If you had to come up with a list of "guidelines" to select songs for a new church songbook, what "guidelines" would you choose? What "minimum standards" would a particular song have to meet to be considered for inclusion in a new songbook? Hopefully, your list of "standards" would end up looking something like the list established by our "Joint Songbook Committee." Synods of the Canadian Reformed Churches and of the United Reformed Churches have approved these standards. They function as the criteria by which we are choosing songs to sing together.

As a "Joint Songbook Committee" we decided in our early meetings that we should first establish some broad criteria to govern our song selection. And then to develop these into more specific guidelines. Realizing that others before us have given this careful thought, we borrowed from certain princi­ples of church music set forth by a study committee of the Christian Reformed Church in 1953. In the 1959 edition of the Psalter Hymnal, these principles are printed on page v. In this article, we list the three broad "principles" proposed by our committee and already approved by our synods.

The first principle is worded very simply:

The Songs of the Church are to be Scriptural⤒🔗

In content, form, and spirit the Church's songs must express the truth of the Holy Scriptures. Augustine, referring to the singing of psalms, said, 'No one can sing anything worthy of God which he has not received from him ... Then we are assured that God puts the words in our mouth.'

Our songs, and all of our singing, must be as Scriptural as possible. Every Christian should agree that, above all, the music of the Church must be Scriptural. This is our first and foundational principle. With singing the biblical psalms or other portions of quoted Scripture, usually this is not a prob­lem. We say "usually" because sometimes certain Bible verses may not be quoted accurately in a song. Or the words of a song based on a Bible text might be taken out of its context and used wrongly. We will elaborate on this in our article about the first of our guidelines which says, among other things: "The songs of the Church must be thoroughly Biblical."

The second principle likewise is very foundational:

The Songs of the Church are to be a Sacrifice of Praise←⤒🔗

Singing is an important element of the congregation's response to God's redeeming work in Christ Jesus and the Word proclaimed in the worship services. As John Calvin said, 'Singing has great strength and power to move and to set on fire the hearts of men that they may call upon God and praise him with a more ardent zeal. This singing should not be light or frivolous, but it ought to have weight and majesty.'

The singing of the congregation within the worship service is part of the "dialogue" God initiates with His people. God speaks first – His people respond to Him. So, in the worship service, God (speaking through the minister) gives the "call to worship" as well as the opening "greeting" to His people. His people (often through the minister) respond with a "declaration of dependence" (the votum) and/or with an opening song of praise and adoration. This back-and-forth dialogue forms the framework for the entire worship service.

Singing is one of the primary ways in worship in which the people of God express their part of the worship "dialogue." Whether a song is mostly in the form of a prayer, or whether it is mostly praise or dedication, the congregation is speaking to God in their singing. So, as our second principle notes, songs are to be chosen which "fit" into this response from God's people. It is part of the "sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name" (Hebrews 13:15).

In this principle we also call attention to the important Christological focus in our singing. We praise God in and through Christ Jesus. Songs which minimize the person and work of Christ are evaluated much more critically and careful­ly than are songs which directly refer to Him. We don't want to say that each song must include Christ's name specifically, because most of the Psalms do not mention Christ's name. But surely, in our understanding of the redemptive-historical work of God in Christ, we should find some reference to our Saviour or to God's redemptive work. We gather in worship and we sing in our worship as the redeemed Church, the Bride of Christ.

Then, finally, the third foundational principle says:

The Songs of the Church are to be Aesthetically Pleasing←⤒🔗

The songs for worship are to be a beautiful blend of God-pleasing poetry and music. The Bible highlights aesthetic beauty as an important aspect of God's creation. Beauty is found in God's very being. We should not make some kind of "sacred-secular" division which limits "aesthetics" (the study of "beauty") only to "secular" things. Yes, we enjoy beautiful landscapes and we delight in beautiful buildings. But in matters of Christian faith and life, we also take joy in beauty. The design that God gave for the Old Testament tabernacle and the later Temple conformed to certain principles of beauty, including proportion, sym­metry, colour, textures, etc. Our songs, likewise, must be beautiful. The words, the poetry, must conform to principles of beauty. The music, likewise, must be beautiful.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," we sometimes say. What one person might find beautiful another person might think is a bit ugly. To some degree, perhaps to a greater degree than in the first two principles, an element of subjectivism is found here. For example, though the words of the hymn "He Leadeth Me" contain some good thoughts, the music is overly repetitive, going round and round and round. The words, likewise, are overly repetitive. This song is not an example of musical "beauty."

Like learning to appreciate good art or architecture or food, one's sense of "beauty" in music can be developed. Our committee does not want to recom­mend overly difficult music, but there will be some song selections in our future songbook that might "stretch" us a bit, at least in our first singing of some songs. But after singing an unfamiliar song twice or three times, its "beauty" will become more appreciated. It might even become one of our "favourites."

These are the three "foundational prin­ciples" which serve as general standards in selecting songs for a new songbook. In future articles, we hope to explain the more detailed guidelines we are using in our committee work.