Song Devotional
(Behind the Songs)

Celebrate in the Lord (Party song)

References: Jeremiah 31vs34/Hebrews 8vs12 & 10vs17, Galatians 5vs1

I’ve never known what to call this song, Celebrate in the Lord, the Party Song or Dancing on Holy Ground, but the main idea came when I was preparing for our church’s annual thanks giving meeting – or could you say party, where we all dress up in party clothes and have a wild time dancing, rejoicing, throwing streamers, popping balloons, giving extravagantly and basically celebrating in what God has done for us! It made me thinking of how much more than the world we should be partying because we have a real hope. We have been saved from our sin and eternal damnation! The church is where the party is, not the clubs. We as Christians should be the party animals! Church shouldn’t be seen as a dull boring place. Christians shouldn’t be seen as dull boring people. We are the ones who have just been released from prison! We have just received an eternal inheritance – for us it’s party time!

Ecstatic Praise

References: 1 Peter 1vs8, Ezra 3vs11, Psalms 71vs23, Psalms 150

See some of these scriptures above - Noise is not a foreign biblical concept. I always say that if in the old covenant people could praise God like they did then how much more extravagantly should we (as partakers of the amazing new covenant in Christ) be expressing our praise!

1 Peter 1vs8 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

When first writing this song the line was “ I am filled with joy and ecstasy” – which got quite a few laughs from my friends, so I decided to loose the ecstasy connotation and went for the “ecstatic” rather. 1 peter … says that we are filled with an inexpressible joy because of our salvation, so I thought that being ecstatic almost captures what I think inexpressible means. There’s a sense of being overwhelmed by God’ grace and goodness to us that we can only respond to Him in an ecstatic praise of Him. When reading through the Psalms you get a real sense of vibrant, loud expressions of praise. I think our praise times are often too self-conscious and reserved. We shouldn’t calculate praise. How can we stay silent in view of such a great and loving God? Passion needs expression!

Yet will I

References: Philippians 4vs4, 1 Peter 1vs6, 2 Corinthians 4vs17, James 1vs2

This is probably one of my most “personal songs”. It was born out of Tracy and my difficult trial of dealing with infertility. This led Tracy and I down a very long, hard path of fertility procedures and even 2 failed attempts at adoption where we lost both babies! Sounds unreal, but it’s true. We have been through years of trying to have children, and now wait to see what God has for us.

I have found that it is only through facing trials that scriptures like these become real to you. I can say that I have come to know God more through trials than through easy times. You realise that God is our only source of hope and joy in a world full of uncertainty and difficulty. We just need to learn to find our hope in him and not what this life can offer us. Our trials are momentary in the light of eternity. Whatever comes our way, we can rejoice because our hope is not in this world, but rests on Jesus. We are to consider our testing as pure joy because it’s producing something in us that only testing can – perseverance. We don’t give up.

I remember Tracy being very moved by a sermon by Dave Holden, where he spoke about the Father disciplines the one’s He loves. He cares so much for us that he allows us to grow through trials. He doesn’t want us to lack character; He is a loving father even when He doesn’t seem to be. Therefore we can be joyful. Joy is not happiness. For me joy is an inward knowledge and peace, an assurance that God is for me in all things. Happiness may be by product of Joy. Happiness is an emotional response, based on circumstance. Real joy is a Godly confidence!

Only Jesus

References: John 14vs6

One of my favourites! Why – because it’s all about Jesus! He needs to be the focus of our worship. I remember someone saying, “if Jesus is the answer, what are the questions?” At some point in everyone’s life they must ask, what is life all about? Jesus is the answer to all life’s BIG questions!

I guess this song is a collection of thoughts /questions on who Jesus really is. The questions are pretty much rhetorical aren’t they? This was based on John 14vs6 really emphasising that it is only through Jesus that we can be saved.
When considering who Jesus is, you are only left with the appropriate response of worshipping Him, by offering our lives to the One who gave His for ours.

Rend the Heavens

References: Isaiah 64

This song was inspired from a sermon by Malcolm Macall, a naval chaplain, visiting my church, Jubilee. I was so inspired I had to write a song on this scripture (Isaiah 64), expressing a real call to God to make His name known amongst the nations, a cry for Him to break in by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to continually call on God to break into our national and personal circumstances, by the power of His Spirit.

Yiza Moya

References: John 3vs8, 2 Corinthians 3vs17-18

This song flows so well with Rends the Heavens, it carries that same theme of God breaking in, blowing into our lives. We need the power of God by the Holy Spirit. As we surrender to Him,Hhe moves within us to change us to be more like him. Being a Christian is an onward journey of changing to be more like Him.

“ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

We need to be open to the Holy Spirit to move within us to change us. This is also a cry for the tangible move of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants us to know His touch as we gather corporately, He is there in our midst, blowing as the Spirit wills.

We who are Thirsty

References: John 6vs35

This began as a spiritual (spontaneous) song during a church prayer meeting. It comes out of a revelation that Jesus is the only one who can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls. The chorus of the song was developed after the meeting. I was seeking to qualify this need of ours to be filled with Jesus. That He is the bread of life, the living water. The only one who can satisfy. We often seek to be satisfied by other things, but as a believer we know that only Jesus satisfies, changes us and makes us new.

Overflow: The spiritual song following (overflow) is a real cry for the Holy Spirit to overflow in our lives. It’s a very simple little phrase I got during a time of ministry, while I was playing and singing in the background while people during a ministry time, God gave me this song to sing and fortunately I remembered it. We all need to be filled continuously, daily with the Holy Spirit. It’s not a once off thing. The idea is that we are to overflow with the Spirit. If we do that, then surely we need to constantly be filled. We must operate in thew power of the Spirit and not on our own strength, so this is vital to our lives as Christians. We need the Spirit to fill our cups to overflow!

None like Him

References: Romans 10vs9-13

9 "…That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

This song was written as my own personal creed as it were, stating what I believed. Hence – I believe… in each line. It is a song that declares the wonder of Jesus. That there is no one like Him. Show me a God like Him, one full of grace as He is.

I Want to Know

References: Philippians 3vs10, Ephesians 1

This was one of those “sudden songs”. While meditating on Ephesians 1. The Holy Spirit just gave me this song; melody and lyrics flowed from the word onto my paper. Those are always great songs to write. They aren’t all that easy and most songs won’t take half an hour to write some take over a year or so! I pray as Paul would that I would know Him better. This should surely be our life’s focus and goal – knowing Jesus more. Grasping the glory of Christ.

I Have Found

References: 2 Samuel 24vs24, Romans 12vs1

But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.

Here David expresses true worship. It is easy to give away something that you have plenty of, but when you have to give what you cannot replace – then it hurts! That reveals our priorities and where you place your trust. Jesus calls us to loose our lives, to die to ourselves. Romans 12vs1 calls us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. To give all of ourselves continuously as worship. When we give what we feel we can’t Jesus is there to take our trust and give us Himself. He becomes our reward. We die to live, we give to have, we loose to gain. This is the Christian life!

It is Good

References: Psalm 73vs22-28

When reading this Psalm, I was taken by the phrase:” It is good to be near God.” because that is my experience. Coming to know Jesus is better than anything in this life. He is my portion. I can relate to images of food (as you see in some of my other songs) so when I think of portions I think of a satisfying meal type buffet where you just can’t fit any more in. God is my portion in life, He fills me till I need nothing else. I can try and fill myself with other things, but until I’m filled with God, until he is my portion, my fulfillment, I will never be full.

He can be and will be my joy in life. He is my life; everything I am revolves around Him. I need desire nothing else but Him. He is my refuge and strength. It is good to be near to God rather than far away because what he has planned for our lives is so much better than we could ever dream or plan for ourselves.

As King

References: 2 Corinthians 8vs9, 1 John 4vs7, and John 13vs34-35

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

What an amazing concept. I was so taken by this that I decided; “I have to write a song with this!” This was one of those year and a half songs. I had the concept, but I was determined to try and make it a really meaningful song, which I now hope it has become. It had to be a song with good content and a nice, catchy melody, so I took my time! I was not going to rush it and end up with something mediocre. The music and melody changed a few times till I had an idea! When you look at the content of the song, obviously the key was to capture how Christ emptied himself for us! My favourite line is “You left Your throne and became Creator in creation’s hands” How amazing is that. How humbling.

Quite a long song for modern day songs: 3 versus! – I was a bit worried that we might loose the concentration of the modern generation! Anyway, I wanted to capture as well, the theme of the scripture and include not only what Christ had done for us, but also what our response to His amazing grace should be. Read the whole passage and it is written in the context of giving. The reality of being in the church where rich and poor should be together is something we have to face and sing about and do something about as the church, but we must see it in the light of how the Father did not spare his only son. He gave with great loss for us, a poor – ugly race! God’s heart is for the poor.

This led me to also think about the song melodically. I thought – this could do with an African symbol, signature in the song as Africa is a poor continent, where this whole concept can be so easily applied by the church. So I was inspired by what a local SA, group did - they managed to use the melodic line of “ nKosi Sikele” in one of my favourite songs ever – “weeping”. This was during the apartheid era and “ nKosi Sikele” was band, however, the radio’s played the song unwittingly, not knowing that they were supporting the struggle! Anyway, that aside, I used the chord structure to develop my own melody and listen to the intro; you’ll get the hymn coming through!
So yes this song is one of my favourites along with Simon Pettit!

One Thing

References: Psalm 27vs4

This song captures the heart of worship. To see God’s glory and beauty and to make him the desire of your heart. The one you live for. As you read through the life of Israel in the Old Testament, you realise that their greatest and gravest fault was having other god’s before God. God’s desire for us is that we should only want Him, need Him and love Him. That is true worship, expressing our dependence on God, that He is the only real satisfaction in life.

Being a Christian is not about following sets of rules but being won over by the lover of our souls, Jesus. We will only be affected for life when we look at the cross and see all that Jesus had done for us, how His great love was demonstrated on the cross for us. This can only demand years of devotion.

Great is Your Love

References: Psalm 145

What a great Psalm. I just had to write a song around this. This again is a song about the amazing love and faithfulness of God. I love that phrase “ His faithfulness reaches the skies” it is never ending can, you measure it, No! This song for me also expresses the sense that without God we have nothing. Being under His love has so many rewards. He is the one who satisfies our desires.