Song Writing

I'm finding the best songs I write are those in the structure of a psalm. A heart cry of emotion and sometimes despair to a transition of God's answer/praise.

The emotion is real as the dark cloud would not seem to lift. But like a whisper in the night through the cries of sorrow I am reminded who you are.

I find songs come to me in many different ways...from the whole song just appearing in me, to digested scripture oozing out over time, to, for instance, Psalm 23 becoming a love song that I sing to the Lord. It brings me great peace. To me, songs are arrows in my quiver.

This is why I love the structure of a psalm. So many begin with despair but end in praise. Sometimes a song may be a few verses, chorus, bridge, etc but hold a season of life that expands a few months to years. It took those months to years to get from the despair to the praise. While other psalms teach the lesson of bringing the praise to the despair as in no matter the outcome, we are still praising the Lord. Either way is the way of the human. We do not always respond in immediate praise as we are emotional beings who still deal with things like fear, anxiety, depression, etc. But the lesson is that the praise will come. We must be patient and endure knowing that even in our lowest, God is still in control.

A favorite song of mine, "Kiss The Son," by Kevin Prosch, is one that, though from a few decades in my past, I still relate to intimately. As I do with Isaiah 38. He is so good...He never abandons us!

I'll have to give it a listen. Thank you.

I didn't realize that if I'd stood far enough back from the forest, I would've seen that the storm I'm going through has been the Lord separating me from the crowd until I read your first installment.
I relate with the back trouble as I injured my spine at work some time ago. I had a discectomy done, though it was 2 years before it helped. For 10 years I went with no back pain, but then, due to degenerative disc disease, got bilateral sciatica.
Perhaps I understand what you must go through. Do you play an instrument?

You probably do quite understand the mentality that I often have to fight through.

I play the guitar as a hobby.

Back pain, as I found out, is one of many issues brought about by a back injury...including how others respond to it.
I play a guitar too. Mainly worship music from the 80's and 90's. And of course, my own stuff.

It is a relaxing hobby. I'm at a point where I have grown stagnant in musical growth. Last time I met with a more experienced player one a week for at least a year and grew a lot but that ended and now back to stagnant. I still struggle with timing, transposing, finding the right key, finger picking, and duplicating the whole song. Like I can get the chords and rhythm most times but get lost in the transition to solos. But I also understand that playing just acoustic I will not be able to duplicate every sound in the song.

For some time, it was a hobby for me. Then I was part of a church plant, was anointed by the Lord, started playing along with a small-group worship leader, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was leading the Sunday morning worship team. It was an exciting time, but it came to an end and I haven't led worship in 20 years, due to health reasons.
I'm blessed to be able to profit from my anointing, as it helps me enter into the Lord's manifest presence. Though for many years, I found it difficult to worship the Lord or even play much. He changed this last year.

Awesome, what happened last year?

Last September as I was singing along with the Maverick City song, "Promises," and (look, I don't know how to put this theologically, it's just how it seemed to me), Jesus resurrected, with me, in my heart. Ever since that day, the Lord has seemed more real to me, on a consistent basis, than ever before.
It's like I've been having a one-man revival. Back in the 90's, I was part of a move of God and this is what it seems like to me. Except now I spend almost all of my time alone.

That time alone could be like the desert experience of Moses. Your experience like the burning bush. It may be time to come forth from the desert and in faith be ready to move where God wants you to go.

I'm waiting for that...as He leads. Sometimes it seems like we're never going to get there, though His presence is still with me, and He occasionally speaks reassuringly to me...like He is now through you!
Though there is no way for you to understand what your words are actually saying to me, I do.

I know how you feel but it is easy for us to read over how long it took Noah to build the Ark, Abraham to have his son Issac, how long Jacob worked for Rachel, how long Joseph was in prison, Moses in the Desert, how long the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, Joshua served under Moses before leading the Israelites, David before becoming the King, Nehemiah as the cupbearer before being known as the wall builder.

It is easy to forget these detail especially the details of how many times God actually spoke to these individuals. Some being only a few times throughout their whole life.

I need to remember what He's told me...sometimes I think I'm too old.
This is the day that the Lord has made...we will be glad and rejoice in it! - Psalm 118:24

I remember a few people in Scripture saying the same thing lol. Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth. In context of course this was over childbearing but it just goes to show God does not operate within our time scale.

All things are possible, if one only believes!

Amen!
Within the will of God and His sovereignty, if God wants to do what is physically improbable or naturally impossible, then nothing will stop the miraculous actions of the Lord.

I've decided that when it comes to me and the things He's told me He's gonna do with me, if He doesn't do it, it ain't gonna get done. But since He said it, He'll do it.