The Battle For Hymnody

On Sunday, we read Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Singing has a long and significant place in the life of the church, though at times it has also been a source of division. In this blog, I want to look at how hymnody has been used throughout church life and consider their early history in Baptist life.

Scripture not only commands singing, as the passage above makes clear, it is also one of the most frequent commands in the Bible. Moreover, the Bible itself is filled with songs and hymn-like passages, showing that God has not only instructed His people to sing, but has also given them content to sing.

The Psalter (collection of Psalms) functioned as Israel’s hymnbook. Exodus 15 records the song of Moses, while Judges 5 and 1 Samuel 2 preserve the songs of Deborah and Hannah. In the New Testament, passages such as Philippians 2:6–11, Colossians 1:15–20, and 1 Timothy 3:16 are widely recognized by scholars as having hymn-like, confessional features centered on Christ. Added to these are the songs of Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and Simeon in the opening chapters of Luke. From the beginning, then, God’s people have been a singing people, and their songs have been deeply theological, rooted in the Word of God and centered on His saving acts.

The early church appears to have sung both the Psalms and Christ-centered hymns together as a congregation. However, during the medieval period, although hymnody continued to develop, a significant shift took place. Singing moved away from the congregation and into the hands of choirs, and the language of worship became increasingly Latin rather than the common tongue. As a result, singing was no longer something the gathered church actively participated in but something they largely listened to. In many ways, the voice of the people in worship was diminished.

The Reformation sought to recover congregational worship, including singing, but it did so along different lines. Martin Luther restored congregational singing with enthusiasm, writing hymns in the common language so that ordinary believers could sing the truths of the gospel. Even today, when we sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” we are singing an English translation of one of Luther's hymns based upon Psalm 46.

Over in Geneva, John Calvin also restored congregational singing, but with a more cautious approach. He largely restricted singing to the Psalms, believing that the inspired words of Scripture were the purest and safest form of praise. In a context where worship had long been conducted in Latin, Calvin and the Reformed churches after him prioritized putting God’s Word back into the mouths of the people in their own language. This led to the widespread use of metrical psalters where the psalms were put into poetic lines and accompanying music to be sung by entire congregations.

As the Church of England developed, it embodied a kind of “middle way,” retaining elements of medieval liturgical and choral tradition while also incorporating Reformation principles, including the use of metrical psalms. However, many Puritans believed that Anglican worship still preserved too many remnants of Roman Catholic practice. In response, they advocated for a simpler, more biblically regulated form of worship—often emphasizing exclusive psalmody, congregational singing, and the removal of choirs and instrumental music. Especially during the English Civil War period, this led in some contexts to the elimination of organs and elaborate musical forms in favor of worship that highlighted the mutual edification of the congregation through the sung Word. The term Puritan was originally a slur against those who wanted a purer form of worship.

Early Particular Baptists, emerging from the English Separatist tradition shaped by Puritan dissent, inherited the practice of metrical psalm-singing. Yet in the late seventeenth century, a significant development took place through the ministry of Benjamin Keach, pastor of the church at Horsleydown in London. Keach began introducing hymn singing at the conclusion of the Lord’s Supper, appealing to passages such as Matthew 26:30, which notes that Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn following the institution of the Supper.

Over time, hymns were also sung on designated days of thanksgiving. Even these limited steps, however, sparked controversy. According to Keach’s son-in-law, Thomas Crosby, “some five or six” initially dissented from the practice. By 1691, the majority of the congregation voted to include a hymn at the conclusion of each Lord’s Day service, but this decision provoked serious opposition. Ultimately, twenty-two members left the church and joined the congregation of Hanserd Knollys, before eventually forming a church of their own.

In the years that followed, though he was ferociously attacked even from other Baptist, Benjamin Keach did not retreat from his position. Instead, he continued to defend and practice congregational hymn singing, convinced that the church was not limited to the Psalter alone but was called to sing the full revelation of Christ. He came to this conclusion based upon passages like we read this morning. What began as a contested addition at the Lord’s Supper gradually became a regular feature of worship in his congregation. Though the controversy was sharp and costly, Keach’s persistence proved formative. He would write over 500 hymns in his lifetime.

Over time, his influence extended beyond his own church. Other Particular Baptist congregations began to adopt hymn singing, and what was once resisted slowly became normalized. Keach helped shift Baptist practice from exclusive psalmody toward a broader understanding of biblical singing that included psalms, doctrinally faithful hymns, and spiritually rich songs shaped by the gospel. This development laid important groundwork for the next generation, especially for figures like Isaac Watts, whose hymns would give fuller expression to the person and work of Christ and become widely embraced across Baptist and other Protestant churches.

In this way, Keach stands as a pivotal figure in the shaping of Baptist hymnody. He did not invent hymns, nor was he the first to sing them, but he was among the first within the English Baptist tradition to contend for their place in corporate worship. His legacy is seen in the now common practice of churches singing a rich mixture of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What was once a point of division became, over time, a defining feature of Baptist worship, as churches sought to obey Colossians 3:16 by letting the word of Christ dwell richly among them through song.