sure it rocks, but will it last (part 2)

Continuing from my last post, there was a question raised about whether or not guys like Isaac Watts intentionally wrote songs to stand the test of time and whether we really should be shooting for such timelessness. Here are some thoughts:

• Ultimately our sovereign God chooses what will last, but at the same time there are surely certain qualities that songs which have stood the test of time for hundreds of years have in common in terms of substance. Sure it helps that Charles Wesley and his brother were dominant forces in the starting of the Methodist movement, and sure Isaac Watts is recognized as the first prolific writer of his time to step away from the traditionalism of only singing translated Psalms and start actually writing new material for the Church to sing in English (he was doing something "new/controversial" and doing an incredible job), but their historical ties aside, there is so much in terms of solid content in their songs that has surely contributed their still being used in such wide circulation today.

• Think about the last 20 years. There have been a lot of new songs published for use in corporate worship in the last two decades. Many are still in regular use, but I would reckon that a great deal more have fallen into obscurity. Couple that with some of the more substantial lyrics that guys like Matt Redman and Tim Hughes are starting to write, and I think we may be seeing a great [old] "trend" within songwriting for the Church that may be helping to produce songs that will certainly be worth singing 20 years from now or however long the Lord tarries.

All that to say, Watts probably didn't purposefully set out to write songs that we would sing centuries later, but he did write with such depth of praise that gives his songs a timeless quality that I think is worth striving for on some level. If we're going to write something new, it should be at least as good as everything else we have to choose from. Right? If our new songs are less fitting to the praise of the God than other songs we have to choose from, then the choice should be obvious. Right?