Lyrics (guitar chords):
See, what a morning, gloriously bright,
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem;
Folded the grave-clothes, tomb filled with light,
As the angels announce, "Christ is risen!"
See God's salvation plan,
Wrought in love, borne in pain, paid in sacrifice,
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!
See Mary weeping, "Where is He laid?"
As in sorrow she turns from the empty tomb;
Hears a voice speaking, calling her name;
It's the Master, the Lord raised to life again!
The voice that spans the years,
Speaking life, stirring hope, bringing peace to us,
Will sound till He appears,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!
One with the Father, Ancient of Days,
Through the Spirit who clothes faith with certainty.
Honor and blessing, glory and praise
To the King crowned with pow'r and authority!
And we are raised with Him,
Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered;
And we shall reign with Him,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!
(Written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend)
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26 comments:
That was beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Off to worship!
Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that one will be on the list this fine Resurrection morn'. In related news, our worship pastor is the best ever. :)
This gloating is unseemly, Trinian.
Please stop by to pick up my family and me on the way to church.
Amen!
Well, I'll tell you why in our case.
We completely lack the talent to pull it off. Pray for us. :)
Um, Dan...
... we did.
Blessed Easter to you,
Julie
Sang it. Very similar arrangement, right down to the amazing violinist.
And if I may say, our congregation sounded just as great. May have been because we were absolutely crammed into our little building because we had to cancel the outdoor amphitheater service due to inclement weather. But it was pretty great.
But just to avoid an unseemly fight with Trinian over who has the best worship pastor, and also to not cause dear Dan any further stumbling into sinful envy, we also sang "Mighty to Save", which is one of my least favorite newer songs. And I'm a vocalist in our worship ensemble, so I don't get to just kind of politely hum along. Our collective musical gifts sometimes work against us - our pastor sometimes gets sucked into choosing songs because we can sound really great musically, even when the lyrics are sketchy.
But, I will venture to say that my pastor preached about the best sermon on the fact of the Resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15 I've heard in a long time. So there. :)
Mean old commenters.
:^(
Very uplifting.
Brad: ditto...
Why? Simple: they don't have the talent. And there has to be a gifted person (music type leader) longing to look for music like this...then there's the musicians; then there's the room; then there's...
There: I said it.
I directed our choir singing this yesterday.
Just to rub it in, Dan.
And Rachael, we sang "Mighty to Save" as well (that one wasn't my choice). Hillsongs songs (is that redundant?) seem to be made up of mostly disconnected phrases of the approved worship lyric words.
But then we got to sing all the verses of "Crown Him with Many Crowns" and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today". That sorta beats down the fluff.
Down the street, they had the Jonas Bros. at their Easter service.
Meanest. Commenters. Ever.
Was it my tone?
Funny, we did Might to Save this Sunday also. It’s not terrible, but when you compare it to See What a Morning its fader. It will fade when the church is still singing the good stuff.
Right now my team is studying Worship Matters, an outstanding book by Bob Kauflin. It is my hope that the study will lead to better choices in music as well as a better understanding of corporate worship. If this subject interests you and it should, read the book. Should be required reading for all Christian musicians.
Not to exacerbate the unseemliness of things, but we also sang "Beneath the Cross of Jesus".
Rachael,
Not that I disagree, but why don't you like Mighty to Save?
I can’t speak for Rachael, whom I would never characterize as old, but besides being a disjointed message over all, the second verse is mostly about me.
Just to ease your pain, Dan...
we probably sounded nothing like the video. Our congregation is an eclectic mix of dairy farmers, laborers, firemen, and a few professionals. Um... no professional musicians. No worship team.
Just the pastor on guitar, one of the church ladies on piano, another electric guitar and bass.
And most of the folks probably don't actually read music.
But Easter was glorious, and filled with praise :D
Love that song. The choir sang it yesterday at church along with a number of other lovely songs.
Which makes sense, because our worship pastor is, well, phenomenal.
Mike,
David pretty much summed it up - it's not so a much a hymn or a spiritual song as it is a collection of poorly strung together "God phrases".
The grammar/syntax is really poor - it randomly switches from third person to second person singular to first to second to... etc. It sings about people, then about God, then to God, then about me....it's enough to make you dizzy!!
Then there are the dubious phrases about giving my life to follow everything I believe in, which, if I may say, a lot of people were possibly singing on Inauguration Day, and the bit about filling my life again, which is dubious theologically depending on how you define "again"...
Compare all that to the Getty hymn-it's one story told in the three verse, rich with theology that relates to the story, grammatically/syntactically crafted close to perfectly...
I agree with JackW - "Mighty to Save" is a fader - we probably won't be singing it in five or six years; "See What a Morning" will be an Easter favorite until Jesus comes back.
Our worship pastor loves the Kauflin book too; that's reminding me that I need to reread it and see if he covers how to actually lead and grow a congregation's discernment about what makes really good music vs. just going along with whichever demographic sends the most pleading emails because they just loooooove a song. :)
We sang it (sans drums)(unless you count the tympani as a drum, but since we're Baptist, there's some kind of tympani escape clause)....
.....anyway, we sang it for our Easter cantata.... The Risen Christ, a collection of Keith and Kristyn Getty songs that is just amazing! I was in the orchestra and was blessed over and over, even during the rehearsals by the deep, rich theology in the lyrics of the Getty's songs.
The Power of the Cross? Wow.
This the power
of the cross;
Christ became sin for us
Took the blame, bore the wrath
We stand forgiven at the cross
Unlike some of the pop Christian 7-11 fluff that we're bombarded with on 'family friendly radio,' the Getty's music is, I believe, music that will endure.
Love the Gettys; love the song; love the words; love the arrangement; love Kristyn's way of worshipping full of emotion without emotionalism; love Dan's nose being put out of joint... ;)
I've been pastoring the most wonderful church here in England for about a year (they are so awesome I have to keep pinching myself to make sure I am not dreaming) and, along with the elders, I am going through the "song list" weeding out the dross. I plan for there to be no Hillsong songs left when I am done!
David, can I pinch your "Hillsong's songs... seem to be made up of mostly disconnected phrases of the approved worship lyric words"? It's good!
This song is, like so much of what they do, a wonderful balance between contemporary and modern - the perfect blend for a Sunday Morning service when people come from a variety of backgrounds. This is what we are aiming for! One day maybe...
The Getty's songs will probably be sung for evermore.
Something weird's going on with this meta, and I didn't do it.
On the blog, this post reports 21 comments. Yet as I write, there are only 14 - and I didn't delete any.
David Musicguy says his all disappeared. He didn't do it, I didn't do it — can't tell you what happened. Except to say one word: Blogger.
If anybody wants to pinch my phrases, it's fine with me. Send me those phrase royalties, though.
Rachael, thanks for that. I appreciate you spelling out what to me was just, "I gotta weird feeling about that song."
+1 to what Paula said, other than I am Baptist too, and we have drums!
I can't believe that I have just come upon some of their music, other than In Christ Alone. I downloaded that album from their website last night, and am stunned by it. Paula, I agree about the song The Power of the Cross. If that one doesn't reduce you to a blubbering sinner as I am, you need to be checked for a pulse!
Thanks again Dan!
God is good. Since posting this, I've had the joy of becoming pastor of Copperfield Bible Church — and guess what we sang in our Resurrection Day celebration yesterday?
(c:
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