What do I get out of hymns?

Hymns don't exactly bore me, but I can't say my mind is completely engaged while singing them. I don't like singing the same thing over and over, so I tend to switch between the soprano, alto, and tenor part of any given hymn. That means I'm paying more attention to the notes I'm singing than to the words. Today during the Sacrament I realized that I had been so busy singing the music, that they hymn had in no way prepared me for the ordinance. I reread "Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King", trying to focus on the words as a poem. This line stuck out to me:

Guide us were'er we go, Till in the end,
Life ever more we'll know Through thee, our Friend.

It didn't give me any new insights into the Gospel, but it was a potent reminder that everlasting life is achieved through Christ, who is my friend, a good enough friend to sacrifice his life for me.

This is what I need to be doing every Sunday, looking for a line from one of the hymns, particularly the Sacrament hymn that touches or uplifts me. Hymns are poems of devotion, and I want to start experiencing them as such.