My Favorite New Music

This Sunday our church had a special concert with Matthew Smith, a musician who is a part of a community of musicians called Indelible Grace. This group takes old hymns and sets them to new music; and not just well-known hymns, but some really obscure ones too. Very cool. I bought one of their CD's at the concert, and it has on it a rendition of "And Can It Be" that is amazing. Hymns rock. There is just something about worshiping God not only through good music but also through words that really make you stop and think "what does this really mean? what do these words tell me about God or my relationship to Him or my human nature?" I think sometimes the urgency (or perceived urgency) of our culture robs us of the habit of thinking contemplatively and meditatively on thoughts that are not immediately grasped. How often do we really take the time to challenge ourselves to understand something that may not come easily? (I admit I too frequently bypass the challenging for the easy).

Some of the lines of these hymns take some working over to really understand. Take these lines written by Augustus Toplady:

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view

The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is yea and amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Not all things below nor above
Can make Him His purpose forego,
Or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

I had to look up what the word "indelible" means (adj.: that cannot be removed, washed away, or erased). Grace that cannot be removed. That's powerful. Several weeks' good preaching could be spent unpacking all the meat in these lines. (But that's another topic!)