Make no mistake, Southern Gospel songs focus on many of the highest themes known to mankind—songs of Salvation, the Cross, the Resurrection, and eternity. Yet from time to time, critics have claimed that Southern Gospel songs focus on these themes to the exclusion of other Biblical themes which are appropriate and perhaps necessary to address in song.
Today, let’s examine that. Let’s start with the first book of the Bible, Genesis. For how many chapters in Genesis can we find Southern Gospel songs addressing their themes?
Here’s a start (edit: with some of your suggestions):
- Genesis 1: “God Did it All” (Booth Brothers)
- Genesis 1: “Biblically Correct” (Kingdom Heirs)
- Genesis 1: “God Made It” (Kingdom Heirs)
- Genesis 1: “Nobody Knows the Answer But God” (Kingdom Heirs)
- Genesis 1: “If God Said It, I Believe It” (Mark Trammell Trio)
- Genesis 1: “In the Beginning” (Statler Brothers)
- Genesis 1: “It’s All Good” (McKameys)
- Genesis 1:2: “One Step at a Time” (McKameys)
- Genesis 1:3-30: “When It’s Said, It’s Done” (McKameys)
- Genesis 1:26: “In the Beginning” (Statesmen)
- Genesis 1:27: “Created in His Image” (Bill Gaither Trio, Blackwood Brothers)
- Genesis 1:27: “Biblically Correct” (Kingdom Heirs)
- Genesis 2-3: “Eve” (Statler Brothers)
- Genesis 2:3: “In the Beginning” (Statesmen)
- Genesis 2:15: “He Gave” (McKameys)
- Genesis 3: “For God So Loved” (Brian Free & Assurance)
- Genesis 3: “God Saw a Cross” (Kingsmen)
- Genesis 3: “Death Has Died” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 3:8,19: “In the Cool of the Day” (McKameys)
- Genesis 4: “It’s the Blood” (Mark Trammell Trio)
- Genesis 4:9: “My Brother’s Keeper” (Statesmen)
- Genesis 5: “However I Go” (Mark Trammell Trio)
- Genesis 5: “Gone Without a Trace” (to be announced)
- Genesis 5:22-24: “However I Go” (Mark Trammell Trio)
- Genesis 5:24: Go Home With Me (McKameys)
- Genesis 5:25: When They Send Down the Chariot (Inspirations)
- Genesis 6: “All in God’s Own Time” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 6: “Didn’t it Rain” (Speer Family, Dove Brothers)
- Genesis 6: “Ol’ Brother Noah” (Dixie Echoes)
- Genesis 6: “It Wasn’t Raining when Noah Built the Ark” (Hemphills)
- Genesis 6: “Noah” (Hinsons)
- Genesis 6: “Noah” (Jordanaires)
- Genesis 6: “You’d Better Have a Boat” (Tribute Quartet)
- Genesis 6:8″: “Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord”
- Genesis 6: “Get On Board” (Isaacs)
- Genesis 6:13-22: “What Noah Knew” (Collingsworth Family)
- Genesis 8:6-12: “The Dove” (The Hoppers)
- Genesis 8:6-12: Wings of a Dove (Blackwood Brothers, Blue Ridge Quartet, Cathedral Trio, Cathedral Quartet, Dixie Echoes, Dove Brothers, Florida Boys, Harvesters, LeFevres, Spencers, Wally Fowler & the Oak Ridge Quartet)
- Genesis 8:6-12: “Open Up the Window Noah” (Bishops)
- Genesis 8:22: “Thank God For The Promise of Spring” (Bill Gaither Trio)
- Genesis 9:12-17: “God Put a Rainbow in the Clouds” (Statesmen)
- Genesis 12-22: “Have a Little Faith” (Abraham)
- Genesis 14: “Prophet, Priest, and King” (to be announced)
- Genesis 22:2-13: “The Blood of the Lamb” (McKameys)
- Genesis 22:8: “God Himself the Lamb” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 22: “God Has Provided a Lamb” (Greater Vision)
- Genesis 22: “God Will Provide” (Gold City)
- Genesis 22: “The Father and the Son” (Freemans)
- Genesis 22: “Abraham’s Ram” (Down East Boys)
- Genesis 22: “God’s Chosen” (Squire Parsons)
- Genesis 22: “Taking Isaac Up The Mountain” (Roy Knight Singers)
- Genesis 22: “If This is What God Wants” (Ernie Haase & Signature Sound)
- Genesis 22: “Called In, Called Up, Called Out” (Mark Trammell Trio)
- Genesis 22: “Prophet’s Admiration” (Bishops)
- Genesis 22:17: “All in the Family” (Todd Allen Family)
- Genesis 28:10-22: “Back to Bethel” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 28:11: “I’m Going Through, Jesus” (McKameys)
- Genesis 28:12: “We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” (Chuck Wagon Gang, Kingdom Heirs, Thrasher Brothers, Ann Downing)
- Genesis 28:12: “Jacob’s Vision” (Wendy Bagwell & the Sunliters)
- Genesis 31:13: “Let Us Go Back” (McKameys)
- Genesis 31:13: “Back to Bethel” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 32:22-30: “Rasslin’ Jacob” (Gaither Vocal Band)
- Genesis 32:22-30: “Wait For the Morning Light” (McKameys)
- Genesis 32:24-32: “Jesus Showed Up” (Kingdom Heirs)
- Genesis 35: “Back to Bethel” (Cathedrals)
- Genesis 37: “Dream On” (Ernie Haase & Signature Sound)
- Genesis 37: “God’s Point of View” (McKameys)
- Genesis 37-42: “The Dreamer” (Statler Brothers)
What others come to mind? What about the curse (ch. 3), Cain and Abel (4), the tower of Babel (11), Abraham’s call (12), Melchizedek (14), the Abrahamic covenant (15), Isaac (21), Jacob wrestling with God (32), Joseph (37, 39-45), Jacob’s and Joseph’s final blessings, deaths, and deathbed prophecies (48-50)?
Update: We came out of today’s discussion with twenty-five songs. Not bad! And is it a good thing or a bad thing that our list would be fourteen were it not for the contributions of one writer, Dianne Wilkinson?
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