That Song I Like

There’s no accounting for taste.
I tilt toward the traditional in the worship wars. But must we war? And must we take sides?
Once in Memphis I waxed rhapsodic about Graham Kendrick’s “Knowing You Jesus”, at that time my favorite contemporary Christian song. A friend whose tastes are a bit more traditional than my own challenged me on the line in that song which says: “You’re the best...” . What could I say? She was right. The sentiment is true but trite and excessively casual. I suppose it’s there because it rhymes with the line before. But the song moves me nonetheless.
I know little about any genre of music but I am especially ignorant of Contemporary Christian Music. In November ,2007, I joined some YWAMERs (Youth With A Mission) for a week of study in Budapest . During their worship segment they sang a song I had never heard. I liked it so much I asked them if they would come to our church that Sunday and teach it to us. They were bound for places like Romania , Armenia and Egypt but they made time on the Sunday to drop in. It wasn’t a new song. Lots of people had heard it but somehow it had passed me by. Neither was it a song which had generated a lot of excitement. Nor can I say that the words are anything special. I found myself wanting to rewrite in parts. But the combination of the words and the music got to me all the same and made me want to worship. The words are an invocation –what some would call a bidding prayer. The YWAM team showed up and did as I asked, but I don’t think anyone was impressed like I was.
The next day I flew to the Mid-East.The plane landed at 4 in the morning. I was met by my driver, a National with a big moustache and a small gun. Then there was an American colleague who lives in country part of the year. We had a three hour drive ahead of us. The two of them discussed the advisability of leaving while it was dark. They thought it best to visit the restaurant and wait out the dawn. Finding the restaurant closed they shrugged, and we set out. No one asked me. I won’t say I was scared ,but if I had been offered an escort by The Light Brigade I would not have turned them down.
Our driver pushed in a cassette (remember those) and guess what?
I think it was the third song.
It was as if the Lord was saying “Did you forget that I’m sovereign over this space as well?”
I know I haven’t told you the name of song.
But if you click on below you can listen.
And , if you don’t like, it well…
There’s no accounting for taste.