Ken Boer, who serves as music director at my church, encouraged me to share some of the thoughts I have as I plan songs for a Sunday meeting.

This past Sunday morning as Josh Harris and I were talking about songs for Sunday, he asked if we could introduce the song, Everlasting God, by Brenton and Ken Riley. It’s taken from the CD of the same name. Here are the lyrics:

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord (repeat)
Our God You reign forever
Our hope our strong deliv’rer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint You won’t grow weary
You’re the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles
Copyright 2005 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

The lyrics are taken from Isaiah 40:28-31Isaiah 40:28-31 [28]Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. [29]He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. [30]Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; [31]but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

1. The melody is singable but creative. It has a wide range and some syncopation, but most congregations should be able to pick it up fairly quickly.
2. Brenton does a great job communicating the passage of Scripture in a fresh way. Some songs are taken directly from Scripture and can help a congregation memorize God’s Word. Other songs serve as a commentary on a passage, helping us to respond to God’s Word or better understand its meaning. I’ve found these “commentary” songs very helpful in congregational worship, where the problem is usually not knowledge of God’s Word but comprehension.
3. The repetition of the line “we will wait upon the Lord” reinforces our need to look to the Lord for strength repeatedly.
4. The chorus acknowledges that there are times when we feel faint, weary, weak, and in need. God helps people who recognize their lack! Yet in the midst of our inadequacy we find our everlasting God to be more than sufficient.
5. The song presents clear objective truth about the God we worship: He reigns! He is our hope! He is a strong deliverer! He is everlasting!

While the song stands on its own as a profession of our dependence on and trust in God, I always try to help people see God through the lens of the Gospel. We have been saved to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” ( 2 Cor. 4:62 Corinthians 4:6 [6]For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Once I was Your foe, a slave to sin
A stranger to Your love, a hopeless outcast
But You have brought me near, I’m bought with blood
Now I’m Your precious child, an heir with Jesus…
I come running to you…
Copyright 2005 Sovereign Grace Praise.

After affirming God’s faithfulness and strength in Everlasting God, we sang “O Great God,” from the same CD. Here we were expressing the desire for God’s strength not only sustain us in trials, but to enable us to live for his glory. Some of the lines include:

Then your Spirit gave me life
Opened up your Word to me
Through the Gospel of your Son
Gave me endless hope and peace…
You are worthy to be praised
With my every thought and deed
O great God of highest heav’n
Glorify your name through me

We then went on to share the Lord’s Supper. We sang the chorus of “Before the Cross” while we shared communion, and finished with “Before the Throne of God Above,” music by Vikki Cook. My goal in leading was to see our trust in God strengthened as we considered his supreme display of faithfulness in the death and resurrection of his Son. He is the everlasting God who has secured for us an everlasting salvation. How can we not trust him?

7 Comments »

1. I’ve been reading your blog for a couple months now and have never left a comment. I just had to write today and say thank you. Your blog is a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, and wisdom. I am a 31 year old worship leader from AZ. I so much appreciate this blog!!! Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!!

   Comment by Jared Jensen — February 21, 2007 @ 11:59 pm

2. Jared,

   Thanks for your very meaningful encouragement. Recently I’ve been trying to sharpen the focus of the blog to better serve worship leaders and pastors. Although I’m happy if anyone benefits from what I’m thinking, it brings me a particular joy to know that in some small way I can help guys like you serve God’s people more effectively. So thanks for letting me know that I’m doing that!

   Comment by Bob Kauflin — February 22, 2007 @ 8:35 am

3. Bob,

   I am a 25 year old corporate worship leader, and am on the brink of joining the staff of a church in Houston. The worship team consists of a good number of talented people, and instruments ranging from trapset and guitar to timpani and flute. To this point, the band has used printed sheet music for all of the songs they play; this means that someone has manually entered everything into a music writing program (Finale) and printed everything out. It also means that for any given song, A) Musicians have four to six pages of material to deal with, B) creativity and freedom of expression are squelched a bit, and C) introducing new songs to the band, and to the congregation, will be very difficult.

   I have been used to working from chord charts, where the lyrics are provided, and there are chord names above the lyrics where the chord changes. I feel that this creates structure but allows creativity and freedom, and logistically it makes much more sense, because it would take up a LOT less space, and would allow me to much more easily introduce new songs.

   My question is this: A) Is it a good idea to try to transition a group of people who are used to sheet music to a chord chart paradigm, and 2) if it IS a good idea, how should I go about making that transition?

   Your wisdom regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated.

   Kyle

   Comment by Kyle — February 22, 2007 @ 10:53 am

4. Bob-
   Thanks for insight into your song selection for Sunday. We are introducing Everlasting God tomorrow. We are leading into it with one of our congregation’s favorite songs “Everlasting” A double dose of considering the infinite attribute of God? It seemed to work today at rehearsal.

   Alan Smith
   Perrow Presbyterian Church
   Cross Lanes, WV

   Comment by Alan Smith — February 24, 2007 @ 3:37 pm

5. Alan,

   Are you doing the Everlasting by Eric Hughes and Aaron Baird? If so, we’re using those same two songs here tomorrow morning.

   Comment by Bob Kauflin — February 24, 2007 @ 4:14 pm

6. Yes Bob, as a matter of fact is was the Hughes/Baird song. It worked out well. We ended up praying and ministering to a father in our congregation who has a daughter serving on the mission field in Africa. The village she is in is being threatened by rising flood waters. All of the leaders she serves with were away from the village for one reason or another. She alone was having to coordinate an evacuation plan for 45 orphans on her own. Needless to say a song taken from Isaiah 40Isaiah 40
   [40:1]Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
   [2]Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
   and cry to her
   that her warfare is ended,
   that her iniquity is pardoned,
   that she has received from the LORD's hand
   double for all her sins.
   [3]A voice cries:
   "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
   [4]Every valley shall be lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
   the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain.
   [5]And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
   and all flesh shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
   [6]A voice says, "Cry!"
   And I said, "What shall I cry?"
   All flesh is grass,
   and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
   [7]The grass withers, the flower fades
   when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
   surely the people are grass.
   [8]The grass withers, the flower fades,
   but the word of our God will stand forever.
   [9]Get you up to a high mountain,
   O Zion, herald of good news;
   lift up your voice with strength,
   O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
   lift it up, fear not;
   say to the cities of Judah,
   "Behold your God!"
   [10]Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
   and his arm rules for him;
   behold, his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him.
   [11]He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
   he will gather the lambs in his arms;
   he will carry them in his bosom,
   and gently lead those that are with young.
   [12]Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
   and marked off the heavens with a span,
   enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
   and weighed the mountains in scales
   and the hills in a balance?
   [13]Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
   or what man shows him his counsel?
   [14]Whom did he consult,
   and who made him understand?
   Who taught him the path of justice,
   and taught him knowledge,
   and showed him the way of understanding?
   [15]Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
   and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
   behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
   [16]Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
   nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
   [17]All the nations are as nothing before him,
   they are accounted by him as less than nothing and
   emptiness.
   [18]To whom then will you liken God,
   or what likeness compare with him?
   [19]An idol! A craftsman casts it,
   and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
   and casts for it silver chains.
   [20]He who is too impoverished for an offering
   chooses wood that will not rot;
   he seeks out a skillful craftsman
   to set up an idol that will not move.
   [21]Do you not know? Do you not hear?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the
   earth?
   [22]It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
   who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
   [23]who brings princes to nothing,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
   [24]Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
   when he blows on them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
   [25]To whom then will you compare me,
   that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
   [26]Lift up your eyes on high and see:
   who created these?
   He who brings out their host by number,
   calling them all by name,
   by the greatness of his might,
   and because he is strong in power
   not one is missing.
   [27]Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
   "My way is hidden from the LORD,
   and my right is disregarded by my God"?
   [28]Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
   He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
   [29]He gives power to the faint,
   and to him who has no might he increases strength.
   [30]Even youths shall faint and be weary,
   and young men shall fall exhausted;
   [31]but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their
   strength;
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
   they shall run and not be weary;
   they shall walk and not faint.

   This text is from the ESV Bible. Visit www.esv.org to learn about the ESV.

   spoke to him and his wife an our church family in a wonderful way! God’s “selection of songs” is, well… perfect!

   Comment by Alan Smith — February 26, 2007 @ 9:52 pm

7. Kyle,

   Thanks for asking. I think I answered a similar question here:

   http://worshipmatters.blogs.com/bobkauflin/2007/02/qa_fridays_shee.html

   It’s the post for Feb. 23, 2007.

   Let me know if that works.

   Comment by Bob Kauflin — July 20, 2007 @ 4:36 pm

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