I recently began a blog series entitled Hymns We Should Sing More, which seeks to edify the church with rich, biblical hymns. This is the eighth installment in this series. You can read the previous installments here.
All around the world, Christians gather for corporate worship and sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs as an act of worship to God. Specifically these hymns are full of rich biblical truths about God, mankind, salvation, the coming Kingdom and many other theological topics. Unfortunately, many Christians are unfamiliar with a vast number of theologically rich hymns.
When hymns are sung in a contemporary worship service, there is often a lack of repertoire of hymnology. This series, Hymns We Should Sing More, is a means of getting more Christians aware of the vast number of theologically rich hymns that we rarely, if ever, sing.
The hymn Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted was written by Thomas Kelly in 1805. Set to somber music, Kelly has written masterfully about the death of Christ. The hymn exposes the true nature of our sin and guilt by showing the only remedy appropriate: the death of the Son of God. Churches would do well to sit under the weight of this hymn, drawing us deeper into the wounds of Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God.