Here are two new Christmas songs written in the last week. Both are fairly simple musically. But the lyrics are great!
The first is a version of Martin Luther’s “All Praise to Thee Eternal Lord”, with a chorus added.
The second is a hymn by Edward Caswall -
This is a great description of what happens in worship -
Gospel wakefulness means treasuring Christ more greatly and savoring his power more sweetly. Treasuring Christ more greatly and savoring his power more sweetly is simply the the long way of writing worship.
Worship is the ascribing of the worth to something or someone. In this case, of course, the recipient of this worship is God, the only one worthy of our worship. What happens in gospel wakefulness is that in our brokenness, our sense of self-worth and sufficiency in things other than God gets destroyed, and as the good news of Christ’s finished work is applied to us, our affections become reformed, renewed, and revitalized.
Jared Wilson in Gospel Wakefulness, p 77.
HT: Reformissionary
Words by Horatius Bonar, 1844; Music by Matt Foreman, ©2008
The first verse of this hymn might sound a little depressing, but even secular writers recognize the wisdom in beginning with the end in mind. Christians are to look for “the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And such a heavenly perspective actually shapes our daily lives in the present – to live lives of holiness and purposefulness, prepared for that day.
This hymn by Horatius Bonar seeks to shape our minds and hearts with such a perspective. My favorite line has to be the third – ‘A few more Sabbaths here shall cheer us on our way, and we shall reach the endless rest, the eternal Sabbath day.’
Downloads forthcoming…
Here are some helpful quotes from Stuart Townend, recorded by Mike Gilbart-Smith…
“We need both the objective and subjective in singing: objective reflection on the character and work of God and subjective emotional response to those truths”
“More people learn their theology through songs than through sermons. People are more likely you leave church humming a song than reciting the sermon! Therefore it is vitally important that our songs teach good theology.”
“Look at 3 months worth of your songs sung in church: are you choosing songs that reflect the breadth of the character of God”
“Songs must put the reality of the different experiences of life in the perspective of the reality of the character and promises of God.”
“Faith is not routed in dislocated ideas, but in history. We have a story to tell, and so there must be songs that don’t merely proclaim truths or evoke emotions: we need songs that tell the story.”
Story telling songs are great in evangelistic circumstances: non-Christians can truthfully sing “From the squalor of a borrowed stable” but cannot sing “I love you Lord” without lying.
“We want to undermine the idea, “I couldn’t come to church today because I was in a mess, and I need to clean myself up before I can enter God’s presence”. No! We come to him to be cleaned up.”
“True worshippers of God habitually give thanks to God. Idolators are those who “neither glorify him as God or give thanks to him.” (rom 1:21)
“Worship is on God’s terms and not ours”
“Those who lead worship are called to please God and serve the people, not just serve God and please the people.”
“The danger is that we so rely upon the means of revelation (songs, scriptures etc) that we do not look to the Spirit of revelation to use those means that he would reveal the Father and the Son. We must be prayerful.”
“Matt Redman, prefers the term ‘Lead worshipper’ rather than ‘worship leader’. The Holy Spirit is the ‘worship leader’.”
“It is important to realise that ‘worship leading’ is delegated responsibility from church leadership. There is a need for the elders to have knowledge and responsibility for what goes on in the Sunday service, so that if the worship leader gets a phonecall over Sunday lunch saying “why did we sing that song?” the worship leader can say, “the pastor said it was fine, so you need to speak to him.”
“Really important to work with the musicians you have rather than try to ‘create a sound’ that you may not have the musicians to create. “
Part 5 of the article – “Theology and Practicum for Worship Music”
1. Edification – The primary function of music in worship is to edify and help the congregation in worship, particularly by focusing thoughts on God’s Word and drawing out the heart in response to His Word. The key question then for all music is: is it edifying and helpful? “All things are lawful; not all things are helpful.” All the other values for music in worship flow out of this one. What songs to choose, both textually and musically, is an edification question. How they are arranged is an edification question. How they are to be played is an edification question. Who is best to play and lead them is an edification question. (If we can assume the theological questions of what songs to sing and spiritual qualifications of leaders and musicians, the following values applicable to worship leading flow out of this first one…) Continue reading
Part 3 of the article – “Theology and Practicum for Worship Music”
Music Is Controversial Because Worship Is Hard
Despite the wonderful power of music (or perhaps because of it), music in worship has often proved controversial. Proverbial wars have been fought in church history over music. Music is controversial because it is powerful and important. When music goes wrong, something vital, something enhancing is lost for worship.
It might be better expressed: music is controversial because worship is hard. Think about it. What does it mean for finite creatures to worship an infinite God? What does it mean for sinful creatures to worship a holy God? Worship is attempting to comprehend the ineffable.
Think of some of the tensions that are involved when we are worshipping – Continue reading
Part 2 of the article – “Theology and Practicum for Worship Music“.
Why do we do music in worship at all? What is the purpose of music? What does music help us do?
Music is really a form and means of communication. It has a mysterious ability to communicate to the heart – to inspire, to stir the emotions, to resonate with our understanding. You could say, Music is the language of the heart. Like speech, music has pitch, timbre, rhythm. When used alongside words, music has the ability to enhance meaning.
Poetry also communicates vividness and memorability – making words more powerful, driving them into our heads and hearts so they become precious to us and motivate us to praise and obedience. You see poetry being used even from the first moments of Creation – Gen.1:27 and 2:23 are both in a poetic form.
Put together, music and poetry are used throughout the Bible for these very purposes. In Deuteronomy 31:19,21-22, God told Moses, “Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths… And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring)… So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.”
Music and poetry were often used in the Bible at moments of great importance. And similarly, almost every period of religious revival in history has been accompanied by new outpourings of music.
In fact, God himself is musical. God himself is said to sing for his people – Zeph.3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Consider all the different ways music can help us: It can help us: obey God’s Word (Ps.47:6 – it is commanded), learn and remember God’s Word (Col.3:16-17), respond to God’s grace and to the Spirit (Ps.108:1, Eph.5:18-20, 1 Cor.14:24-26), combine biblical doctrine and strong devotion (Ps.33:1-8), express unity in Christ (Rom.15:5-7 – with one voice), reflect the songs of heaven (Rev.5:8-14).
Tullian Tchividjian has been doing a series on worship. Here’s another helpful quote -
We, too, ought to experience God with the totality of our being in worship. Worship services ought to inform the mind intellectually, engage the heart emotionally, and bend the will volitionally. God wants thoughtful worshippers who believe, emotional worshippers who behold, and obedient worshippers who behave. God-centered worship produces people who think deeply about God, feel passionately for God, and live urgently in response to God. Therefore, when we meet God in worship, we should expect a combination of gravity and gladness, depth and delight, doctrine and devotion, precept and passion, truth and love…
If our worship is genuinely gospel-fueled, than we, like Isaiah, will go through a range of expressions when we’re together. The experience of the worshipper should be multifaceted because God’s story—the gospel—is multifaceted. Our worship should have many parts because the gospel has many parts, and is neither one-dimensional nor stagnant.
The cradle, the cross, and the crown of God’s Rescuer are to be rehearsed and in some way felt. For instance, the gospel takes us from a sense of gratitude when pondering the incarnation, to a sense of grief when pondering the crucifixion, and to a sense of glory when pondering the resurrection.
God’s story takes us low and brings us high and gospel-fueled worship services should in some way reflect those ups and downs in their style and substance, context and content. With our Hero, we should experience something of the darkness of the garden of Gethsemane and the daylight of the garden tomb. We cannot ponder the cross without feeling our sin. And we cannot ponder the empty tomb without feeling our salvation.
Our worship should include moments of praise, lament, and thanksgiving—or, in the words of Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, “orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.” It should involve a sense of guilt and gratitude, desperation and deliverance, somber contemplation and joyous celebration. It should contain silence and singing, confession and cleansing, commendation of God and conviction from God.
HT: TT
For years, our church has been singing Chris Minor’s version of “O Love that Will Not Let Me Go”. (BTW, I think Chris Minor is among the best of the new hymn writing movement. I can almost guarantee that any song of his will be singable and approachable by the congregation.)
Well, there is actually an important story behind the lyrics by George Matheson…
At age 20 George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancee, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.
A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.
The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.
In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.
I would want to be careful with the implications here, but I found this quote from Tullian Tchividjian compelling…
Because Scripture is the all-sufficient Word of God, I believe with Calvin that everything we do in worship must be prescribed in the Bible. But the application of the regulative principle does not need to be narrow, as is often assumed. Because the Bible instructs us with its methods as much as it does its material, our scope regarding what God commands in worship is deep and wide. For instance, recognizing the various literary genres of Scripture—history, story, poetry, prophecy, epistle, and so on—should demonstrate that stylistic diversity is something God himself employs and enjoys. Therefore, shouldn’t stylistic diversity be something we celebrate in worship? In other words, God is telling us something about how to worship him by the way he communicates, not just what he communicates—both style and substance are prescriptive. Understood this way, the regulative principle allows for much more variety in worship than some have concluded.
HT: VitaminZ