Music Recommendations!

Hey friends,

I'm trying to write a post every few months or so, recommending an album or two that are current, and that are really good stuff for the Church to be listening to. Basically, this is a "new worship music" showcase, with new music that you may or may not have heard about yet. I'm trying hard to stay up on who's writing really good, new music for the Church to sing, and hopefully you can benefit from this!

Here are a couple new albums that I'm really enjoying, and why. These come highly recommended, both for the lyrics and musicality. You can click on the titles of the albums for links to buy em' on iTunes.

1. "A Sweet and Bitter Providence" by The Joy Eternal.

This record, both in title and content, was inspired by John Piper's book, A Sweet and Bitter Providence. The 6 songs on this short EP follow the same theme, of rejoicing in God's infinitely good purposes in all that He does (even in the painful things).

Something the songs deal with, and that comes inspired very much by Piper, is that although sometimes life is very difficult and full of pain and difficulty, God does nothing by accident and is working gloriously good things out of everything bad and evil. That's some heavy theology to work through, and these songs are a great attempt, and help at doing that. Ultimately, this is an album full of really good, weighty praise. The music is very contemporary though not too "rocked-out;" the arrangements are intricate and beautiful.

2. "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman

This record just came out a couple of weeks ago, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. We just introduced the title track in church yesterday by the way!

Overall, this is probably the most God and Christ-exalting stuff I've heard from Redman yet. He's obviously growing in his theology and love of Scripture, which is reflected in his songwriting. The album is more full of great truths about God and Christ, rather than about us, which is the more spiritually healthy way to go, and definitely the most helpful kind of songs for a church to sing.

This album was recorded totally live, which is pretty cool (though it was definitely polished up and mastered in the editing process). The whole feel of the recording is pretty awesome, start to finish. It's rare these days to find a full-length "worship" album, that's so great pretty much the whole way through.

There are a couple of disclaimers though:

1) There are a few places where Redman's lyrics make vows to God, along the lines of "I will never stop believing in You," etc. This is dangerous territory to get into if you're writing songs for congregational singing. A church has to recognize that on any given Sunday, and even among the regular attenders, there are a fair number of unbelievers present; we should stay away from making people sing promises that they can't keep, or sing things about themselves that aren't true. That's why worship music that sings accurate truths about God are always the best way to go - the lyrics are always true, and can be brought to bear on believers and unbelievers alike.

2) In the song "Where Would We Be," talking about all that Christ has accomplished for Christians in his sacrificial, atoning death, the song says, "Jesus, You heard our cry." I'm not sure exactly what Redman was going for with this lyric, but it could mean a couple of things. First, if it means that human kind gave up a general cry of anguish for its fallen state, then yes, this lyric is true. However, if it means that we cried out to God for a way to be saved and He came through for us, this is only true if we understand that on our own, in our natural sinful state, we did not love God, and wanted nothing to do with Him (John 3:16-21). In salvation, God softens and prepares our hearts by His Spirit, and causes us to be born again; and if we cry out to God for forgiveness from our sins, it's because God has already been at work in our hearts (John 3:21; 2 Cor. 4:6). This isn't an unbiblical lyric, necessarily, but we just have to be careful that we know what we're actually saying when we sing.

Hope this is helpful. Get the music, and enjoy the listening!

Here's to good music, written by the Church, for the Church!