# What is your favorite Hymn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772 "2016-01-21T13:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/81 "2016-01-22T23:22:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hah! I’ve never thought of that but now I won’t be able to get it out of my head. No kidding, me too. Thanks alot for the earworm, **bup**. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/82 "2016-01-22T23:44:59Z")
“Great is Thy Faithfulness”; at least, that’s my favorite year-round song. I’d have to think for quite some time if I’m including Christmas songs. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/83 "2016-01-23T03:49:14Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > It is Well With My Soul. > > Knowing the backstory that [Horatio Spafford wrote it shortly after learning all four of his daughters died in a shipwreck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_with_My_Soul), it’s hard for me not to get choked up hearing it. I just read the reference, and also [Wikipedia’s page on the ship that sank](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Ville_du_Havre). Amazing. Thank you for sharing this. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/84 "2016-01-23T04:11:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Wow. You picked like exactly the same three I would have. Also grew up Catholic in the 80s. I might add “On Eagle’s Wings.” As nice a song as Eagle’s Wings is, I always have to suppress a chuckle at the very beginning. First line: “You who dwell in the shelter of the lord”. I always hear the first two words as “yoo-hoo!” mmm ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/85 "2016-01-23T04:16:39Z")
“There is a fountain filled with blood.” I have no idea what the lyrics are, but it’s the only song my dad could play on piano, and he enjoyed playing it. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/86 "2016-01-23T04:27:48Z")
I’m counting _Jerusalem_ as a hymn, even though the CoE says it isn’t. Written based on a William Blake poem, catchy tune and anthemic music, mocked by Monty Python…pretty much perfect. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/87 "2016-01-23T04:31:53Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > As nice a song as Eagle’s Wings is, I always have to suppress a chuckle at the very beginning. > > First line: “You who dwell in the shelter of the lord”. > > I always hear the first two words as “yoo-hoo!” I love the beginning of the one verse of Oh Come All Ye Faithful: **Yea, Lord** , we greet thee… I feel childlike and full of glee: YAY, LORD! ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/88 "2016-01-23T06:10:48Z")
This one is a bit High Church, but it is very beautiful [Allegre - Miserere](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZL3POaATn8&index=172&list=FL9_aa1rww74sPEpQWgzO6iA) The note the boy treble hits is almost in bat country ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/89 "2016-01-23T06:48:37Z")
I reluctantly was dragged to church as a child. Hymns were something to be endured, not enjoyed. Borrrring! Go forward twenty years. A friend of mine–a church choirmaster and organist, who also happened to need a bass voice for his choir–asked me to join. He knew I could sing bass, and I thought I’d try it. To my great surprise, I enjoyed singing hymns and anthems and doxologies and so on in the choir as an adult. I ended up singing in his church choir every Sunday for many years, until I moved far away. Those were good times. My favourite hymns: “Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling,” to the Welsh tune of Hyfrydol. My overall favourite; I want this played at my funeral. “The Navy Hymn.” Many of the congregants at this church were WWII veterans, and we would adjust the lyrics for the branch of service at funerals: “Oh hear us as we raise our prayer/For those in peril in the air,” for example. “Amazing Grace,” of course. Our choir could do this one without looking at the music, and in perfect harmony. And though it was not part of our regular “lead the congregation” Sunday service hymns, I’ll have to add Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” from _Messiah_. We did that often enough, and I loved singing it every time. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/90 "2016-01-23T08:18:10Z")
\*\*Lead Me to Calvary Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Just As I Am A Mighty Fortress \*\* I went to a Catholic Church about 5 years ago, and heard one that I quite liked, but am not sure of what the title is. “For Those Who Now Labor”? Can’t find that on Youtube, so, I don’t know. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/91 "2016-01-23T08:23:48Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > This one is a bit High Church, but it is very beautiful > > [Allegri - Miserere](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZL3POaATn8&index=172&list=FL9_aa1rww74sPEpQWgzO6iA) > > The note the boy treble hits is almost in bat country Great story about that piece: performance rights were restricted to the Vatican only and no-one was allowed to sell the sheet music anywhere else. Then Mozart, aged 14, attended a service, went away and wrote it down, with just one return visit to check that he’d got it all. When the Pope heard about it, he demanded a quiet word… essentially, “Son, if God has given you a talent like that then it’s not for any man, even me, to presume to object”. Allegri didn’t originally write those top Cs, but vain castrati competing to see who could add the best improvisations were soon stretching all the way up there, and they’ve stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/92 "2016-01-23T15:52:10Z")
For the Beauty of the Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/93 "2016-01-23T16:03:32Z")
[quote=“terentii, post:61, topic:743772”] Are you sure about this? I think this was a work by Haendel, not Beethoven. [/QUOTE] :smack: You are so right. I don’t know where my brain was when I wrote that. But I had been watching Die Hard, maybe that had something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/94 "2016-01-23T19:00:09Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > For the Beauty of the Earth. Our beloved pastor was reassigned a few years ago and this was the processional at his last Mass with us. I got emotional as soon as the song started and couldn’t sing much as I wanted to! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/95 "2016-01-23T21:58:52Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Cradle Episcopalian here. Too many favorite hymns to mention, but one that springs to mind at once is “Crown Him With Many Crowns.” > > http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh327.sht In the 1936 version of Little Lord Fauntleroy, with Freddie Bartholomew, the boy and his grandfather attend church one Sunday. The opening hymn is “Crown Him with Many Crowns”, and interesting choice I think. It’s more challenging than the usual run of hymns one hears in movies. It starts here, about 1:03:20 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgjgC6EGoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgjgC6EGoA) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/96 "2016-01-25T06:40:57Z")
Jesus Christ Is Risen Today Angels we have heard on high Guide me, oh Thou great Jehovah [God of Our Fathers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8V6VJLIC6M). I like the little fanfares that open and punctuate the hymn. I love the imagery in the first verse: “God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand/Leads forth in beauty all the starry band/Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies” [The Truth from Above](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUfcUreoZPw) (harmonized by Vaughan Williams). ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/97 "2016-01-25T19:55:59Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > [God of Our Fathers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8V6VJLIC6M). I like the little fanfares that open and punctuate the hymn. I love the imagery in the first verse: “God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand/Leads forth in beauty all the starry band/Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies” Reminds me of Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/98 "2016-01-25T20:09:25Z")
I looked through the songs given. I don’t see enough consensus to attempt a poll. How Great Thou Art had 5 mentions. Amazing Grace had seven. Otherwise its all over the board. There are a lot of great songs mentioned. I’ve been listening to them on youtube. Many were completely new to me. Different church denominations often use entirely different songs for their services. ---
**Author:** ![May\_20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@May\_20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/May_20)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/99 "2016-01-25T20:51:08Z")
Wow. So many of my favorites have already been named. I love hymns, love singing hymns. Here are three of my favorites that haven’t been named: **Our God, He is Alive** **In Christ Alone** **Flee As a Bird** ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772/100 "2016-01-26T04:04:59Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Somehow I can’t find it, but our current organist regularly plays something like “Moved By the Spirit, Let Us Move” or some such, which references praising God through art and dance, etc. When it gets to the part about mimes, I :rolleyes: and put the hymnal down. Found it – Moved By The Gospel, Let Us Move The Maker calls creation good, so let us now express with sound and color, stone and wood, the shape of holiness. Let weavers form from broken strands a tapestry of prayer. Let artists paint with skillful hands their joy in lament and care, Then mime the story: Christ has come. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-hymn/743772.md?page=6)