What are your favorites? Why do you like those hymns? Do they have special meaning for you?

Setting the Mood

I cannot imagine my life without music. One memorable musical moment took place at Christmas. I had gone to my church for a program, which was preceded by guitar music in the sanctuary. The setting and music were simple.

A lone guitarist propped himself on a stool at the front of the sanctuary and softly played traditional and contemporary Christmas hymns.

No one in the pews around me stirred. I closed my eyes and felt alone with God. A wonderful peace enveloped me, and I prayed. I don’t remember anything about the program that followed, but those few minutes of guitar music set the tone for Christmas that year.

Another time, a friend and I were seeing the sites in New York and ducked into St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a few moments. Neither of us is Catholic, but we sat quietly on a back pew and listened to soft music playing as worshippers at the front of the cathedral prayed. Sitting at the back of the church, I felt the presence of God.

Bible Lessons Through Music

In the Protestant tradition, hymns such as “Amazing Grace” can draw you closer to God when you listen to the words. They can be a Bible lesson in and of themselves.

“Amazing Grace,” for example, reminds you that you are a sinner, yet God loves you, forgives and offers a greater love than you can imagine.

It’s no wonder that music plays an important role in Christian churches and has done so for centuries.

Let’s look at some of my favorite hymns and how they touch your soul.

John Newton & “Amazing Grace”

“Amazing Grace” is my favorite hymn, and I’m not alone. It’s a favorite of Christians around the world and tops many lists of “best” and “most popular” Christian hymns.

A slave trader named John Newton wrote the words nearly 250 years ago after he and his crew were caught in a fierce storm at sea. Many of the men were washed overboard, and Newton and his remaining crew faced a similar fate as he struggled to regain control of the ship.

A hardened ship captain, Newton begged “God help us” or words to that effect as the wind and waves tossed about the ship. The storm finally abated, and the 47-year-old Newton found a safe harbor and began to rediscover the Christian faith of his youth.

I would like to say he immediately walked away from the slave trade, but he didn’t. He initially saw no contradiction in his choices, though he did insist on better treatment of his human cargo.

“It would be another 40 years until Newton openly challenged the trafficking of slaves,” according to Britannica. He began to write about his experiences on the high seas and his evolving religious faith. Slowly, his views on the slave trade began to change, and he eventually felt called to the ministry. He was ordained in 1764.

Sadly, all too many ministers in that era didn’t see the evils of slavery — unlike Newton — and never spoke against it.

Newton probably wrote the words to “Amazing Grace” around 1772, and the lyrics were set to music some 60 years later….

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found,

was blind but now I see….

Judy Collins Sings

In 1970s, Judy Collins recorded the most beautiful version of “Amazing Grace” that I have ever heard. The very secular “Rolling Stone” called it iconic, and it is.

Collins sings the words as John Newton may have felt them. She begins without backup — no musical instruments and no choir — and with the second verse, a choir gradually joins her. They build on each succeeding verse to a stunning conclusion.

If you continue listening, Collins invites the audience to sing with her. The sound and beauty will touch your soul.

After hearing Collins sing “Amazing Grace,” one person commented, “I’m from Malaysia. I was not Christian then, but when I heard it, I cried buckets…. I actually found peace in my heart that day. All Glory to God.”

“Regardless of your religious belief, this song speaks to each of us,” another wrote. Someone else said, “Even a bloody heathen and heretic like myself was found worthy and bestowed the gift of grace.”

One writer who heard Collins’s recording during the Vietnam war said it was “a revelation. The world stood still….. The hymn addresses “something deep in us as a nation…. I can’t help but think that over fifty years later right now in our beloved America, we’ve never needed it more.”

I know this person is right.

Mark Lowry & “Mary, Did You Know?”

Mark Lowry sings my favorite version of “Mary Did You Know?” with two other singers, Guy Penrod and David Phelps. He wrote the lyrics in the mid-1980s at a time when he wasn’t yet a well-known singer-songwriter.

Initially, he struggled to find the right words. Then, a casual comment by his mother “unleashed a torrent of questions and thoughts… about Jesus’ mother,” he said.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has come to make you new?

This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you?

“While so many modern Christmas songs focus on ‘the season,’ Lowry’s timeless work is a refreshing reminder of its ‘reason,’” pastor Tyler Scarlett wrote in ‘The Story Behind the Carol: ‘Mary, Did You Know?’”

“When you kissed your little baby, you have kissed the face of God…. that verse just brings me to tears…so powerful,” one person commented. Powerful, indeed.

Someone else wrote, “Mark, ‘Did you know’ this song will be ministering to millions for generations to come? Thank you for allowing God to use you in such a mighty way.”

And finally, “This song is the whole Gospel put in a song,” according to yet another person.

What more could you ask of lyrics?

Jackie Evancho & “Our Father, Who Art in Heaven”

A little girl named Jackie Evancho sings one of the most beautiful versions of “The Lord’s Prayer” that I have ever heard. Her voice and Christ’s words are a memorable combination.

One person commented:

“Lyrics: Lord Jesus Christ.

“Singer: a little angel from heaven.”

“This is how you should pray: ‘Our Father (Matthew 6:9),” said another.

“I don’t know how it is with her now,” someone wrote, “but I fervently believe that the Holy Spirit was with her when she sang this prayer. And may the Holy Spirit be with her now and always.”

“I am still shocked when I hear some poor deluded soul say there is no God,” another commented.

Hymns That Touch My Soul

My favorites became my favorites because they touch my soul in different ways. “Amazing Grace” is filled with raw emotion, while “Lord of the Dance” makes me want to stand up and dance. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” draws my mind back to America’s Civil War, slavery and civil rights. And all of my favorite hymns bring me closer to God.

That’s what the best hymns do.