Becca Hermes

People are musical. You might not consider yourself musically gifted, but it doesn’t take a musician to love music. We constantly have music on – in our cars, in our homes, in our TV shows and movies. Melodies and lyrics run through our heads. I often find that I’ll have just one musical phrase on repeat in my brain, a song stuck in my head. And the music in our heads so often informs our thoughts. 

In fact, I would argue that the music of the church teaches just as much theology as the preacher, and sometimes it sticks more permanently!  We sing the songs over and over again in the course of our lives.  The repetition of the theology informs us of the great truths of our faith.  (As an aside, this is why it is important that our worship songs be theologically accurate! That is, they must teach us what is true about God and ourselves.)

But part of the power of music is that it can also penetrate beyond our intellects and warm our hearts.  Music awakens and engages our emotions in ways that few other things in this world can do.  It moves truth “from our heads to our hearts,” as the popular expression goes. It’s a gift from the Lord!

So when I sing the great truths of the faith, I often find myself breaking down into tears at the beauty, the wonder, and the power of the Gospel. I realize this doesn’t happen to everyone; in fact, the first time it happened after Nagib and I started dating, he was quite alarmed when he turned to look at me and noticed my waterworks! But for me, singing the truth makes my heart aware of how little I believe, how poorly I live out the truths, and how amazing God’s love truly is.

Back in high school and college, I sang on worship teams where we would often sing short praise choruses as part of our worship.  As a result of rehearsing the songs over and over again, the musical phrases that got stuck in my head were often these beautiful grand truths that could be summed up in a couple of lines but take years to fully grasp.

I would get a line stuck in my head, and suddenly I would find myself meditating on a simple truth like “Father of Lights, you delight in your children.”  So much love and truth and mind-blowing theology in such a little sentence! In a world where we take in content at a furious speed, maybe these short praise choruses can help us focus our hearts to meditate on truths that need time to sink in slowly.

So every so often, I’ll be posting one of these short praise choruses.  I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do – that they will calm your heart and your mind and turn your eyes to Jesus.  I pray the truths in them will sink down into the marrow of your soul.

Today: “Give Me Jesus”

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Give me Jesus

And when I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Give me Jesus

When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Give me Jesus