Matt Redman has something right!
"Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out
Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognize Your fame
'Til every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out
You should be the praise of every tongue, Jesus
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your kingdom comes
Until the final revelation dawns
Send us out
Every tribe, every tongue
Every creature in the heavens and the earth
Every heart, every soul
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise
Every note, every strain
Every melody will be for You alone
Every harmony that flows from every tongue
We'll sing Your praise, we'll sing Your praise
We'll sing Your praise, we'll sing Your praise."
Not saying it's congregationally sing-able or anything, but not bad lyrics.
9 comments:
rhyming is a bit rough in the first two verses, but looks good
Yes, I'm not saying it's the best song on the subject by any stretch of the imagination, but for Matt Redman, whose songs sadly will be popular no matter what, it's not half bad lyrically.
Looks good. Perspectives' main idea (if memory serves) is that missions exists because worship doesn't (exist everywhere.)
I assume that Mr. Redman is an artist with whom I would be familiar if I followed comtemporary Christian music. Am I right?
Perspectives'? Don't get you. You quote Piper though...
Matt Redman (wiki) is British and writes many worship songs which all sound the same (verse in low register uses 3-4 notes, chorus in high register also uses 3-4 notes) and say very little (he's fond of that idea of worship - he wrote one called 'Let my words be few'). Generally not sing-able by a congregation and not if you haven't heard someone lead it first. Still, even though not congregational, "Blessèd be your name" was good too, as are his reflections on its relation to psalms of lament. His songs often express worship in very OT ways - "Lord let your glory fall as on that ancient day" which ignores that God's glory has come in Christ, the real fulfillment of the shadow shekinah glory, who tabernacled among us so we meet in him filled with his Spirit not in a tabernacle waiting for his glory to fall...
Er I'll shut up. He does some good stuff. I like discernment in a choosing of songs of any Christian song-writer though, not to automatically sing all the songs of one whether Wesley, Townend or Redman.
Redman has clearly been hanging out with Piper & Chris Tomlin and the US Passions movement. No bad thing!
hmm regarding hanging out with Tomlin being a good thing...I would disagree. Tis one person who I don't quite get their lyrics. All about the God of Love and how great he is. And far from disagreeing I would like to see a bit more of the other side of God, the side that modern Christianity in most forms here seems to be missing;The God of judgement,wrath etc and our weakness or the cross. When I checked Tomlin's album lyrics I saw little of that.
Dave, what say ye? I don't know Tomlin's stuff much at all. He did 'indescribable' tho, PG, that I was cheekily paradying round the house at Christmas: it's actually remarkably good based on the end of Job. His lyrics certainly praise God as holy, but the theology of the cross expressed is a bit shallow. (NB God's wrath on sin is a corrolary of his love being a HOLY love, so it's not far removed.) Anyway, Dave I think you'll have to fill us in on how you think he's a good influence on Redman, please :)
Does a song need to teach every aspect of a doctrine? I'm not sure - not every psalm has the same content? not every mention of the cross includes wrath (though I wholeheartedly agree that penal substitution is central to our view of the cross)...
We all sing When I survey (which Tomlin updated) which may not teach the biggest part of the cross but is it therefore wrong to sing? Amazing grace (again updated by Tomlin) may not teach the cross but few of us are cautious to sing it...
Tomlin is a fan of God's love but that's not exactly a minor theme in scripture. Tomlin's advantage is that he's often in the company of Louie Giglio and John Piper (via the Passion movement) which is unlikely to minor on those other doctrines. And possibly, a better influence than some of his UK company might be... (cos the UK church is really good on doctrine... right?)
One counter example from Tomlin:
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace
Whose robe is the light and canopy space
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm
While, the other Passion worship leader David Crowder writes a song called "God of Wrath"
I think its best to pick songs by their lyrics rather than the writers catalogue, on a case by case basis. I've not particular desire to defend Tomlin, Redman or Crowder - but I think they have written some good songs, and some stinkers. Probably much like Wesley, Townend, Getty, Newton, Watts etc.
Dave
PS: Tomlin didn't write Indescribable, though he has popularised it by his recordings.
Cheers Dave, that's helpful.
PS the great hymn which verse you cited was actually written by a Robert Grant, 1779-1838 :) We sang it quite a bit growing up in church in Belfast.
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