Thy strong Word did cleave the darkness; At Thy speaking it was done, For created light we thank thee, While Thine ordered seasons run.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise to thee who light dost send! Alleluia without end!
Lo, on those who dwelt in darkness, Dark as night and deep as death, Broke the light of Thy salvation, Breathed Thine own life-giving breath.
Thy strong Word bespeaks us righteous; Bright with Thine own holiness, Glorious now, we press toward glory, And our lives our hopes confess.
From the cross Thy wisdom shining Breaketh forth in conqu'ring might; From the cross forever beameth All Thy bright redeeming light.
Give us lips to sing Thy glory, Tongues Thy mercy to proclaim, Throats to shout the hope that fills us, Mouths to speak Thy holy name.
Alleluia! Alleluia! May the light which Thou dost send, Fill our songs with alleluias, Alleluias without end!
God the Father, Light-Creator, To Thee laud and honor be. To Thee, Light from Light begotten, Praise be sung eternally. Holy Spirit, Light-Revealer, Glory, glory be to Thee. Mortals, angels, now and ever Praise the Holy Trinity!
Yet again, songs like this practically speak for themselves. This particular songs, in my opinion, meets all five categories with sheer excellence. The theology is amazing, it is unifying in it's pronouns, it is victorious, proclaims the triune God as Lord over all, and musically it is gorgeously reverent without manipulative melodies. I give this song a perfect 5/5!
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I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day the moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey
I sing the goodness of the Lord, that filled the earth with food He formed the creatures with His Word, and then pronounced them good Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where e'er I turn my eye, If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky!
There's not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known And clouds arise, and tempests blow by order from Thy throne While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care, And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God, art present there!
After doing our last review on another Isaac Watts hymn, I decided to look a little bit more into his works and found this lovely piece. It's very unique in my opinion, while still being reverent and well written.
The obvious problem with this song however is it's lack of group pronouns, though the argument could be made with this (or any song) that simply replacing personal pronouns with groups pronouns would solve the problem:
It may be our lowest rated song yet simply because of the low score on Group Pronouns, but it still passes and I approve nonetheless!
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Praise the one who breaks the darkness
with a liberating light.
Praise the one who frees the prisoners,
turning blindness into sight.
Praise the one who preached the Gospel,
healing every dread disease,
calming storms and feeding thousands
with the very bread of peace.
Praise the one who blessed the children
with a strong yet gentle word.
Praise the one who drove out demons
with a piercing two-edged sword.
Praise the one who brings cool water
to the desert's burning sand.
From this well comes living water,
quenching thirst in every land.
Let us praise the Word incarnate:
Christ who suffered in our place.
Jesus died and rose victorious
that we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness,
seeing what our God has done.
Let us praise the true Redeemer,
praise the One who makes us one. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Seriously, this song made my tear up a little when I first heard it in a Lutheran service. I confess that I was moved by the beautiful words written by Rusty Edwards, and his poetic declaration of Christ's miracles. Allow me to go into further detail as to why I love and approve this amazing hymn:
Theological Correctness:
The song is littered with scriptural reference and parallels, and we could go on and on trying to mention all of them. But allow me to discuss a few:
Among my favorites are the Old Testament parallels to Christ. While not explicitly mentioned in the song, I think of God feeding the Israelites with manna, and Christ feeding the thousands by multiplication of the loaves; not to mention "feeding thousands" with the very bread of His body.
Secondly, and more explicitly, the equation of Jesus being the Living Water as well as the rock in the desert that, once struck by Moses, produced a spring for the Israelites to drink from.
The appeal to and focus on the miracles of Christ (and His resurrection) very much pleases the Christian apologist in me as well. Great stuff! Use of Group Pronouns:
The only reason I didn't give this song a 5/5 for use of group pronouns is simply because it is not until the third stanza in which an actual group pronoun is used. Because of that, it could be confused that the author is writing directly to individuals to have an individual experience rather than a collective act of worship. He wraps this up in the third stanza of course, putting it into context, but I find it's always better to establish that solidarity as quickly as possible.
Remember, church is not an individual experience, and with how much the music we listens to shapes our perceptions, we have to be strict about this one! Call me ideological if you like, but it's hard enough trying to "do church" (or any group activity) in Western Individualist cultures, so I think it really helps to try as hard as we can to tip the scale in the other direction.
Musicality:
I'm tempted to rate this song as a 4/5 for musicality, as one may find themselves more moved by the beautiful melody than the theologically inclined lyrics. But regardless the song is simple, yet wonderfully composed, and I believe anyone could appreciate the composition.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare His room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing
Joy to the world! the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sound joy
No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make
His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of is love
And wonders and wonders of His love
Wow! That's all I can say. My eyes were really opened to this song after reading the works of New Testament scholar N.T. Wright.
N.T. Wright shares my conviction as for the importance of such music, and in one of his books he mentioned that Joy to the World was one of the best, if not the best hymn we have out there in this regard.
Joy to the World was written by Isaac Watts in 1719 and is based off Psalm 98.
Theological Correctness:
New Creation, the marriage of heaven and earth on the last day. Everything restored to the way it was meant to be since the Garden of Eden. This is the final destiny for all created order, and this song nails it!
Use of Group Pronouns:
Not much to point out on this one specifically, but the implication is definitely there:
Let men (sometimes written all) their songs employ...
And makes the nations prove
Focus on Victory:
Need I say more?
The Lordship of God:
Any song that refers to God as "King" and less imply a "cuddle bug daddy God" is definitely a step in the right direction.As we've briefly mentioned before, God was understood by the ancients to be in the position of a king or a patron, and even when referred to as a father never had that context. I'm not saying God can't be like that, but it is ethnocentric to read that view into the text. So when we celebrate God as "King", I feel that is the more contextual role to give God.
Musicality:
What Christian out there doesn't like sacred Christmas hymns? This song is amazing musically and lyrically.
Thus, I am happy to approve Joy to the World and give it a perfect score of 5/5!
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Come set Your rule and reign
in our hearts again.
Increase in us we pray.
Unveil why we're made.
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope
like wildfire in our very souls.
Holy Spirit, come invade us now.
We are Your church.
We need Your power in us.
We seek Your kingdom first.
We hunger and we thirst.
Refuse to waste our lives
for You're our joy and prize.
To see the captive hearts released.
The hurt, the sick, the poor at peace.
We lay down our lives for Heaven's cause.
We are Your church.
We pray revive this earth.
Build Your kingdom here.
Let the darkness fear.
Show Your mighty hand.
Heal our streets and land.
Set Your church on fire.
Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere.
Build Your kingdom here.
We pray.
Unleash Your kingdom's power
reaching the near and far.
No force of Hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts.
You made us for much more than this!
Awake the kingdom seed in us!
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ.
We are Your church.
We are the hope on earth.
Build Your kingdom here.
Let the darkness fear.
Show Your mighty hand.
Heal our streets and land.
Set Your church on fire.
Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere.
Build Your kingdom here!
We pray!
Build Your kingdom here.
Let the darkness fear.
Show Your mighty hand.
Heal our streets and land!
Set Your church on fire!
Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere!
Build Your kingdom here!
We pray!
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This song has a lot of interesting things to chew on, so let's dive right in.
Theological Correctness:
The song is ripe with New Creation theology and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth, making it very refreshing in the sense that it's not about "forsaking this rock and going to heaven." It seems to fall straight in line with Rev. 21:1-8 and the reality that God will make His dwelling with humanity when heaven and earth are united on the last day.
My only reservation about the song's theological content is the following lyrics:
No force of Hell can stop Your beauty changing hearts.
I'm sure God is beautiful, and of course what Christ accomplished on the crosscould be considered "beautiful" I suppose, but language like this does feminize God who is otherwise portrayed as the conquering king.
Granted in ancient Jewish thought, God was acknowledged to possess both masculine and feminine qualities and assume both masculine and feminine roles:
"Mark Smith in The Origins of Biblical Monotheism adds another
salient point: "Attribution of female roles to gods was by no means an
Israelite invention." [91] Even the OT attributes female imagery to
Yahweh (Deut. 32:18, Ps. 22:9-10, Is. 46:3, 66:9, 13) as Jesus applies
female imagery to himself (as a mother hen over Jerusalem). Yahweh and
other ancient deities were beyond sexuality, but nevertheless expressed
themselves in "genderly" ways." [1]
Nevertheless, I think over-feminizing God runs the risk of perpetuating MTD. Also:
You made us for much more than this!
This lyric begs the question in me: Made for much more than what? This world? This life? Let us not forget that while this time on earth could be considered "training" for the New Creation that awaits us, that same New Creation will only be different in the sense that pain and suffering exist no longer. There is still life to be lived, work to be done, laws to be followed, all in the presence of God in holy perfection, unbound by the tethers of sin. But isn't that we're already trying to emulate here? To show people that we can live Resurrection lives now?
All in all I give this song's theological accuracy a very strong 4.5/5. Good job Rend Collective, you got it right with this one!
Musicality:
The song is very catchy, and very well composed. To me at least, it is almost too experience-oriented musically however. Like I mentioned in the "rating standards" link above, the musical experience can kind of overshadow the intellectual gold that can be found in lyrics. By no means am I telling Rend Collective to "stop writing well!", but it is a thing.If a person's heart and focus is in the right place, I don't think this is a danger though. We just need to all work together on making worship less of a spiritual-high experience (as priority) and more of a sacrament.
The lyrics are for the most part amazing, though to nit-pick, there is one word I would change:
We are the church We pray revive this earth
In theological language, to revive essentially means to bring back to life; it is what Jesus did when He brought people back to life, such as the case with Lazarus. When Jesus Himself rose from the dead, He was resurrected into His glorified body that is both flesh and spirit. There is a big difference! One is temporary and only involves the physical, the other is eternal and involves both matter and spirit. If I were a part of Rend Collective, I would have written it as such:
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope
like wildfire in our very souls...
Set Your church on fire...
Still, this song holds a strong 4/5 for musicality. Well done, Rend Collective!
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From heaven You came, helpless Babe,
Entered our world, Your glory veiled;
Not to be served but to serve,
And give Your life that we might live.
This is our God, the Servant King,
He calls us now to follow Him,
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King.
There in the garden of tears,
My heavy load He chose to bear;
His heart with sorrow was torn,
‘Yet not my will but Yours,’ He said.
Come see His hands and His feet,
The scars that speak of sacrifice;
Hands that flung stars into space
To cruel nails surrendered.
So let us learn how to serve,
And in our lives enthrone Him;
Each other’s needs to prefer,
For it is Christ we’re serving. ----------------------------------------------------------------
I read in another blog somewhere about this guy named Graham Kendrick. I'm probably behind the times on Christian music as it is something I've always had a bit of frustration listening to (hence my journey here of finding theologically accurate music). But nonetheless, they suggested Graham Kendrick if you're thirsting for some theology in your praise music. I can't say I'm disappointed! Theological Correctness:
The first verse above teaches us of the kenotic emptying of Christ:
"Christianity maintains that Jesus did not "empty" himself of any of
his divinity in the incarnation, although it is true that his divine
attributes were veiled. When the Kenosis theory concludes that Jesus is or was less than God (as has been the case in the past), it is regarded as heresy."
Furthermore, the song, especially the chorus, speaks perfectly of Christ's ontological equality with God while emphasizing His functional subordination. That is, that Jesus/Holy Spirit are subordinate to God the Father only in their ability to act, not subordinate in rank.
Verse four also touches on Jesus' role in the creation of the universe, which is important and falls well in line with his role as the incarnate Word of God.
Lastly on this note, what I love about this song is in the last two stanzas of the chorus, it very much implies that worship is something we do with our lives through daily service to God, not an isolated event we take part in when we listen to praise music. The latter is a very poisonous idea which is part of why I've had so much trouble reconciling myself to Christian music in the past. But this song really gets it right in my opinion.
Use of Group Pronouns:
The song does okay for the most part using group pronouns, though Graham kinda messed up in verse three: My heavy load He chose to bear;
It also seems implicit in verse four that Graham is appealing to individuals instead of collectively as a group:
Come see His hands and His feet,
Focus on Victory:
One thing that does disappoints me about this song, beautiful as it is, it's a song about the crucifixion that DOES NOT mention the resurrection! I chose to give it a 3/5 instead of a lower score however because the song focuses on the kingship of Christ, which of course necessitates victory from death on the cross in His case. The resurrection is implied, but it would have been easy to make it a little more explicit.
Musicality:
This song may feel a little dated to some listeners, but I have to give it a 5/5 on musicality for the fact that not only is it reverent, but to me it does not feel like it's trying to manipulate my emotions with the instrumentation. The "feels" that I get from this song come completely from the words, and I respect any song that can pull that off.
All in all, I give "The Servant King" by Graham Kendrick a solid 4.2/5. Good stuff!
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This song is a gem and I fell in love it as soon as I heard it many years ago. I don't think there is much I need to say about this song as the lyrics speak for themselves. The only reason I gave musicality a 4/5 instead of 5/5 is that the medieval style of Kemper Crabb may not be fully embraced by everyone, but it is still quite powerful, beautiful, and well done.
I hope you've enjoyed this song as much as I do and add it to your list of favorites!
Blessings in Christ,
Darrell
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In this post I will be discussing the criteria by which I will assess Christian worship music for overall quality. I would like to note first in this post that I will only be posting music that has "passed the test", so I won't be spending much time criticizing music. I'd like to keep this a positive experience and provide readers with sound worship music, not simply tell them everything that's wrong with what's out there.
On that note however, it is important that we do establish what is wrong with most Christian music so you understand the standard by which I am making these assessments. But first, let me list the criteria. Each song will be rated on a 1 to 5 scale based on a number of categories:
1. Theological correctness. Music is one of the most influential mediums we have in our culture, and whether we like it or not, much of our Christian theological worldview is shaped by the music we allow into our ears. This is a very broad category with many subsections and elements I will be looking out for. These include but are not limited to:
Theological accuracy
Scriptural accuracy
Proper portrayal of our relationship with God (see 2 and 4)
Focus on the Resurrection and New Creation as opposed to "going to Heaven" (cf. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright)
Avoidance of Platonism (the demonization of the physical world and our bodies. Remember, the Resurrection is physical!)
2. Use of group pronouns. Christian music (and preaching) all too often focuses on "me myself and I", what God can "do for me" as opposed to the "we us they them". Christianity is very much a group experience, and our relationship with God must be understood within a group-oriented, client-patron context. It is harmful when a song focuses too strongly on the individual.
3. Focus on victory. A popular theme in Christian music is "brokenness". In the Psalms it was appropriate poetic genre to begin with a tale of suffering and end the poem in triumph (e.g. Psalm 22). But much of what the ancients wrote about was real suffering. Pain is relative, but I find that when we sing about "how sad we are", it does severe injustice to say, the persecuted church or other Christians that endure more than what we in the West can really fathom. When we put the focus of our music on victory instead of some contrived suffering in hopes of finding solidarity with our psalmists, I think we will put our focus in the right place: the Resurrection of Christ.
Of course there is the sense of "brokenness" that comes from sin; the guilt and shame we feel when we've disobeyed God. That much is quite valid to sing about, so long as it ends in praise of God's forgiveness through repentance in Christ.
4. The Lordship of God. To avoid encouraging "moralistic, therapeutic deism", it's important to focus on songs that celebrate the lordship and sovereignty of God as opposed to things such as "how much he wants to cuddle you and fold you into his lovey-dovey arms". God does have affections I'm sure, but it is ethnocentrism at it's finest to read a cuddle-bug father figure into the text of scripture. It does not fully represent the character of God and I believe it to be quite misleading and damaging.
5.Musicality. In the Christian theater company I volunteer with, we have a saying: "If you can't do something with excellence, don't do it at all." I couldn't agree more. This is the least concerning of all the issues I've mentioned, but it is still very important. Usually musicality isn't an issue, as most Christian music is well composed. However... I think if the song is too musically fine-tuned for the purpose of creating an experience high, then is it really the Holy Spirit behind it or just the chord progression and kick drum accelerando?
