The Sing Hymnal – Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, John Martin, Dan Kreider and Douglas Sean O’Donnell. Crossway. 912 pages. 2025
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Aren’t hymnals a thing of the past? In our church, although we still have hymnals under the chairs, for several years now, the lyrics to the hymns we sing are projected on a screen. I wonder if that is the norm for churches these days. After all, how many people can actually read music? (I can’t).
Keith and Kristyn Getty would disagree that hymnals are a thing of the past. They recently released The Sing! Hymnal at their 2025 Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference. Here are a few of the highlights of the project, published by Crossway:
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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING….
- Timeless: 498 classic and contemporary hymns are carefully curated and beautifully presented in a treasured resource you can carry with you through life.
- Enhance Worship: Featuring 403 liturgical readings, psalms paired with popular hymns, and stories about each hymn, this resource is perfect for church services and group gatherings, as well as private and family worship.
- Contributions by Keith and Kristyn Getty: Award-winning hymn writers of popular songs including “In Christ Alone” and “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” and the Sing! Hymn Writing Team.
- Voices from Church History: Liturgical readings include quotations from classical and contemporary writers and theologians, including Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham, J. I. Packer, John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dane Ortlund, and H. B. Charles Jr.
- Part of the Sing! Hymnal Suite of Resources: Includes a lay-flat edition with chords, designed for easier page turning and reading, along with a website for purchasing and downloading hymn sheet music
The hymns are arranged into three main sections. “The Worship Service” section follows the arc of the gospel in a worship service. “The Christian Life” section equips believers for faithful living and includes hymns for children. “The Life of Christ” section provides hymns for special services throughout the year.
A podcast I listen to each weekday is Things Unseen with Sinclair Ferguson. One of his episodes was titled “Do You Have a Hymnbook?” I would encourage you to listen to the entire episode.
Ferguson tells us that next to a good Bible translation, a concordance, and a decent one-volume commentary, a hymn book is perhaps the most important book you could own. He goes on to state that if your church uses a screen, as mine does, you should buy a hymn book, and he then gives us reasons for why he says that. He tells us that we owe it to our Christian growth to own a hymnal.
My wife Tammy and I are using The Sing! Hymnal as a part of our daily devotional time, we would encourage you to get a copy of the hymnal as well.
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The author of this book is a seminary professor and pastor. The book serves as a companion to the Ligonier teaching series, which I benefitted from, and is intended for the person in the pew who wants to understand more about the covenants of Scripture. The book is a primer, or introduction, to classic Reformed covenant theology that emerged from the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.
The author tells us that God’s Word traces the covenant line throughout the Scriptures, wherein He slowly unveils His plan to redeem His people. He defines a covenant as an agreement between two or more persons.
In this book, the author looks at the following covenants:
- The covenant of redemption: the eternal intra-Trinitarian covenant among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- The covenant of works: the covenant that God made with Adam when He created him and placed him in the garden of Eden.
- The covenant of grace: the means by which God saves His people through the work of the Son and Spirit.
In addition, the author looks at covenant signs and covenant and the church.
The book includes questions for review at the end of each chapter, which will help you if you are reading and discussing the book with others. An appendix includes recommended old books on the doctrine of the covenants divided between intermediate and advanced. In addition, there is also a helpful glossary included.
I found this book to be a helpful introduction to covenant theology.
Here are a few helpful quotes from each major section of the book:
The Covenant of Redemption
- The covenant of redemption is the eternal agreement among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to create and save a people.
- The covenant of redemption is a biblically sound and necessary doctrine because it serves as the eternal foundation of the triune God’s activity in redemptive history.
- The covenant of redemption is the unassailable foundation of the covenant of grace.
The Covenant of Works
- The covenant of works is the first covenant that God made with Adam, wherein He promised Adam and his offspring eternal life upon the condition of perfect and personal obedience to His commands.
- The signs of the covenant of works are the two trees: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.
- The trees were sacred signs, or sacraments, of God’s word—the promise of life and the threat of death.
The Covenant of Grace
- The covenant of grace stands in stark contrast to the covenant of works. God gave to Adam the possibility of eternal life on the basis of his obedience. In the covenant of grace, He gives the gift of eternal life by faith in the work of Christ.
- Old Testament saints looked forward to the advent of Christ, and New Testament saints look back to Christ. But both look to Christ for salvation, and both are participants in the one covenant of grace.
- God slowly unfolds His covenant promise in subsequent covenants throughout redemptive history: in the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and new covenants.
- Ever since Adam and Eve fell, salvation has always and only been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Only Christ fulfills the requirements and penalties of the law.
- The obedience and suffering of Jesus are the sole foundation of salvation in the covenant of grace.
Covenant Signs
- The first two signs that God gave to Adam, even before the fall, were the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.
- The Tree of Knowledge was a visible manifestation of His law. The Tree of Life was a visible sign connected to God’s promise of eternal life,
- When God made His covenant with Noah, He designated the rainbow as its sign.
- When God made His covenant with Abraham, He gave him the sign of circumcision
- When God made His covenant with Israel, He gave the sign of the Sabbath.
- Christ instituted two new sacraments to serve as signs of the new covenant: the Lord’s Supper and baptism.
- When God makes covenants with His people, He gives accompanying signs. What His words are to our ears, His signs are to our other senses.
- All of God’s covenant signs of the Old Testament point forward to Christ, and the signs of the New Testament point backward to Christ.
Covenant and the Church
- We should read our Bibles not as lone individuals but as part of a covenant community.
- By swearing a membership vow, we enter into covenant membership of the church and give our consent to be held accountable for our beliefs and actions.
- Church discipline is an aspect of covenant life that each and every person in the church needs. We live in a covenant community and look to one another for accountability.
- The Story Behind Desiring God: John Piper. On this episode of the Crossway podcast, John Piper reflects on nearly 40 years of Desiring Godand the enduring message of Christian Hedonism. Piper discusses the pursuit of happiness in God, how it relates to the glory of God, and how Christian Hedonism can exist in a world of suffering, deceitful desires, and monotone worship.
- 12 Truths Every Teen Can Trust. Tim Challies reviews Paul Tripp’s new book 12 Truths Every Teen Can Trust: Core Beliefs of the Christian Faith That Will Change Your Life. He writes “If you’re a teen, this is an ideal book for you to read, and if you’re not, this is an ideal book to hand to someone who is.”
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
Tim Keller on the Christian Life:
The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
Synthesizing Keller’s work topic by topic, each chapter of this book highlights a key aspect of the Christian life—covering his views on prayer, suffering, friendship, vocation, intimacy with God, and more. Written by pastor Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life draws from Keller’s nearly 50 years of sermons, conference messages, and books to share practical theological insight that will galvanize leaders and laypeople alike.
As we read through this book, we begin by looking at the “Introduction”. Here are a few helpful quotes from this section:
- This book is not a biography. The aim is more modest: to synthesize and distill Tim Keller’s best teaching on the Christian life.
- This book focuses on practical Christian discipleship—rather than, say, Keller’s thoughts on more controversial theological or political matters.
- The target here is Keller’s contribution to timeless, bread-and-butter aspects of everyday Christian living.
- My aim in this volume is to synthesize the master synthesizer. Drawing from nearly fifty years of sermons, conference messages, interviews, articles, books, and more, I attempt to draw out the best of Keller’s teaching where it shines brightest—biblical wisdom for everyday life.
