New/Old/Unexpected Worship Music

This week, two songs that have tearfully brought me to worship God as Lover and Redeemer are “Roxanne” by the Police and “All Creatures” by Josh Garrels.  I want to share the lyrics and tunes with you adding just a little context.

“Roxanne”

Context: Hosea was ordered to marry a prostitute as a symbol of God’s relationship with Israel (Hosea 1:1).  Yahweh uses writers in both the old and new testaments to constantly call us (the adulterers) back to him.

Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light
Those days are over
You don’t have to sell your body to the night
Roxanne
You don’t have to wear that dress tonight
Walk the streets for money
You don’t care if it’s wrong or if it’s right

Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light

I loved you since I knew you
I wouldn’t talk down to you
I have to tell you just how I feel
I won’t share you with another boy
I know my mind is made up
So put away your makeup
Told you once I won’t tell you again
It’s a bad way

Tim Keller says in his book The Meaning of Marriage that the gospel is this: “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” His desires for us are so much better than our own (Jeremiah 29:11).

“All Creatures”

I believe Josh Garrels to be prophetic in many of his lyrics. This song is especially powerful, and it reminds us that we don’t have to settle for anything less than God’s plans for us through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Be blessed by this.  (It goes quickly, you’ll probably need to read along.)

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and let us sing
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia.

Creation sent to me the centipede
To witness the complexity
Of one hundred legs that were moving unexpectedly
Ironically, just as they were meant to be
They’re fearfully and wonderfully made
An organism prays in circadian rhythms
The sun will rise, and the sun will set
The sun will rise again so lift up your head
This is life, not a static object preserved and displayed
Like a relic of the dead
You are not a fruitless tree with a rootless disease
Growin’ in a bucket in a rich man’s home
Next to the TV, tamed and alone
Learnin’ to lust for the things you don’t own
Like an armchair warrior who’s been dethroned
Declawed and fixed
Fightin’ for your life with unattended slit wrists

Don’t let your name get intermingled with a number
Cause it’s time to awaken from the devilish slumber
And freely follow the forerunner to the Fatherland
And rally ‘round the Renaissance man
And the wisdom of His ways
And all the work of His hands
Catch come as catch can
Concentrating on the good words of the Son of Man
The plan is to withstand the demands of a confused oppressor
A wolf in sheep’s clothes with monotonous lectures
And questionable gestures
Unequal measures
Cultural pressures
And synthetic textures
Force fed instead of the most beautiful architecture
Of our long lost, forgotten origins
Earth, seed, fiber and the blood of my kin
And that old rock where we confessed our sins

Oh, my God, fellow man, and this great land
They all cry out for full restoration
And this will take patience
And this will take the tribes and tongues of all the nations
And all of creation groans in anticipation
Waitin’ for the Son of God to be manifest
And I can feel it burnin’ in my chest
The liberation for the oppressed
And it’s beautiful like the feet that bring good news
It’s beautiful like this freedom tune
It’s beautiful like the power to choose, to change
Beautiful like the long awaited rain
Beautiful like the healing pains
Beautiful like to holy flames
Coming down

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and let us sing
O praise Him! O Praise Him!
Alleluia

This song is literally my alarm clock every morning, and I pray that its truths can stir our hearts to the worship of God day in and day out.

Shalom