Our music leader brought in a new song today, and it is a contemporary song which actually has good lyrics. WIth contemporary “worship” songs, good lyrics are few. Here is the song we sang today, by Gateway Worship;
O The Blood
O the blood
Crimson love
Price of life's demand
Shameful sin
Placed on Him
The Hope of every man
CHORUS
O the blood of Jesus washes me
O the blood of Jesus shed for me
What a sacrifice that saved my life
Yes, the blood, it is my victory
Savior Son
Holy One
Slain so I can live
See the Lamb
The great I Am
Who takes away my sin
(BRIDGE)
O the blood of the Lamb
O the blood of the Lamb
O the blood of the Lamb
The precious blood of the Lamb
What a sacrifice
That saved my life
Yes, the blood, it is my victory
O what love
No greater love
Grace, how can it be
That in my sin
Yes, even then
He shed His blood for me
I didn’t care for the music because I couldn’t find any order to it. I’m not a musician, and I’ve always found music easy to learn only if it had some recognizable order and good flow to it; it has to make sense to me. That’s why I’ve never been good singing any sort of harmony - it rarely makes sense to me. (I do play harmony for six pipe tunes, because those are the only tunes where the harmony makes sense to me!)
The tune to this song just wasn’t catching in my brain so I didn’t sing it at all, but did marvel at the decent lyrics!
The words do indeed look good, Glenn. One possible problem is the emphasis on "victory." So many of these contemporary songs are written from a charismatic/dominion theology mindset, and the writer may be referring to something besides victory over sin and victory over death.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that would keep me from using the song, though from what you've said, the music would keep me from using it.
Jon,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I understand about the "victory" thing, but without knowing the thought processes behind the author, I can't judge that.
Hey, you might like the music! I'm just not real musically-inclined. I know what I like to hear, I know what's easy for me to learn, but I won't judge a tune just because I don't like it.
Well....
ReplyDeleteWhen you said you couldn't find any order to it, that set off my warning bells. But perhaps you meant something different by that than what I understood by it.
Usually, we can sing without worrying too much about what the author meant. But if he's likely to be singing / teaching in the church down the road next month, I'll want to know what he meant and will be using it to say before I'll endorse it by using it in our church.
Well, the notes go up when I don't expect it, and went low when I didn't expect it, and it's a tune hard for me to follow. But, as I said, I'm not a musician!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to a youtube with the tune. Actually, it makes a bit more sense, now that I'm listening to it again. But it is still one which I find difficult to learn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC59rgmcu34
Folk songs and that sort are the types of tunes which I usually find easy to learn.
I'd certainly never use that performance of it. Too many techniques to draw attention to the voice of the singer. Too much of the typical contemporary "building of the emotions" as it goes along. The music is designed to stir you emotionally, which is a distraction from the lyrics.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm an expert. I'm just listening to it and giving my reaction.
I suspect it could be sung congregationally without some of those things that I see as problematic. There are some songs we use that sound far different, when we sing them, from performances I've heard. I kind of doubt I'd ever choose to use that one, though.
FWIW.