Announcing Expository Songs 5.0

Today’s launch of a new update to Expository Songs approximately triples its size and offers new ways to find exactly the songs you need.

What is an expository song?

In an expository song, the main idea of a passage of Scripture is the main idea of the song. Colossians 3:16 says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” A good expository song is a song in which the word of Christ dwells richly.

Expository songs are at the heart of this project, but it also includes other references and word-for-word Scripture memory songs.

About this update

Expository Songs launched in 2011 as a Southern Gospel-focused project.

From about 2015-2017, I worked on expanding this project to cover hymns and major CCM artists. Version 2 launched on April 11, 2017, with 10,780 song entries.

Version 3 (July 31, 2018) expanded to 11,436 song entries. It had a particular focus on finding more media links (lyrics, sheet music, YouTube, and Amazon links) for as many songs as possible.

Version 4 launched later that year, adding more artists to expand to 15,609 song entries. These came from about 400 recording artists and the great tradition of hymns.

This version has 44,642 song entries, representing 1,274 artists and the great tradition of hymns. Of these entries, 16,090 are expository songs; 21,586 are other references; and 6,966 are Scripture memory songs.

The genre breakdown is also fairly interesting:

  • Americana: 63
  • Bluegrass: 96
  • Catholic: 1,559
  • CCM: 8,369
  • Children’s: 1,602
  • Choral: 429
  • Christian Country: 47
  • Christian Rock: 733
  • Classical: 288
  • Contemporary Gospel: 193
  • Country: 23
  • Hymns: 9,327
  • Liturgical: 84
  • Messianic: 561
  • Modern Hymns: 1,822
  • Musical: 84
  • Orthodox: 111
  • Other: 3295
  • Praise and Worship: 5,382
  • Retuned Hymns: 706
  • Scripture Songs: 6,031
  • Southern Gospel: 3,379
  • Traditional Gospel: 457

I reviewed (listened to or read lyrics for) over 120,000 songs for this update.

How to use this project

This project is made available as a free resource. There are three ways to access these song entries. All are available at the Expository Songs main page:

  1. Song entries are available in a page-by-page listing, much like previous versions.
  2. The main page now has a simple, searchable database.
  3. The most powerful option is the new advanced search.

The advanced search allows you to narrow your searches to find exactly the songs you want. For example, you can find:

  • Isaac Watts hymns from John
  • CCM songs from Psalm 51
  • Scripture Songs from Isaiah (using Main Idea/Quote)
  • Expository Songs that are hymns from Exodus (using Main Idea/Yes and Genre/Hymns)

I welcome feedback and ideas. If there is an artist or a song you think might fit this collection, or if you find a broken link, let me know!

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