By now, most of my regular readers know that I am still catching my breath (or wringing my wrist) from the long and drawn out music debate we had here, occasioned by the fundamentalist blogosphere’s rumblings over John Piper’s use of a Christian rap musician in a worship service. Well in the midst of that whole debate, I was extremely blessed by none other than a CCM style Christian song.
I had picked up my sister’s Carried Me, worship album by Jeremy Camp, and was listening to it over and over again. And one particular song struck me. The song “Wonderful Maker” really did produce in me a greater love for Christ and moments of genuine and intense worship—the genuine kind of fruit that I mentioned in my debate (and which you would have read about if you stuck it out all the way to the end!) And then, in worship this past Sunday morning, we sang this song! Let me share the song, and then direct you to some links where you can sample the song.
Wonderful Maker
Verse:
You spread out the skies over empty space
Said, “Let there be light”
To a dark and formless world Your light was born
You spread out Your arms over empty hearts
Said, “Let there be light”
To a dark and hopeless world Your Son was born
Bridge:
You made the world and saw that it was good
You sent Your only Son, for You are good
Chorus:
What a wonderful Maker
What a wonderful Savior
How majestic Your whispers
And how humble Your love
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a Father
How majestiv Your whispers
What a wonderful God
Bridge:
No eyes has fully seen how beautiful the Cross
And we have only heard that faintest whispers of how great You are
Words and Music by Chris Tomlin & Matt Redman
© 2002 WorshipTogether.Com Songs / SixSteps Music / ThankYou Music (ASCAP) admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing
The accompaniment of this song is appropriately thoughtful and worshipful. And the chorus becomes a glad song of praise. The music lifts your song up as the chords crescendo. Regardless of what might be said of other songs, this one definitely majors on communicating the message of the song. (I threw this line in on account of the recent debate!)
To hear a sample music clip of this song, click here But I did find a YouTube video clip that has the entire song on it. Now the picture is really dark and grainy, and is of some kind of “expressive” worship dance. But you can ignore the picture and just enjoy the whole song (of course, if you have broadband that will be easier to do). If you like the song, you can buy just the clip here, or you can order the CD by clicking on the picture of the CD’s cover above.
You can also click here to see the chord chart for this song, and here to see a preview of the musical score (you can also purchase the score if you want). Lastly, to learn more about Jeremy Camp as well as the authors of the song, Christ Tomlin and Matt Redman (2 of the best worship song writers today), click on the following links: JeremyCamp.Com, ChrisTomlin.Com, & MattRedman.Com.
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7
Bob,
I believe that Northwestern College Radio has a station or two in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. They also have a station here in Sarasota, Florida called LIFE FM 89.1. They are my favorite, and many of the songs you have mentioned in the past (on this blog) they play here at the Sarasota radio station. Thanks for your attention to the various contemporary worship music coming from Christian musicians.
Larry,
Northwestern College is based here in Roseville, MN. They run KTIS (LIFE) FM 98.5 and also 900 AM I believe. And yes, I really appreciate much of the music they play.
I quite agree – this is one of the best songs of it’s genre in recent years. Try Matt Redman’s own take on it (on ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’) or Chris Tomlin’s (on’Not To Us’).