Worship Songs – Dave R Phillips

March 4, 2016

Psalm 139

As Easter season is fully upon us it seems prudent to take time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for all of us for all time. I have friends that give up Facebook for Lent or various things definitively seen as worldly. I haven’t followed their lead because I tend to resist doing things (or not doing) that are trite and trivial in the first place. At the risk of sounding pious: if there is something I should sacrifice for Lent, perhaps I simply should let that go.

Lent, the forty days leading up to Easter, calls me to stop and reflect, pray and try to get my mind around what happened on the cross. Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of Jesus, Easter about the death and resurrection. I can get pretty excited about a baby being born–after witnessing the miracle of birth of our four daughters, but it’s hard to get excited about the brutal torture and death of Jesus, even though I know resurrection is around the corner. It’s hard because death is not something I celebrate and resurrection is beyond my comprehension.

One of the new songs I’ve learned at Hope Fellowship (thanks to Worship Pastor, Beth Ehlert) is based on Psalm 139. Simply titled 139, the song’s third verse is short is punctuated by whole notes that tell me to listen to these words carefully:

I open up my heart please search me through
Does anything displease you?
Lead me in the way of the cross.

139, David Moore, © 2012 Gateway Create Publishing

When first heard the song the question “Does anything displease you?” haunted me, it stuck out so boldly. I imagine God’s answer to that is something like, “Sit down boy, I have a list of things that displease me…”

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

After a short rest the song picks up the answer that is beyond comprehension: the cross. On the cross Jesus covered my sins–all of my sins. He covered sin for all who would daily pick up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24).

This year I will stop. Listen to the whole notes. Ask God to search me, to even test me, but when I fail: lead me in the way everlasting. I might even take time to go through the Stations of the Cross to guide my thoughts. In any case, this is a season to listen to the whole notes and hear what God is saying.

February 28, 2016

One Thing

Sometimes a phrase keeps washing over me long after the band has finished playing a song. Today is one of those days. For communion Beth chose One Thing, and it hasn’t stopped playing in my head.

I was able to shoot some video this morning. Watching people come forward to humbly and reverently take communion was serene. People from all ages, ethnicities, social status, whatever, they all came. Many kneeled and prayed.

The song is probably based on Psalm 27, one of King David’s songs, though the theme is repeated elsewhere in the Bible. It a psalm where King David prays with great confidence that the Lord will deliver him from those who conspire against him. Confidence not arrogance. Faith not pride. When I think about the minor problems I face compared to David I’m a bit embarrassed. If he had the courage, rather, the absolute faith to write such words in the face of real enemies, real threats to his life and those he loved, I need to come to grips with the reality that God is the One Thing that I need.

As David did many years ago, we have the chance to sing these words:

One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

Communion Video

Perhaps more words will come tomorrow. For now, the video speaks for me.

February 26, 2016

All Praise To You

This simple song ministers to me constantly and is one of the key reasons we landed at Hope Fellowship in Anderson, SC. The first verse seems to refer to John 21:25 where John suggests that there is no way to write down everything that Jesus did or said, “I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” More than just words, John is telling us that the world “could not contain Your holiness.” Yet somehow, Jesus made a way–after all, that’s why he came.

In the second verse we are reminded that we have been saved through the blood of Christ, e.g., Ephesians 1:7 (and many other scriptures). To better understand this we need to take in the entire Bible. When I first typed that sentence, I started with “to fully understand…” but I corrected myself quickly — I don’t believe we will fully understand how the blood of Christ renews our lives. Like many things in this world, I don’t need to fully understand to have complete faith. Thank goodness for that!

Knowing this allows my heart to be on fire with the Holy Spirit (second part of verse 2). We stand in awe and wonder, amazed at your goodness.

The Bridge

This is the pivotal part of the song that grabbed my heart:

Hear our cries Lord
come shake these walls
oh and rattle the steeples
Lord we are Your people

Shake these walls Lord–wake up Your church! Shake these walls Lord and rattle the steeples. Make us uncomfortable Lord, so uncomfortable that we are compelled to act, to do something in this world and not just get by with a Sunday dose of music and Bible lesson. Shake me and rattle me until I move!

For as long as God allows, I get to work in and with organizations that support planting churches all over the place. The need is great, the vision beyond what we can see, but we know we need to reach those who don’t even know they are lost. In many cases, we recognize we need to shake up the frozen chosen and get out into the world as we were commanded.

We are Your people Lord. You have called us by name, but we are not the focus of this song nor of your saving grace. The focus is on You. The song is most powerful when we sing with full voice in amazing inspired harmonies:

All glory
all honor
all praise to You

Amen.

¹ All Praise to You,Leslie Jordan and David Leonard,Integrity’s Allelia! Music, 2001

February 24, 2016

Like An Avalanche

Last Sunday (Feb 21, 2016) we sang the song, Like An Avalanche,¹ a powerful song that compels us to come before the throne on our knees. There are several scriptures implied in this musical work of art. The bridge in the song, that musical section that serves to tie the song together, is based on these passages (at least) Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, Matthew 10:38-39:

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus is talking with those who are following him. The people are impressed with his miracles and teaching so he clarifies what it means to be a disciple, something I’m sure many find difficult to understand. To be a disciple of Christ comes with a cost. In the referenced passages we find Jesus lays out some heavy requirements. I imagine there were many who were shocked by Jesus words in Matthew 10:32-33:

Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

These are powerful words that no doubt set many on their heels, stopped them in their tracks. “I will disown before my Father in heaven.” You. Me. Family. Friends. What is our response to such words? How do we react when we read these words? Turn the page and keep going? Do we fill our quota of scripture for the day and check off the box that says read the Bible?

The Bridge

This Sunday we led this song with a room full of people who are seeking to grow in their faith, to be disciples of Jesus. I’m not sure how many times we sang this phrase, but I couldn’t get enough and it still plays in my mind as I type this:

Take my life, take all that I am,
with all that I am I will love you.
Take my heart take all that I have
Jesus how I adore you.

How I pray that we can truly embrace this posture of complete devotion to Jesus. Let the lyrics and music wash over us all. I hope these words keep repeating in your mind as you consider Like An Avalanche.

¹ Like An Avalanche, Joel Houston and Dylan Thomas, Hillsong Music Publishing, 2010