Writing Songs to Glorify God
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Today I got to go pick apples and sunflowers with Lindsey and Lily. It was a great time with lots of smiles and fresh air. Along the way I was humming a few tunes and making note about things I liked and things that should be changed. Eventually, one tune stuck out and I realized “hey, I really enjoy singing that… I should work on that one more”.
If I had been sitting at my desk staring at Finale I wouldn’t have been humming those tunes. It was only by going out and living that I found the right melody to sing.
The same goes for lyrics. The best lyrics aren’t written from a place of theory. Instead they’re written from experience. Beautiful substantial lyrics are going to flow from a stream of both study and life. Without the study of poetry I won’t have the right words to capture the excitement of the moment but without a life I will never find the flame of inspiration.
So if I want to write great songs, I need to pick sunflowers every once in a while.
And for those who are curious, here are the lyrics I was mulling over. Let me know what you think!
As the face of the sun is too brilliant to behold
I have only seen His glory in the shadows here below
But a day will soon be dawning when the veil is swept away
And all His sons and daughters will see Him face to face
Face to Face (Rough Draft)
Hey all,
It’s been a while since I posted. Sorry about that, but I have a good reason! My little girl was born a month early and life has not been the same since. First their was the stay in the NICU, then her coming home and figuring out how to live with a new, tiny human in the house.
For those who are curious, Lily is doing great now. She loves to eat and resist naps (she is very good at eating, resisting naps, not so much)
So life has changed and I need to make some changes about how I put out content. Normally I will do something long, thought out, you know, something that takes a good deal of time… well, that’s a little harder now. I hope to get back to that type of material (like the Reflections podcast) but for now, something different.
“Quick Thoughts” is a collection of, well, quick thoughts. These could be anything, from songwriting, to life, to theology, to entertainment, but my goal is to share some thoughts that will be helpful or encouraging in some way.
Today’s quick thought is that I need to be building “Brick by Brick”.
It’s easy to visualize the house I want to build. Lets say I want two stories, a nice porch, and a little studio off to the side where I can record but until I build it it’s just an idea. To turn it from an idea into a reality I need to lay a foundation, build a frame, then stack the bricks.
With a song, or with a website, its easy to visualize my end goal (like being able to support a family on songwriting) but to get there I have to stack the bricks (like reminding you that we have some cool merch over here and a chance to donate over here).
This is a quick thought that goes beyond songwriting. Whatever it is that you want to do, take a small step, everyday, to turning it from dream into reality. Today, I figured I would start a new blog series and write a melody for a song. Check and check. Maybe you want to learn a new skill, like cooking. Go ahead and learn a new recipe today. Fajitas aren’t that hard. Or maybe you want to be able to change your own oil in your car. Go look up what tools you’ll need and order them. Over time, these little steps will add up and brick by brick you’ll build your dream into a reality.
Thanks for taking the time to read this “Quick Thought” and as I have more I’ll share more. If this has inspired you I would love hear what your goals are and what small steps you’re taking today. Leave a comment, visit us on Facebook and Instagram, and I will catch you later.
Today we get to reflect on the first praise “song” recorded in the Bible. I put the word “song” in quotes since all we have left is the poetry. I’m sure Adam could have sung these words and there is only a fine line between poetry and lyrics.
I am of course referring to Adam’s poetic outburst when he meets Eve for the first time.
In Genesis 2:18-23 we read this:
18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Genesis 2:18-23, NAS
19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Our “praise song” comes in verse 23 where Adam rejoices over meeting Eve. What I find surprising is that this first song celebrates God’s provision instead of God Himself.
My initial thought is that Adam’s first song should go something like “Oh great creator the One who made everything, there is nothing in all creation more deserving of praise than You”
Perhaps Adam’s fascination with Eve instead of with His creator is a sign of spiritual immaturity. Yet even if this is true, he is not reprimanded for that celebration.
Now I’m left with the question “why is the Bible’s first praise song about Adam finding a helper”?
But first, a note about the word “helper”: this is one of the words used to describe God’s relationship with Israel (see Psalm 33:20). I think we tend to think of a “helper” as being less important than the one being helped. Like the helper is an employee and the one being helped is the boss.
To understand Adam and Eve’s relationship, or God’s relationship with Israel, we should shift our thinking about the word “helper” to include the idea of “essential”. God’s help is essential to Israel’s success. Without Him they will fail.
In the case of Adam and Eve, humanity has been given a mission to “be fruitful and multiply”. In a prefall state, being “fruitful” would spread the image of God over all creation. So in Genesis 1, humankind is given a mission to spread God’s image over all of creation by having kids.
Adam cannot fulfill this mission by himself. What is more, God lets Adam experience the frustration of not being able to do what he is designed to do. Adam names every animal but none of them are a helper suitable for the task. None of the animals are made in God’s image.
This means that when Adam bursts out in song he is rejoicing that he is able to fulfill the mission that God has placed upon him.
A note for us post-fall humans: our method of spreading the image of God has changed. Yes, all humans are made in God’s image but we are fallen images. Instead of spreading God’s image by having kids we spread God’s image by proclaiming the gospel. You can do this whether you are married or single.
There is so much to learn from this chapter but today I think it is important to remember that “it is not good for man to be alone”.
Adam couldn’t spread the image of God by himself and, even though the methods have changed, we can’t spread the image of God by ourselves either. We need the fellowship and encouragement of the local church. In His high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus prays that we, the church, would live in unity with each other and with God so that the world will know that God sent Jesus, His Son. How can we, the church, be one if we, as individuals, are isolated? We need to come together and live in unity so that the world will know that God sent His Son. We need to be together to spread the image of God.
Write songs of thanksgiving. Especially giving thanks for that which enables you to serve God. The danger of thanksgiving songs is that we will grow to love the stuff we are thankful for more than we love the one who gives us the stuff. If we remember that the thing we are thankful for helps spread the image of God then we are more likely to keep an eternal perspective on thankfulness.
Write songs for your local church. Chris Tomlin and Phil Wickham don’t know what’s going on in your local church but you do. Did your church just move from a school cafeteria to your own building? Commemorate God’s faithfulness with a new song.
Write lyrics that celebrate unity and the gathering of the saints. The gathering on Sunday morning is such an amazing event. People from all different backgrounds come together to worship the God who transformed them from rebels into beloved children. Write and sing songs that highlight that joy.
Have you ever stared at a blank page and asked yourself “what am I going to write today?” If you have, then good news! I have a random musical exercise generator for you. I have added a permanent link under the “music” tab in the menu and you can also find it down below.
If you use this to make a piece I would love to hear it! You can share it on our facebook page, twitter, or instagram.
Welcome back to Reflections. Last week we looked at Genesis 1 and how being made in God’s image impacts our worship. I also mentioned that we try to hide the parts of God’s image that make us uncomfortable. We have a tendency to highlight His love while veiling His holiness and justice.
This week’s reflection will take us into Genesis 2 and it challenges my perception of what a loving God looks like.
In Genesis 2:8-9, God plants a garden and in that garden we find “every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, the tree of life is also in the midst of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Then there are a few verses about rivers and precious stones, before we come to Genesis 2:15-17.
Here we read this:
15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
Genesis 2:15-17 (NAS)
16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
So how does this challenge my perception of a loving God? Well, lets break it down. In verse 15 we see that God gives Adam a job, or a command, “cultivate the garden and keep it”. Considering that this garden is the source of Adam’s food, and there’s even a “Tree of Life” in the garden, this seems like a pretty good deal. No issue there.
In verse 16 God gives Adam freedom to eat from whatever tree he wants to eat from. Great!
But wait, in verse 17 there is one exception: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will DIE.
Hold on.
God put Adam in a garden, told him to maintain it, and then said “oh, by the way, one of the trees will kill you if you eat from it”
That doesn’t make much sense. As a soon to be father, when I think of loving my wife and child I think of keeping them as far away from danger as possible.
But here we are, an all loving, all powerful, all knowing God, giving Adam the job of cultivating and keeping the very tree that could (and does) lead to his death.
There’s a mystery here that we need to wrestle with.
Here are some things that stand out to me:
First, the stakes are high. Following God’s commands leads to life, while disobedience leads to death.
Second, sometimes God calls His children to dangerous jobs. He hasn’t promised an easy path.
Third, if we show that we love God by obeying His commands (John 14:15) then what we see here is God providing Adam with the opportunity to not love Him. For some reason, the type of worship that God is asking Adam to provide includes the possibility of worshiping something else.
Here is the crucial lesson we need to learn. We are always worshiping something. When we are obedient to God’s commands we are proclaiming that He is Lord, that He is worthy to rule over our lives. When we disobey His commands we are asserting that something else, whether it is a “serpent” or our own desires, is more deserving of obedience.
For those of us who have sinned, this should scare us. How many times have we proclaimed that something else is more deserving of worship than our Creator? And if we, God’s image bearers, are proclaiming that something else is God what should God do with that image? If we take the illustration from last week, if the statue in the center of town is proclaiming that someone else is king what should the true king do with that statue?
If he does nothing then the villagers will be misled, they won’t know who the king is.
That means that the true king must destroy the statue. If Adam eats from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, thus proclaiming that something or someone else is God, then he needs to die. If God is the source of love, life, satisfaction, and all things good then it would be unloving to allow such an image to lead others elsewhere.
In this situation God would display His perfect love by removing the misleading image.
In wrestling with verse 17 I now see that a loving God would stand against evil.
But as we’ll see in Genesis 3, Adam doesn’t immediately die… at least physically… why is that?
It’s because God sees another way. Restoration.
Instead of immediately destroying the misleading images, God goes about the work of restoring them. Adam, Eve, me, you, we’ve all proclaimed that something else is God. Yet the very God that we rebel against washes us clean, smooths out the rough, self inflicted chisel wounds, and reattaches the parts that we discarded in pursuit of our own gods. He does this through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, so that all who believe that He is Lord may have eternal life, forever proclaiming that God is God.
Welcome to the new series here on TWS where we’ll reflect on Scripture and worship. My hope is that we will gain a deeper appreciation for the act of worship, how it impacts us as worshipers, and how it reveals God’s character.
We will start in the beginning.
In Genesis 1:26-28 we read this:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.Genesis 1:26-28 (NAS)
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This passage may not explicitly mention singing, prayer, or worship, but it does reveal a crucial part of our identity. All humans, not just royals (as other ancient cultures asserted), are made in the image of God. But this leads us to a pressing question.
What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Some might say that being made in God’s image means we have certain attributes that God has, like intellect, or we are capable of certain actions, like making art. One of the problems with this view is that it gives us grounds to devalue fellow humans if we find them lacking in either attributes or ability.
If our ability to reason identifies us as being made in God’s image then what does it mean for those who cannot reason? Are they lesser image bearers? If we take this path we are setting ourselves up to dismiss those we find lacking.
Thankfully, there are better options when it comes to interpreting this passage. In the Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1: Genesis 1-15, Wenham asserts that the strongest interpretation is that “to be made in God’s image” means that humans are God’s representatives here on earth.
We have intrinsic value, not because of an attribute or ability, but because we have a relationship with God. This is not a relationship that we fashion, it is one that He gives us. We are His representatives, not because we have earned that position but because He gave us that position.
This makes sense when we consider how ancient cultures treated images. Imagine a time before cameras. Think of a time when the only way to represent someone was with paintings, sculptures, coin heads, or a similar medium.
How would a villager know what their king looked like? They can’t google him, or see him on TV. Instead, it is more likely that they would pull out a coin and see a face on that coin. It just so happens that the face on the coin matches the face on the sculpture in the center of town. Then, because of these two images, when the king visits the village, the villagers can say “I know who the king is because I have seen his image”.
This is what God intended when He created us in His image. Go back to the passage and make note of what God commands His image to do. First, they are to “be fruitful and multiply” thus spreading His image over all creation. Then, as they spread out, they are to rule over every living thing. Every living thing is supposed to look at humanity and say “I know who God is because I have seen His image”.
Here we meet the intersection of image and worship: if we are fulfilling our role as the image of God then every aspect of our lives will point others to the fact that God is God. If we are failing in our role as image, then we will lead others to worship something else as God.
Unfortunately, this is where we find ourselves now. We are flawed images, constantly glorifying something or someone else as God. Perhaps we point to ourselves and say “I determine what is good and evil” or we devote ourselves to the pursuit of money and determine morality by how much we can increase our income, or perhaps we pick and choose the parts of God that we want to glorify then hide the parts we find undesirable. In our current time we have a habit of exalting His love while veiling His holiness and justice.
But that is a topic in itself.
For now, I want us to walk away with this: the first way that humans worshiped God was by leading others to worship Him. We may not use the same methods as prefall humans, but we still engage in this form of worship when we spread the Gospel and when we gather together on Sunday morning.
When we sing, we not only offer individual praises to God, but we encourage our fellow image bearers to worship God as God.
Hey all,
Just thought I would post something that I found fun. One of the challenges given during the 2021 Getty Hymn Writers Collective was to write a song that tapped into the essence of a sea shanty. As I started listening to sea shanties I found one that I absolutely loved called “Across the Western Ocean” (listen to a beautiful recording here). I took that melody and added some Revelation 21-22 inspired lyrics then recorded a quick demo. Enjoy!
You can find the lead sheet here.
Hey all,
Sorry its been so long since my last post. There has been a lot going on and many life changes. However, even though I wasn’t posting I was still writing. I have a new set up for recording (livestream anyone?) and some new songs.
Since you’ve taken the time to read this you get a sneak peak at one of the new ones! This one is called “The Home That He Has Promised” and is based on Robert Lowry’s “How Can I Keep From Singing”. The video is unlisted so you will need the link/this page to access it. Let me know what you think!
For the twelfth text of Christmas, this blogger gives to thee…
Our final text for Christmas was written by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1848. The rich lyrics first imagine the nativity scene, then remind us that we should imitate Christ as he took on our flesh and lived among us. The text ends with an exultation in the hope of heaven.
Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.
He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.
And through all His wondrous childhood
He would honor and obey,
Love and watch the lowly maiden,
In whose gentle arms He lay:
Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He.
For he is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.
And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
Where like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.
Setting
Only one setting this time, King’s College Choir’s majestic performance in 2010.