Today is “Discernment in Music” (DiM) day here at Faithful Stewardship (2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (ESV)).

April 28, 2015. Today we’ll be taking a look at “The Maker” by Chris August which currently sits at #17 at 20theCountdownMagazine.

We’ll continue using this top 20 song list until I find a better list. Your feedback in this would be greatly appreciated.

This is an emotionally centered song of encouragement with a generally Christian theme, though not explicit. It is theologically shallow, save for one solid line in the bridge. It falls squarely into the category of “well, that’s a pleasant song”. Let’s look at the song and then look at some related passages of Scripture to help us ground our thoughts in the Word whenever this song plays on the radio.

Official Music Video

Lyrics (via KLOVE)

The Maker by Chris August

I see You in the sunrise
I see You in the rain
I see You in the laughter
I feel You through the pain

Everything that You have made is beautiful
Oh, my God, I can’t believe my eyes
But in all of this to think that You would think of me
Makes my heart come alive

CHORUS
Your love is like a mighty fire deep inside my bones
I feel like I could climb a thousand mountains all at once
And I never have to wonder if somebody cares for me
I love the Maker
And the Maker loves me

I see You, You are creation
I see the grandness of Your majesty
The universe is singing all Your glory
I can’t believe You live inside of me

Everything that You have made is beautiful
Oh, my God, I can’t believe my eyes
But in all of this to think that You would think of me
Makes my heart come alive

CHORUS

More than just some words upon a page
You’ve shown me in a million ways
But there is one that stands above them all
Hands of creation on a cross

CHORUS

Publishing: © 2015 Word Music, LLC (ASCAP) / Wondrous Made Songs a div. of Wondrous Worship & Llano Music, LLC (BMI) (Adm. by Music Services) Produced by Ed Cash
Writer(s): Chris August / Ed Cash

Discussion

The song doesn’t press beyond the emotional level of “wow, God’s Creation is awesome and He loves me!” Is that bad? Well, if you are looking for real encouragement it falls short, but if you’re just looking for a pleasant song that acknowledges God as the Creator then it’s fine. I’d like to really give this song some solid points, though, for the bridge. Were it not for the bridge making a clear reference to the Cross, my overall opinion of the song would have been panentheism. I didn’t catch the line when I was just listening to the song on the radio or when I was reviewing the music video, but it is clearly in the lyric and once I started looking for it I found it in the video, so it’s there. It really saved the song in my opinion. I read his biography on TCM.com, and recognized that he really is just a musician trying to make a living playing music but also wanting to make “more Christian songs”. I think we should expect more of church worship leaders, but for “good, clean entertainment” I think he fits the bill, and hope the best for his career. Truly, I’d like to see evidence of a more grounded walk with Christ in his music with a little less of the artistic appeal to emotional inspiration we see in secular music. The world is lost, unbelievers who reject the God of Creation and are left to empty words of affirmation for their “inspirational music”. We have Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. We have the Truth of the Gospel preserved by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. That’s real, that’s deeper than any fleeting emotion or empty praise of men.

Psalm 95  (ESV) | Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
 let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”

Compare the overall focus of Psalm 95 to today’s song and see how they compare and contrast.

The strong point of this song is that it connected “the Maker” to Jesus’ Death on the Cross. Let’s flesh that out a bit more.

John 1:1-18 (ESV) | The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Indeed, Jesus is our Creator. He loves us enough to lay down His life in payment for our sin. Repent, therefore, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

John 3:16-18 (ESV) | For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Amen. In Christ Jesus,
Jorge