Music Set Recap - July 11, 2010

I have decided to begin a new blog category recapping the times I'm privileged to lead worship in our new church... set list, arrangement notes, and other memories. I cannot promise anything interesting to anyone except myself, but I do hope this is in some way helpful to any of you who share the privilege of leading the saints of God in the worship of His name. One thing I can promise is that I still have trouble being concise and staying focused. Some things never change.

July 11, 2010
All of the songs this week addressed the idea of trusting God. To be honest, some of this was on purpose, and some of it just happened. In God's providence, we celebrated communion, which worked out perfectly. Indeed, our very salvation hinges on us trusting God, taking Him at His word. Is this not the very basics of faith? What a joy to partake of the elements while preaching to myself: God has promised to forgive all of my sin; I believe Him. God has promised no condemnation, for His Son has taken the entire punishment already; I believe Him. I do not fear to look deep into my soul, for I will find nothing except forgiven sin. This is His promise to me; and I believe Him. Jesus Christ has given me His perfect life and will bring me home to be with Him forever; I believe Him.

01. We opened the service with "In Christ Alone" (by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend). I confess that this song has become so popular, at times it is so familiar I only think about the "good" lines. That is, some lines and stanzas grab me more than others. Sometimes I zone out during stanzas I have not thought deeply upon. Lately, though, I have been challenging myself to understand everything I sing and everything I read. If I don't know what a word means, I look it up. If I don't know what a sentence or line of poetry means, I think about it at length before moving on. In some ways, this is a return to my interest in literature and the English language. Honestly, it is really, really refreshing. A large motivation for this is my recent re-discovery of Kevin Twit and the Indelible Grace Music movement. Most relevant to this point is a fantastic quote he gave in a lecture, originally from someone whose name I cannot remember. The thought was that in recent times, we have been trained to read to get answers, rather than to have a relationship with the author. I don't know if that astounds you as much as it does me. It was one of those rewind the iPod and let's hear that again moments. The implications this should have on our reading (and, by extension, our reading and reciting of song lyrics on a Sunday morning), and especially on our reading of Scripture, are massive.

If I have spoken to you in person within the past two months, I have no doubt brought up Kevin Twit, Indelible Grace, or hymns at least once.

Andrea and I have started teaching hymns to our kids, but the last thing I want is for the kids to know the words to a given song without knowing what they mean. So during our family devotions, we have been going through hymns, a stanza a night, line by line, and as needed, word by word. Sometimes hymns garner the reputation of being hard to understand. (Some of them are, in fact, really hard to understand.) But I think a bigger problem is that our culture does not value the reading of difficult things, of old things. We want the Cliff's Notes version, or these days, the Wikipeda version. I think the church very much resembles the world in this regard. Apart from the Word of God, we want new books, new thoughts, and at best, edited and abridged versions of Christian classics. A side effect of this is perhaps singing with our mouths, and maybe even with our hearts, but not with our minds. We filter out or overlook what doesn't grab us immediately, and latch on to what we do understand, what is familiar, or what resonates with us easily.

Dissecting and meditating on hymn words is a wonderful exercise, and I commend it to anyone reading this. And I believe that if a song is well-written, the lyrics stand up to theological, literary, and artistic scrutiny. This is the case whether the song is a day old or 300 year old, and whether you call it a hymn or a praise chorus or something else. I have always enjoyed "In Christ Alone." But I have always paid more attention to stanzas two through four and kind of glossed over the first stanza. However, as I meditated on the words to the first stanza last week, I was shocked by the quality of the imagery. I love the contrasting ideas juxtaposed within these lines.

This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

As we played this song on Sunday, I did notice during verse one that I typed "Conqueror" instead of "Comforter" on the Powerpoint slide. It reminds me of a high school winter camp I played at many, many years ago. Someone wanted to add "Forever Grateful" to the set, but no one could remember the words to the verses. Except me. Or so I thought, until we actually played the song during the set. It wasn't until then that I realized that I had mixed a lot of the words when reciting them for the person typing them into Powerpoint. Oh well.

I mentioned meditating on "In Christ Alone" last week. Something I have found very beneficial and profitable when I am leading worship is to rehearse the entire set in my mind as much as possible during the week leading up to "the day." For all of us, and especially for those of us who get to lead worship, Sunday morning should be an overflow of the week. It's kind of cliche, but it's true. God can work through a set that is just thrown together, to be sure, but I know that I benefit personally from meditating for days on the great truths many of these songs contain. And seriously, don't the people we are leading deserve more than a quick set of songs thrown together with little thought beyond having the right number of songs or the right ratio of upbeat songs to mellow songs? (I say that as someone guilty of doing this very thing on more than one occasion.)

02. After the reading of God's word and church announcements, we continued with "It Is Well with My Soul" (by Horatio G. Spafford, melody by Philip Bliss). This is one of my favorite hymns, though I am not fond of the traditional hymn arrangement. Indelible Grace's Kevin Twit has good things to say about setting familiar texts to new tunes. He has a lot of good things to say about lots of different things, actually, but I do find his thoughts in this area very helpful. The paraphrased version is that no piece of music is so good that it fully exhausts the emotional range of a particular set of words. Sometimes new tunes can unlock different facets of a text or make you consider the words in a new light. Many people are aware of the family tragedy that preceded the penning of these lyrics by Horatio Spafford. I think this hymn is most often set to one of two types of music. The first uses a gentle feel that tends to convey a quiet peace in light of trial... everything will be okay because God will take care of you. Just rest in Him. The second is almost triumphant, beating down the waves of doubt that rise up inside you... God will empower you to rise above your circumstances.

Certainly there is a place for both of these attitudes, at least in some form.

Perhaps I am more sensitive to this, melancholy music lover that I am, but I feel the traditional arrangements I mentioned tend to almost gloss over any sense of genuine pain and suffering. It is almost sanitized.... trial lite, if you will. I really like what Something Like Silas did with this song on their Glimpses album. (I still maintain that the Glimpses album was the best thing Something Like Silas ever did.) Musically speaking, their version was very moody and melancholy. And when Eric Owyoung sang about "sorrows like sea billows [rolling]" over him, it sounded like he was barely holding on. Musically, their version captures the sense of someone enduring something difficult, of being wearied though not broken by trial. If I were Horatio Spafford writing this text not long after my four daughters drowned at sea, perhaps I might hurt more deeply than Bliss' traditional arrangment would imply. So we borrowed heavily from the SLS arrangement.

Though Satan should buffet
Though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

But because I simply cannot get enough of moody, melancholy music, I threw an extra dose into the mix by borrowing (or stealing?) the hypnotizing intro riff from The Violet Burning's song "Seamonster" to use as the intro for "It Is Well." We returned to this musical theme for the bridge, during which I displayed Psalm 103:10-12 on the screen. (Trivia: "Seamnster" is actually based on this text, or at least inspired by it. I don't remember if the song made me think of this passage or if it just worked out that way). I know some people shy away from music interludes and from things like instrumental solos in church. I have never understood this. I think worship through the appreciation of a musical gift God has given someone else is perfectly legitimate. I think there should be a balance, but I don't have a problem with the concept itself. However, I have never enjoyed people watching me when I play solos, and frankly, I don't really know what to do when I watch other people play solos either, so I make a point to display a Scripture passage or other God-centered quote on the screen to engage the minds of the congregation as the music plays on.

As the lyrics to "It Is Well" progress and the author's focus shifts to Christ on the cross removing our sin, and of Him coming to bring us Home, I tried to introduce emotional elements of hope and triumph through the music, opting for a stronger and broader arrangement, culminating with two strong yet simple (chord-wise) refrains. Obviously this would make more sense if you were actually there. Maybe you should be. We love our church, and you should love yours... but if yours starts to be the same church as ours, well, even better.

03. We then introduced "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" (by Charles Wesley, arrangement by Greg Thompson). This version is found on Indelible Grace's fourth album "Beams of Heaven." My friend Clyde let me borrow this CD some years ago. Though I liked some of it, I was not really a fan overall. I certainly saw no reason to buy it for myself. It's funny how things change. The catalyst for my change of heart is a direct result of listening to two lectures from the aforementioned Kevin Twit, the founder of Indelible Grace Music. The fact that I have now referenced him multiple times is evidence to the revolution he has stirred up in my mind. The main subject of the lectures was why hymns are relevant and important for the modern church, but he had some wonderful things to say about the Gospel and about why why singing gospel-centered lyrics was beneficial and even vital to the Christian life. This was extremely helpful. I was already a fan of hymns in general. Much of this was mere pragmatism: I thought the lyrics of many hymns were a lot better than the lyrics to many praise songs. But Kevin Twit gave form to many thoughts that were just shadows in my mind; he put into words concepts I felt and agreed with, but had never articulated. I intend to touch on many of these ideas in the coming weeks and months as I redefine and put into words my own philosophy of music ministry. From the philosophical to the practical, I am really excited to continue to think on these ideas.

As I mentioned, Charles Wesley wrote "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." He wrote it in 1740. That's a long time ago. But the words are just as relevant to the church today as they were to the church in 1740 (and 1840, and 1940, etc.). We have the same God and we relate to Him in the same way man always has. God has not changed; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Furthermore, man has not changed. We continue to walk in the patterns of foolishness handed down from generation to generation. And even for we who are redeemed, our temptations are "common to man," as the Scriptures say. We still doubt, we still fail, we still wander from God, we still struggle at times to love Him and not hate Him, and so on. And as I find myself connecting with older hymn texts, I likewise find myself connecting with Scripture itself, which inspired many of these hymns; it too was written long ago, and is every bit as relevant to us as it was to the original recipients. Indeed more so!

Other refuge have I none
I, helpless, hang on Thee
Leave, oh leave me not alone
Support and comfort me

An additional benefit of immersing myself in old hymns is the decision I have made to study the Psalms. I have been guilty of cherry-picking the Psalms. That's a good one... that one's good because it talks about the Messiah... that one is too cultural... that one I don't understand, so I won't use it...

But I am beginning to appreciate the Psalter, particularly those Psalms I previously tended to gloss over. You know, the ones where you think, "Wow, are you allowed to say that to God? Are you allowed to feel that way?" Ironic, considering my emotional make up as one prone to high highs and very low lows. Also, I have noticed that the psalmists come across as being very sensitive to God's perceived closeness or distance... I am looking for God but He is not found... Awake, O Lord, and answer me... Hear me... Why have you forsaken me... We have been faithful to You but You do not seem to be near. Wesley echoes this sense of desperation - "Leave, oh leave me not alone." I MUST have you near me. Sadly, I think many times we are much less aware and much less concerned with God's perceived closeness. The times I wander from God far outnumber the times He is seemingly slow to be found by me. My heart is often troubled by a great many things, when only one thing is necessary. The remedy? Meditating on truth. And if I don't feel like meditating on truth? Meditating on truth until I feel like it.

04. "Hallelujah, What a Savior!" (by Philip Bliss) is another of my favorite hymns; the nice thing about leading music is that you, as leader, get to pick all of your favorite songs. In all seriousness, I appreciate the ability to choose the subject matter of the set, and when this one came to mind, I knew it was perfect, especially for a communion Sunday. I wanted to have another song that spent a lot of time camped around the cross. The cross was discussed in both of the first two songs, but can we really have enough looks at the cross? I don't think so.

Lifted up was He to die
"It is finished!" was His cry
Now in Heaven exalted high
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

In this hymn, much time is spent looking at the cross, our need for it, and what was accomplished there. And hallelujah, the song does not end with Christ on the cross. He died, but He is risen, and is now seated at the right hand of God in Heaven, having finished what he set out to accomplish. He came as a servant, but He now reigns as Lord and King. He came once in humility and meekness, but He will come again in power and judgment. Yes, He will come again. Amen.


Reading:
The Psalms, Book II
Roadmaps for the Psalms, George Zemek
The Treasury of David, C.H. Spurgeon
Perelandra, C.S. Lewis
U2 by U2, Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Jr.
Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem
Parenting in the Pew, Ruth Bell Graham

Listening To:
Sun Records: The 50th Anniversary Collection
Au Revoir Borealis, self titled
Indelible Grace V: Wake Thy Slumbering Children
Sojourn, Over the Grave
Hammock, Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo