Lyrics

Today we’re going to talk about lyric writing for corporate worship. It is a great responsibility and a great honour to put words into other people’s mouths to express their worship. My personal motto is ‘make every word count’.

Miles and I love old hymnbooks. In the introduction of this one, John Wesley wrote, 150 years ago: “In these hymns there is no doggerel; no botches; nothing put in to patch up the rhyme”. In other words, every word counts.

Great lyrics take a lot of digging, a lot writing and re-writing, thinking, crafting, praying. We’re not looking for cloudy poetry where people think ‘I don’t know what it means but it sounds deep’.  No! We want to express biblical truth clearly, crafting lyrics that, in God’s hands, can bring life-changing, worship-inspiring sparks of revelation.

Brandon Lake says that a master lyricist can deliver big thoughts in tiny packages.

Brooke Ligertwood also says economy of language is important, because you want people to be able to understand it in their hearts straight away.

In ‘Before the throne of God above’, Charitie Lees Bancroft writes:

Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free

For God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me

That’s basically the doctrine of justification in four lines. That’s incredible, clear, insightful lyric writing. Consider the wonderful poetry in a song like ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’.

Intimate songs don’t need a lot of words, just one or two very clear expressions of adoration. The classic, beloved song ‘I exalt Thee’ has only 11 words in total. Sometimes less is more. It’s the authentic heart cry, born out of worship, that has carried that song through generations.

I once heard Matt Boswell talk about the importance of titles. CityAlight wrote a song called ‘It was finished upon that cross’. That title tells you exactly what that song is going to be about. A great title gives you parameters: ‘this is what I’m writing about’. It gives you questions to answer: What was finished, and how? And how does it affect my life? And it gives you an anchor because you can keep coming back to that same line at the end of each verse, if you want to.

Why not give yourself an exercise to think of song titles? If you’ve got a great title, you’ve got a great premise for a song. The CityAlight writers talk about filling the well – listening to sermons, reading books, distilling down ideas. And you don’t have to be in a rush. Make sure you have come to a place of understanding, your own lightbulb moment about a subject. Because when you can clearly communicate that, it will bring insight to others.

I reckon Judy Pruett had a lightbulb moment when she wrote this:

‘The grace of God upon my life is not dependent upon me, on what I have done or deserve, but a gift of mercy from God that has been given unto me, because of His love, His love for me.’

Note that nothing in that lyric rhymes, there’s no set structure. That lyric is one continuous statement of faith. That’s another approach to writing to consider.

A couple of practical little things:

Always respect the natural emphasis of words. We say beCAUSE, not BEcause – don’t distort the emphasis of a word to make it fit.

The other thing is take care to keep your syllable patterns the same across your verses. If, in verse one, you’ve established a pattern like ‘the joy of the Lord is my strength’, you have now set an expectation ‘that verse two will do the same thing’. Fine-tuning these things will make for a stronger song.

Great lyrics are conceived in the Word of God, and in a good grasp of theology, and then come into the world through heartfelt worship. A great place to start is J I Packer’s Concise Theology and Knowing God. Don’t rush through, take the time to digest that material. You will start to hear it coming out in your prayers and then, hopefully, your lyrics.

When we take very great care over lyrics, we serve the church well. I pray for joy in digging, gaining insight, and perseverance to bring the very best we can to serve the worship life of our church. Amen.