This week in Sunday Setlists (Fred McKinnon’s Blog Carnival), we return with another recap on last Sunday’s service (shocker, huh?). Anyway, here we go:

1. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing  –  Robert Robinson, 1758 / John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, 1813
This song speaks directly to God. It’s a prayer of praise, thanksgiving and self-giving. My favorite line is “Bind my wandering heart to The// Prone to wander Lord I feel it//Prone to leave the God I love//Here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it//Seal it for Thy courts above” .

2. How Great is Your Faithfulness  – Matt Redman, 2009
We have done this song several times this month. Overall, I find it to be received well by the congregation. Musically, it’s very bright and elicits a strong emotional connection with its telecaster descants and smooth chord progression.

3. Jesus, I Come  –  William T. Sleeper, 1887 / Greg Thompsion, 2000
Stylistically, this old-ish hymn is a more stately and reserved specimen. Lyrically, it’s full of repentance. We reflect on the humility into which we must put ourselves for true repentance with simplistic instrumentation (vox with light guitar and percussion).

4, Mighty to Save  –  Ben Fielding & Reuben Morgan, 2006 alt.
Immediately after the confession, we sang a song of praise and thanksgiving. Mighty to Save is, as you would expect from the title, about God’s Saving Grace. It’s appropriate, after confessing our sins, to rejoice in our redemption.

5. Be Thou My Vision  –  Traditional Irish
The Irish know how to write a hymn! They all feel like battle cries; and in a way, they are! The act of worship and praise is a form of warfare, and it is important to put up a good fight. Satan hates it and tries to undermine it, but we are called to sing to God’s Glory under all circumstances. “Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight//Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight//Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower//Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.”

6. To the Only God  –  Chris Tomlin, 2007
To the Only God is a short and pithy doxology. It lifts up God as the only God worthy of glory and honor forevermore.

~Robert