“My soul sings a song even the angels cannot sing.” - Pocket Full of Rocks “Falling”
That line has been stuck in my mind the past few days, ever since my little sister lent me her “Song To The King” cd.
I suppose it may be a bad thing that I’m analyzing things two different ways these days. There’s the half of me that looks at the emotional experience; how some event, whether a concert, argument at work, or playing a video game affects my attitude, outlook, motivation and mood. Then there’s the half of me that looks at the mental experience, how that same event affects my ethics, knowledge, understanding and expertise.
In a certain sense I’ve always looked at things from both of these angles; the arguably bad change is that I’m now making a distinction between the two. It’s kind of like scoring things on both their artistic and technical merit.
For instance, “Song To The King” is one of the most emotionally intense albums I’ve heard for a while. Sometimes it almost sounds like the vocals are going to self-destruct, he sounds the entire cd as though he is literally putting every ounce of strength into expressing the lyrics. So as far as the artistic experience goes, I highly recommend the cd.
However, in general the songs lean heavily towards what “I” am going to do in response to God. In fact, some songs nearly leave the fact that it’s a response out and make it sound like God is waiting for me to do something. All in all, there’s not so much of this cd that echoes my own words about my relationship with my God.
Please understand, I don’t have any problem with someone telling God “You are welcome here mighty God.” It’s just not how I talk to him. Same with “I wanna be closer to you,” “I don’t have much but I give everything,” “[I want to see] More of you Jesus, more of your face, more of your glory, in this place.”
I dwell in the presence of the King, for his Spirit dwells in me. He has called me as his child, and according to his own promise, He will be with me always, even to the end of the age. I have nowhere to welcome him that he has not always been.
I struggle to think too about how much closer He could get than dwelling in me. His spirit is within me. I’m tired of singing “pour your spirit on me.” That makes it sound like the spirit is somewhere else. I’d rather sing “pour out your spirit through me”
I don’t have much… Crazy talk. I have been made immeasurably wealthy and worthy. I have everything, I lack for nothing. And everything I have has been given to me by him. He gave it to me not that I would give it back to him, but to those who are in need. Yes, I realize it’s the same thing. So why don’t we sing it?
“More;” I can’t believe how many songs ask for “more” of God to be present or given. These songs astound me. How much more do you need than a God who is willing to die for you? I know, these songs are about wanting to “feel” more of God’s presence, to “experience” the weight of his love and his grace. But even that makes me a bit queasy. I find it very difficult to be the one to tell God that he underestimated how much of himself would be necessary for today’s activities.
Honestly, if someone ever came to my house, and welcomed me, I’d probably throw them out. If someone said “I want to be closer to you,” I’d probably throw them out. If someone said “I want more of your face,” you got it… kicked to the curb. I don’t trust people who spend all our time together telling me how much they want to spend more time together. It reeks of control issues and obsessive tendencies.
My complaints are more about the songs I have to sing on a regular basis than those specifically on this cd. But that said, there are a few things specifically on this cd that I just love. “…even with eternity I still could not see just how big you are and just how far you reached for me…” “Let the world say that I’ve lost my mind, and that I have no ground to stand, but they just don’t know what it’s like to have the king of the universe hold your hand.” That’s great stuff, well worth the price of admission.
So, I love this cd, it’s great music; lots of passion and a double dose of intensity. They may not talk like me, but these days there are few that do. Probably a good thing.
By the way, don’t let my particular set of complaints sway you in any way from enjoying the music he’s given us. Of course it’s not completely right. He’s big, he’s really really big. If you could wrap everything about him up in a 3 minute song, it’d be a bit disappointing.
Posted with : The Way
When we’ve been there 10,000 years
bright shining as the sun
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we’ve first begun.