I am so small I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small, but they see enormous things.
- Rumi
I heard this line in the middle of mewithoutYou's song, "Four Word Letter, Pt 2," and immediately thought of David Crowder's "Everything Glorious."
My eyes are small but they have seen the glory of enormous things which leads me to believe there's light enough to see that
you make everything glorious you make everything glorious you make everything glorious what does that make me?
I have to admit that I'm dorky enough to really appreciate things like shared source texts. I feel the same way about little musical riffs that just-maybe pay homage to each other, allusions to other artists or people in songs, or songs that complement each other in terms of lyrical growth or theme. I think this is why I like making themed playlists- I really like to sythesize and connect the dots.
For example I love Psalm 24, here are some of my fave songs that reference it.
Jon Shirley: Who Can Ascend? Chris Tomlin/Charlie Hall: Give Us Clean Hands Rich Mullins: My One Thing Matt Redman: Lead Us Up the Mountain, Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?
Okay, I love it when anyone sings about the Kingdom, but STILL!
Once again, I like the overtones of justice.
Echoes of Psalm 24 and 1 Corinthians 13:12 and St. Theresa of Avila? Sweet. (Okay so that last bit I only caught because Matt mentioned it in his blog.)
There is this weird sound at the end of the chorus- I don't know what that sound is but I like it!
I feel like the themes that develop through this album are distilled well here.
Okay, I'm sort of embarrassed to admit that I love this song but I CAN'T HELP IT! I don't know why it sort of initially makes me cringe. Is it because there is something reminiscent of Matt West that rubs me the wrong way or is it because the opening verse is catchy but the lyrics are, like, what?! Apparently we have Bill Staines and his perky banjo to thank for this but I would be quite interested to know where that came from!
I really like the sentiment of the words (I can't sing so I like it when Matt says things like, "sing louder! God gave you that voice, so He deserves to hear it!" to people like me.) but am I the only one who thinks of this when I hear the words "bird on a wire"?
So despite that this song makes me really happy and, trust me, when I am in my car there will be car-dancing!
Plus after the cartoony lyric, I really like the words to this song. I like the emphasis on community (something I feel like Matt has always managed to describe well) and JUSTICE! Yes! I am so often turned off by singing "worship" songs that are all about our inner, individual relationship with Jesus with no context for finding Jesus in the least of these. Instead of praising the Lord joyfully I find myself stewing over scriptures like:
Amos 5
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, [b] I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Isaiah 10
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
Isaiah 5
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
So I like the final verse which point us to what worship is really about- if we follow Matt's injunctions throughout the song (lay down our sin...remember the day our freedom began) we can't help but be moved in this direction.
I appreciate the upside-downness of this song; that's what the Kingdom is about! And, yes!, it's absurd!
Finally, despite the uncertain beginning the song ends up rocking and I can't wait to hear Matt and the guys rock it live. I especially love the drums towards the end. Plus it has that extremely reckless, joyfully vulnerable, lack of pretension a la Crowder's "Undignified."
One of my roommates once declared that even King David would be embarrassed to dance with me (thanks Ronnie.) but with this song we could definitely give it a shot!
look like a fool matt maher
all God's creatures got a place in the choir some sing low and some sing higher some just hang out like a bird on a wire waiting to fly home
all God's children are the apple of his eye even the ones we can't stand sometimes but because [...] just to go outside and i need something to sing with this neighbor of mine
and that's why grace is so amazing! that's why love is so absurd! and that's why i sing for a God of changing that's why i don't care if i look like a fool!
all God's people got a reason to live joy for the hard days and true love to give and we raise our hands and lay down our sin and remember the day our freedom began
(chorus) foolish grace is so amazing! that's why love is so absurd! that's why I sing for a God of changing! that's why I don't care if I look like a fool!
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked giving the homeless a place to rest visiting the prisoner lifting up the lowly by our fruits may you shine on us! shine on us! shine on us! Lord, shine on us!
