Singing Beauty: Songs of Devotion

John Piper wrote a book called Seeing Beauty & Saying Beautifully. Very basically it's a book about why the words we use to express the beauty of God we see revealed to us can, will and should be beautiful in and of themselves. In short, there should be an appropriate elegance to the form of the words we speak that faithfully represents the beauty of the one we are speaking about - as Christians, pastors, worship leaders...

And it's true, as demonstrated by the Psalms in particular, there is an instinct to articulate the beauty of God we apprehend in scripture and creation in a suitably elegant way. When the instinct to express our joy at having recognised something wonderful about God, it's simply not good enough to state facts. Yes clarity of thought is always important - to be understood is essential and if we are not it defeats the point. But the truths about God that we learn are often so thrilling that we want to talk about them in as beautiful a way as is appropriate.

The Puritans were great at this. Always coming up with pithy turns of phrase that expressed deep truth with a simple lyrical elegance. Not because they were marketers or psychologists with the aim of efficiently connecting ideas to dull minds, but because they had beheld beauty. And if you've ever read The Valley of Vision, you'll have an idea of what I mean.

Another master of seeing beauty and saying beautifully was Spurgeon. Here are a few choice quotes. And note how pastoral they are. Beauty is beneficial to people.

"Never dare to despair if God answers prayers".

"Who among us would wish to be deprived of the trials if they are the necessary for spiritual advancement"?

"He must die, or we must die, or justice must die".

It's something I try to do in my sermons. There is beauty to be acknowledged on a whole variety of levels especially in preaching I believe. As one of my favourite phrases goes "become so familiar with that sweet honey flavour of God’s word, that you will instantly notice the comparative bitterness of worldliness when it’s served to you". A true moment of the Holy Spirit's inspiration and something for which I'm very grateful for because of its usefulness to myself and others.

When the joy overwhelms, however, sometimes saying is simply not enough. And what I've found myself wanting to do of late is to sing what I've enjoyed learning about God. That means writing lyrics. I like to sing hymns of course, but they aren't necessarily specific enough to what I'm enjoying in scripture at any given moment. So I've put words together for a few choice passages of scripture that I'm particularly thrilled by at the moment. I see them as ways to help me worship in my personal devotions. 

There is something about singing and songwriting that is deeply spiritual. I believe that both of those things are instinctive responses to beauty that we encounter. And there is none more beautiful than God himself.

I find the Lord to be particularly beautiful as he reveals himself through the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 31:20 is probably my favourite verse in all of scripture.

Recently, I found myself really wanting to sing this particular truth, so I wrote a few lyrics down accompanied by a simple tune I can play on guitar. It’s a practise I’ve enjoyed very much and have found to be rather edifying as I spend time with God alone. Here are the words which I hope you can enjoy too.

I called it You Do Remember Still and the scripture references are included.

Verse

Lord, you came from far away, with an everlasting love.
With faithfulness and grace (jer 31:3) to be a father to a son (jer 31:9).

Yet your people had done evil (jer 7:30); truth had not strong grown (jer 9:3)
We held fast to deceit and you (jer 8:5), oh Lord, we had not known (jer 9:3).

Chorus

[But you said]

Ephraim is my dear son
He is my darling child

For though I speak against him
I do remember still
    I do remember still

Surely I’ll have mercy
On him declares the Lord

And you my darling child
Will be ashamed no more
    I’ll bring you back restored

Verse

[Still you say]

Our sin is what had grieved you, high places burned with fire.
Bringing up before you what would never come to mind (jer 7:31).

You said you couldn’t bear us (jer 44:22); like fire is your word (jer 11:14).
In shame we were ruined and (jer 9:19) your prophet held his prayer (jer 46:12).

Chorus

[But you said]

Ephraim is my dear son
He is my darling child

For though I speak against him
I do remember still
    I do remember still

Surely I’ll have mercy
On him declares the Lord

And you my darling child
Will be ashamed no more
    I’ll bring you back restored

Verse

Keep your voice from weeping, keep tears from your eyes (jer 31:16).
Thus says the Lord: Behold; here is the way of life (jer 31:35).

Behold his name is Jesus, and he is my dear son.
He’ll turn your mourning into joy (jer 31:13), through the power of his blood (jer 2:34).

Chorus

[Now we say]

In Jesus is your dear son,
I am your darling child

For though you spoke against me
You do remember him
    And you remember still

Surely you’ve had mercy, for
on Jesus wrath was poured

In him I am your dear son
In him ashamed no more
    In him I am restored