The Voice Of The Lord

In February 2010, I noted a goal in my journal to write one song a week. On October 5, 2010, my father's birthday, I made the decision to pick up the guitar again... to just start. It was the most simple and most necessary step toward the goal. I got out a little praise book that my friend Karen, from Lighthouse Community Church in Bridgewater, NS, had passed on to me a couple of years earlier (later saying she felt it was to "prime the pump"). I looked up the guitar chords for a few songs, and started to play.

One of those songs, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, eventually became the genesis for The Voice Of The Lord. I love those minor chords. And I love the way King David searched for words powerful enough to describe God's voice. It's the first psalm that ever jumped off the page to me. The final prayer is a comfort, "May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace." - Psalm 29:11

With the "pump primed" and the first song completed, I continued the daily discipline of picking up the guitar to see what would come. New melodies began and my journal became a great resource for lyrics. By the second week, I had a second song, again from the psalms. I didn't know then that the psalms were to play a large role in the songs I would come to write. Song Of Victory was almost too simple. It's more like a chant that you would hear at a pep rally. It's like a battle cry - the post-battle song of the Spirit as it moves over the land. Do you hear it? - Psalm 118:15-16

To end on a softer note, but to continue with the theme of the voice and song of the Lord, I share this little lullaby The Sweetest Of Sounds. It's lovely to think of God singing over me - knowing an atmosphere of his love is around me all the time.

Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

E.