Yesterday at church, we sang one of my favorite songs, “Great Are You Lord” by All Sons and Daughters. It’s a very simple song to play, and as such, it’s one that I can get beyond worrying what chords I’m playing and focus on what I’m singing a little more. The chorus is so simple, yet so incredibly profound:
“It’s Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise to You only”
As we sang that together, as we lifted our voices, several hundred of us all singing the same thing, it hit me that this, this simple act of worship, just taking in a breath, filling our lungs, and then pushing it out as praise, is completely, totally, and utterly dependent on God’s grace and goodness. We sing it, “It’s YOUR breath in our lungs” but do we really get it?
The fact that I can take a breath is His goodness to me. The fact is, I woke up this morning and drew a breath, and His mercies were new again, regardless of my deserving them. Or that my heart and lungs and brain all worked together through the night to keep me alive, with no effort on my part…grace.
Or that my ears could hear the notes of the music we were playing, and could then help me to sing along on key (mostly)…all Him.
Or that my vocal chords could work together to utter the right words as my breath pushed through them…all His grace!
Or that my legs worked, and I could tap my foot along to the groove of the song…His grace again! My hands and fingers worked to play the chords, no matter how simple they might be…IT’S HIS!
You see, it’s not just that His breath is in my lungs. Genesis 2:7 says “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. My whole LIFE is His. Everything I am, it’s His! Psalm 139 says “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb” (vs. 13) and then “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Everything I am, everything I have, every breath I breathe and every song I play…they are His. He gave them to me in the first place.
What else could I do but return them to Him in praise?
(If you’re interested in the song, you can find it on itunes here)
The Wading Pool 