Again, Think About What You Sing!!

I had hoped after my letter to our music leader that he would no longer use Vineyard songs.  Alas, it isn’t so.  We sang five songs during our worship service and the rest were okay (except I thought one was a bit juvenile when the lyrics had “banners fling” to rhyme with “king” and I wonder how one flings banners), but this one just blew it for me.

Oh, I’ve seen this song at two of our previous churches and never did like it, and I wish everyone would just leave it alone!  Here’s the full song as we sung it:

Lord, Reign In Me

by Brenton Brown

Over all the earth

You reign on high

Every mountain stream

Every sunset sky

But my one request

Lord, my only aim

Is that you reign in me again

Chorus:

Lord, reign in me

Reign in your power

Over all my dreams

In my darkest hour

You are the Lord of all I am

So won't you reign in me again?

Over every thought

Over every word

May my life reflect

The beauty of my Lord

'Cause you mean more to me

Than any earthly thing

So won't you reign in me again?

Chorus

Over all the earth

You reign on high

Every mountain stream

Every sunset sky

But my one request

Lord, my only aim

Is that you reign in me again

Chorus, twice

Won't you reign?

Won't you reign in me again?

Come and praise the Lord

Won't you reign in me again?

Okay, now let’s look at the lyrics and think about what they are saying.

Lord, my only aim

Is that you reign in me again

I hate to be the one to bust your bubble, but God reigns in everyone!  Not that everyone obeys Him, but God reigns everywhere.  I think what the author is wanting is to turn His life over in obedience to God, to allow the Holy Spirit’s work in him.  But that isn’t what he is saying.

'Cause you mean more to me

Than any earthly thing

So won't you reign in me again?

I don’t know what it is about song-writers that they always have to use poor grammar—what is so wrong about using the word “because”?!?  What are we teaching our children about language with songs like this?  

Now, if God means more “than any earthly thing,” shouldn’t the song say something more like, “Help me live my life in obedience to you”?

The we go back and repeat the first verse, followed by twice repeating the chorus.  What—did the author think it wasn’t heard the first time?  Endless repetitions of modern songs, used just for building emotions and dancing around, irritates me a lot.

Won't you reign?

Won't you reign in me again?

Come and praise the Lord

Won't you reign in me again?

ARGH! the repetition!  But I’m curious about that third line here: who is being told to “come and praise the Lord”?  Is he saying this to the Holy Spirit, sort of:  Holy Spirit come and praise the Lord and won’t you reign in me again”? 

Or is he saying this to his audience as a break from his imploring the Lord to reign in him?

Just what does it mean?

As long as we’ve left meaty hims behind and replaced them with juvenile emotional nonsensical lyrics, the Church will continued to spiral to destruction.