Today I crave the old hymns. Not because they have changed, but because I have changed. I love the "meat" in the old songs. There is a depth there, that I don't find much in todays lyrics.
When you read the lyrics of songs written 100 years ago, or read the works of Spurgeon or Whitefield or Edwards, you realize that people back then were much, MUCH deeper thinkers, than we are today.
Today, it seems, many of our songs have a verse or 2 that is repeated ad nauseam. Seemingly the more repeated, the more deeper or more emotional.
You might like God Be Merciful to Me, Hallelujah For The Cross, and a surprising number of DC Talk songs.
But yes, I do agree with you that a lot the old hymns have a great deal of theology packed into them — and I, too, find myself wishing for that depth-of-thought compared to many contemporary songs (especially the Jesus is my Boyfriend
-style, as someone upthread termed it).
Even in the early days of my walk (in my twenties) I preferred the hymns of Isaac Watts, Wesley, and the like. But then I was raised on classical music.