CCM Radio Edition.

January 19, 2016. Today we’ll be taking a look at “Your Words (feat. Harvest)” by Third Day which currently sits at #13 on 20thCountdownMagazine‘s top 20 chart.

I find myself somewhat disappointed with this song, though it isn’t a bad song. When I saw the title of the song and that the song was from a “worship” album, I hoped for more meat in the lyric. I appreciate the general call to listen to the Words of God, but find the lack of definition or even application to be a disappointment. The value of this song hinges upon the understanding of what it means to “listen to and speak God’s Words”. The song doesn’t point to God’s Written Word. I have a problem with that.

Third Day Lyric Video

Lyrics (via KLove)

Your Words

Above all other voices
Above all the distractions in this world

Let me hear Your words
Above all other voices
Above all the distractions in this world

For Your words bring life
And Your voice speaks promises Lord,
Your love offers more
Than anything else in this world

Your words give us life that’s never ending
Your words bring us love that never fails
Everything else will fade away
But what will remain
Are Your words

Let us speak Your words
More than ours, more than ever
Let us share Your love with all the world

The grass will wither and the flowers will fall
But the word of our God will last forever
The grass will wither and the flowers will fall
But the word of our God will last forever

Publishing: © 2015 DATAMAMA Music (ASCAP)
(admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)
Writer(s): Mac Powell, Tai Anderson, Mark Lee, David Carr

Discussion

Okay, so if we come into this song with the clear understanding that “Your Word” is pointing directly at the Written Word of God, given to us by God the Holy Spirit, then the song is not bad. The song points us to reading and studying God’s Written Word, it might even encourage Pastors that the reason we come to church isn’t to hear his creative speeches or anecdotes; rather, we come to hear God’s Word faithfully preached. That is how we hear God’s Words, when they are being preached or read aloud. But that understanding of Your Words has to be imported into the song.

The song becomes instantly problematic once the listener is under the impression that God is speaking fresh words that we are somehow supposed to figure out how to dial into to hear them, or worse, that we need to seek out prophets and apostles to tell us what the Lord is saying for us today. The Bible doesn’t promise us we will hear direct revelations from God in any sort of audible voice, still small voice or thunderous booming from a mountain top. That is simply not what the Bible teaches. There are no more apostles, that office is closed, the foundation of the Church has already been laid with Christ as its cornerstone, and we have the testimony of the Apostles recorded for us in Scripture. God-breathed Scripture. Any so-called fresh word from God must be taken to Scripture to see if it is indeed from God the Holy Spirit… and if it is, then it would be good and it pointed us back to Scripture which is where Christ has revealed Himself to us anyway.

What I find most frustrating, is that this song, written for a worship album, squanders an opportunity to actually preach the Word of God. I mean, we’ve already pointed out that it doesn’t point to the Written Word of God, but why not connect what Scripture says about Jesus Christ being the Word made flesh?

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.

There’s plenty of scripture to connected these doctrinal points, such that singing this song might do more than simply extol the virtues of hearing and speaking God’s Word.

Hebrews 1:1-4 (ESV) | The Supremacy of God’s Son

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Singing this song, encouraging ourselves and others to desire to hear and speak God’s Words is much like singing a song that uses the word “Gospel” a lot in it without actually sharing the Good News of the Gospel. There is so little scripture in this song, just a vague praise of the Goodness of God’s Words.

Conclusion

We need God’s Word in our hearts, in our minds, and without hearing the Words of Christ there is no hope of saving faith, for faith comes by hearing the Words of Christ. Saying the word “gospel” isn’t the same thing as actually sharing the Gospel, and singing a song that says we should long for God’s Words and how important it is to have God’s Words doesn’t actually accomplish the goal of hearing God’s Word or Preaching it. I think this song was a huge missed opportunity, lyrically. Point the listener to the Written word, or the Preached Word, but don’t leave such open space in the lyric for false teachers, false prophets, and false apostles to step in and supplant the Word of God for their own dreams, imaginations, and machinations.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV) | Preach the Word

4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge