Pure Praise

What song has brought you through a hard time?

Think about that for a minute…..Go ahead, do it. Take a moment..

What were your answers? Let me know in the comment section. I’m curious. ;)

I recently attended a workshop by Michelle Martin where she asked this question. Many answered songs like Oceans or Defender or a song that talked about “the hard time” they were facing. The first song I thought of was Forever Reign. Favorite part:

You are more, You are more, than my words can ever say...

But an answer I didn’t expect was given by the lady sitting beside me...Shout to the Lord. I was surprised! Really surprised! Not just for the age of the song but the type of song it is. It’s a declarative song. It’s purpose...to evoke praise to God. She went on to explain that it was the song that made her fall in love with God. I was moved listening to her talk about how it had impacted her life.

Shout the Lord has impacted millions of lives. Millions around the world use it every Sunday morning! I wanted to learn more about the writing of this song. What inspired it?

In an interview by Principle TV (click here to watch interview), Darlene explains how she wrote, Shout to the Lord. She was going through a difficult season of life. A time when “the dream in [her] heart and [her] reality were polar opposites”. Have you ever been in that season? I know I have.

One day during that season, she went to her piano to worship God. Why? She said, ‘because in the end that’s all we’ve got”. And she sang Psalm 96 through Psalm 100 and 20 minutes later, the song was born.

She worked up the nerve to share it with her worship pastor and they decided to use it for service.

Once I sang it outside of myself, the Holy Spirit just [blew on it] and it was gone. It was out of my hands.

The rest is history.

Songwriter, there is something so powerful when we sit, not for the sake of writing the next worship hit, but in coming to the Lord just wanting to worship him for who he is! “Because in the end that’s all we’ve got”.

Worship leader, make sure you value and make room in your setlist for songs that are pure praise. Your congregation needs to know the awesomeness of the God they serve. It’s a perspective that they greatly need to face the ever changing and broken world we live in.

God is unchanging and when we worship, we join the environment and choir of heaven, where the angels declare, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty!  And in those moments, we are reminded that He is still on the throne and in control of whatever we are facing!

As I sit in that workshop, listening to the sincere and sometimes tear-filled responses. I was reminded of the power of the praise. Pure praise.

Praise alone can win the victory.

Praise alone can woo a soul.

Praise alone can change a life.

So let’s praise Him!

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Amanda Blankenship

Singer/Songwriter, Worship Leader, Speaker