James’s Blog: Now That’s What James Calls Worship #1.

My friend Terry writes a blog and has been doing an enjoyable series of posts on Christian albums that have had an impact on him over the years. I’ve been thinking of doing something similar myself for a while, mostly as a follow-up to my own post from last year, but I didn’t want to just copy Terry. That’s not cool. So, instead I thought of something completely different and totally not related in any way to what Terry has been doing.

One of the things I’ve hinted at in the past is that there aren’t many contemporary worship songs that I find helpful in drawing me into an attitude of praise. What I’ve decided to do is take a brief look at some individual songs that I have found particularly helpful (see – it’s totally different to what Terry is doing).

First up is ‘Lift’ by Mortal.

I’m not really very good at defining bands by their genre or style, but Wikipedia tells me that Mortal is an ‘industrial/dance band’ which is probably as good as anything I could say. What I do know is that, musically, Mortal did an awful lot for me at a time when I was struggling to engage with the worship that I would typically find in church on a Sunday morning. Terry lists the album ‘Fathom’ as one of his favourites of all time, and I would agree with that. It’s fantastic.

One of Mortal‘s side projects was a band called Jyradelix, and ‘Lift’ appeared first (I believe) on that album in an early-90s rave edition. I prefer the crunchy intensity of the Mortal live version. Fair enough, it’s not really built for congregational worship, but this is a style of music that speaks to me.

I’ll admit that I’m not thrilled with the chorus:

God is love,

And love is God,

And He’s invincible.

The ‘And love is God’ line is annoyingly ambiguous, but I know what I mean when I’m singing it, and so does God. However, I typically associate Mortal with lyrical artistry, and this song doesn’t disappoint. For example:

Effecting and causing,

Almighty Lord of time and space,

Who was and is and is to come,

One Love worthy to be praised!

I feel like there’s a tendency in modern contemporary worship to focus on praising God for what He has done for us. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but these days I find myself getting more excited when we sing something that focuses on praising God for who He is. After all, even if God had done nothing for us, He’d still be worthy of praise. ‘Lift’ covers that base, and in spades, in the sections like the one above, which consist of nothing more than epithets. Honestly, ‘Effecting and Causing’! What an absolute corker of a title to throw at God. I love it!

As I continue this series Mortal will probably pop up again, at least once more, so look out for that. In the meantime, if you want to know more about my musical tastes so that you can use that information against me, this is the series of blog posts to look out for.