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An Easter Sunday Playlist
March 27, 2024How will your church be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday? In these very troubled times, it is our privilege and our joy to proclaim the victory of Jesus in all the energy he gives us by his Holy Spirit. The challenge, as always, is to be fresh, to blend the classic hymns with some less well-known but equally powerful contemporary songs and hymns.
Here is another playlist of suggestions from our catalogue.
A gathering hymn
Do you sing as the congregation is gathering? For some churches that does take a while, so here is a contemporary hymn to sing as a preparation for the big opening of your Easter morning service.
Can God be with the brothers is a Christopher Idle hymn that spans the gap between the death and resurrection of Jesus. It asks whether God is still with his people after the death of Christ? Is he with the brothers who take his body down, or the sisters who prepare their spices? Is he with the disciples as they rest? Or with the doubters who run to the tomb. Set to a familiar tune, it prepares the way for the big opening.
The Easter classics
Easter morning would miss something without at least two of the following:
Christ is risen! Hallelujah! This is a hymn that should be thundered out by any congregation.
Christ the Lord is risen today Famous for its twenty ‘Hallelujahs!’, this is a Wesley classic, and the immortal line ‘Vain the stone, the watch, the seal’ always brings a tear to my eye.
Glory to Jesus! Risen conquering Son Translated from French, this great hymn has had many opening lines, the original English being ‘Thine is the glory’. We settled on putting the word ‘glory’ first because of the opening emphasis in the magnificent GF Handel tune.
I know that my Redeemer lives Samuel Medley’s exultant meditation on the words ‘He lives.’ A full range of instrumental arrangements and an MP3 recording are available for this item.
Low in the grave he lay Probably no other classic hymn quite evokes the sense of Christ being raised from the grave. A traditional Easter favourite.
Contemporary songs
See what a morning celebrates its 21st birthday this year, and for many will be the rousing song to begin, ‘for he lives, Christ is risen from the dead.’
In Christ alone though a song for all seasons, comes into its own on Easter morning ‘as he stands in victory’.
You’re the word of God the Father Like many contemporary songs, this bridges both the cross and the resurrection, but verse 3’s ‘With a shout you rose victorious’ makes this very much an Easter song.
Hallelujah! The King is risen deserves to be better known. Written in a contemporary, upbeat style, it has some very striking phrases such as ‘no death-dark prison holds him.’
At your feet we fall This Dave Fellingham song, with a chorus modernized from the original, expresses John’s sense of wonder as the risen Lord Jesus appeared to him on the island of Patmos in Revelation 1.
Less well known
Have you discovered these three in our collection? Perhaps they deserve more attention.
If Christ had not been raised from death takes the words of 1 Cor. 15:12-20 and sets them to the tune Vox Dilecti which switches from minor to major as the words move from doubt to certainty in the middle of each verse. A full range of instrumental arrangements and an MP3 recording are available for this item.
How can it be? The one who died is a Keith and Kristyn Getty song that may not be as well known as some of their collection, most often being listed by the final line of the chorus, ‘Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.’
Jesus, Prince and Saviour Timothy Dudley-Smith’s resurrection hymn captures the transition from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, set to a choice of exultant traditional tunes.
See the theme section ‘The Son – His resurrection’ on our website to see our full collection of Easter hymns and songs.
We have also published a separate Spotify Easter Sunday playlist of of items available on Spotify which are published in our collection, for you to listen to on your phone.
May the new life of the risen Lord Jesus be your comfort and strength this Easter.
Yours
Jim Sayers
Chairman, Praise Trust
