Thursday, June 25, 2009

This is Our God

Hillsong have done it again! Wishy-washy verses leading into a great chorus. After numerous readings I'm still struggling to understand the content of either of the verses in the song This Is Our God, but they contain solid Christian words such as the ever popular "grace" and "Jesus" and the not quite as popular but still important "word" and "Spirit", so I'm willing to overlook the lack of coherency.

And, needless to say -- but I'll say it anyway -- the first person singular pronoun takes its regular place throughout a Hillsong song. Why not just put in "we" and so forth? Given that the chorus takes on a plural scope ("Freely you gave it all for us", emphasis mine) it actually makes more sense to keep the song corporate throughout. Perhaps the songwriter switched to "us" only because it (sort of) rhymes with the word "cross" which is used on the subsequent line:

"Freely you gave it all for us
Surrendered your life upon that cross"

If the writer was really intent on being all personal, there was an available alternative:

"Freely you gave it all for me
Surrendered your life upon that tree"

Hey, I didn't say it was a good alternative...

Anyway, enough about what I'm not too keen on. Like I said, the verses aren't great (but still singable). The chorus is excellent though. Especially because it ties in with something I've been reading/writing about over the past few weeks, namely, we know God through the cross. Who is our God? He is the One who chose to make Himself human and die a humiliating death in our place. He is the God of power in weakness, the God who can bring life out of death. All of these wonderful truths are incorporated into a climactic chorus that celebrates the resurrected crucified Lord Jesus. Listen to it at 3:00+ on the clip below (by the way, isn't there a hint of "Fix You" by Coldplay throughout the song?)



Anyway, here are the lyrics to the chorus:

Freely you gave it all for us
Surrendered your life upon that cross
Great is the love
Poured out for all
This is our God

Lifted on high from death to life
Forever our God is glorified
Servant and King
Rescued the world
This is our God

Dare I ask, any thoughts?

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