Why Songs from Scripture?

Here's what we hope you and your church gain from this music and the "why" behind everything we write:

Songs and hymns from Scripture help us to better know the mind of God and love Him by meditating on His Word. What if a pastor were to stand behind a pulpit, tell some great stories, make you laugh but never spoke from the Word of God? Should the words we sing in church be any different? Just as Word-centered preaching is so critical to the health of a church, so is Word-centered singing. Songs from Scripture help us to meditate on the life-giving Word of God and even help commit it to memory. Joshua 1:8 / Psalm 119:11 / Mark 13:31

What we sing helps shape what we truly believe about God. Songs from the Bible help us learn to think and pray with the Scriptures that have guided the people of God for over 3,000 years. God has not revealed everything there is to know in this vast universe. But in His Word, the Lord has graciously revealed everything we need to know for life and salvation. As our hearts and minds are saturated with Scripture, it comforts us, challenges us and changes everything. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 / John 15:3 / John 17:17 / Isaiah 55:11

Songs from Scripture re-center our worship of God away from trite platitudes to the surprising, refreshing and deep honesty of God’s very words. Anger. Confusion. Lament. Disappointment. These emotions are a very real part of life and just as much a part of true worship as peaceful calm or joyful praise. The Bible welcomes rather than avoids difficult, uncomfortable questions and emotions. So should our songs and hymns. Psalm 10:1 / Lamentations 3:49-50

We treasure the hymns of past centuries for their faithful love and devotion to God's Word. But that same Word calls us, over and over, to "sing to the Lord a new song" (Psalm 33, 96, 98, 149, Isaiah 42:10). We don't often think about it, but in the end, even the greatest hymns of past centuries are valuable only as far as they are faithful to God’s Word. We believe the healthiest worship values both the ancient and modern, the old and the new, all rooted in the eternal Word that will never pass away. Matthew 13:52 / Psalm 89:1

But our ultimate focus is not on the letters filling the pages of our Bibles, though they are God’s own words [not worship of scripture]. The purpose of the written Word is to reveal the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, to whom the Bible is always pointing [worship from scripture].

The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, saying something extraordinary: that the Bible is all about Him and His finished work on the cross. Jesus unambiguously underscores the point by saying it twice in Luke 24: "...beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself," (v.27) and "...everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures...” (vv.44-45). John 5:39-40 / Colossians 2:2-3 / John 1:14

We don't go to Scripture simply to accumulate information but to meet a Person, our God and Savior Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27 / John 5:39 / Romans 3:21-22). The Bible didn't die on a cross for your sins. The Bible is not the Savior of the world. But the Word is still precious beyond all description because it was given by the Father (John 14:24), inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) and ever points us to Jesus who will bring all His own safely home at last.

Sometimes in all the details and epic narrative of Scripture, we miss the forest for the trees: we are loved by a holy God and need to know it deep in our bones. It's His affection (not our great effort) that leads us to repentance and living each day we're given with gratitude and for His glory.

Jesus' disciple John referred to himself over and over (John 13,19,20,21) in the Gospel of John as “the one whom Jesus loves.” This is the new identity of every believer in Christ. God's love is not based on any good He finds in us, but simply in His free and indescribable kindness that we see most clearly in the Cross.

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