Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Sojourn’s Worship Music Set List For Sunday, 2/8/2009

You can read the worship music set lists of more churches from the Blog Carnival at fredmckinnon.com.  Photos here by Dan Canales.

1. Go Down Moses, traditional folk song, adapted by Sojourn’s Jamie Barnes.  Music by Jason Eady.  This was the second of our “Gospel Quartet” days at The 930 (Sojourn’s home in the Germantown section of Louisville).  Brooks Ritter, Rebecca Dennison and Katie Vaughn joined Jamie to create that sweet four-part harmony sound.  “Go Down Moses” is a great quartet song, and a fitting introduction to our service this week, since our Old Testament sermon series entered the book of Exodus on this day:

He said, “Go down, Go down Moses,

walk through the bottom with me

Go down, go down Moses

Lead the way home through the middle of the sea.

Walk through the bottom with me.

Go down Moses, with me.”

We followed with a call to worship reading based on Nahum 1:2-7.

2. Our Great God, by Fernando Ortega and Third Day’s Mac Powell.  This was one of the first songs I heard from the Sojourn congregation, when I began attending in 2004.  It’s a solid song of petition, adoration and trust in the promises of God:

Lord we are weak and frail — helpless in the storm

Surround us with Your angels; hold us in Your arms

Our cold and ruthless enemy’s pleasure is our harm

rise up, O Lord, and He will flee before our sovereign God

3. Psalm 3, adapted by Sojourn’s Rebecca Dennison from Isaac Watt’s metrical version of the psalm.  This one will be on the second of our two new worship CDs inspired by the hymns of Isaac Watts in 2009, the as-yet-untitled project with the “code-name” Low Wattage (because it will have a more earthy, Americana musical influence than our soon-to-be-released first project, Over The Grave).

The song takes us through the movements of confession and assurance, arriving at the chorus:

Arise, Oh Lord, fulfill Your grace

While I, Your glory sing;

My God has broke the serpent’s teeth

and death has lost his sting

Following this we read aloud together, words of assurance from Romans 8:15-17.

4. Then Sings My Soul, by Sojourn’s Jeremy Quillo, from our These Things I Remember album (you can find the chord sheet from that page here on sojournmusic.com).  Jeremy’s inspiration for this song came from the gospel hymn “How Great Thou Art.”  We do “Then Sings My Soul” as a simple, fun bluegrass gospel tune.

Here is my song, a sinner’s prayer for love

though words are not enough,

still I lay it down.

And at the feet of Christ, is where I find new life

this is my sacrifice,

so I lay it down

Then sings my soul a song to my savior,

A song to my God, “Oh how great You are!”

After the giving of the peace, Pastor Daniel Montgomery continued our 2009 Old Testament sermon series by entering Exodus, and the story of Moses.  You can follow along with Pastor Daniel and other Sojourn pastors and leaders as they write supplemental blog posts in “The B.C. Blog.” There are serious posts, like Worship Pastor Mike Cosper’s current article on the supposed differences between the “God of love” in the New Testament and the “God of wrath” in the Old.  And there are more lighthearted posts, like Pastor Daniel’s “Exodus Playlist,” an invitation for you to nominate songs that you’d choose for a soundtrack to the book of Exodus.

5. Oh Church, Arise, by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  Keith and Kristyn Getty were just here with us, leading us in their modern hymns on Friday evening and teaching a songwriting seminar Saturday morning.  This hymn, our communion song of the week, is a good example of why we brought them here to inspire and teach us.

Our call to war, to love the captive soul

but to wage against the captor

and with the sword that makes the wounded whole

we will fight with faith and valour

6. There Is A Fountain, by William Cowper.  Coming out of our time of communion and offering, we sang this as celebration and reflection:

The dying thief rejoiced to see

that fountain in his day.

And there may I, though vile as he,

wash all my sins away.

Following this we read Deuteronomy 6:20-25 together.

7. Warrior, by Dave Moisan, Neil Robins and Bobby Gilles (otherwise known as “me,”).  We adapted this from Isaac Watts’ little-known hymn “David rejoiced in God His strength.”  This will be on our upcoming CD Over The Grave: The Hymns of Isaac Watts, volume one. In fact, it will probably be the first song on the disc.  A lyrical excerpt, from the beginning:

David rejoiced in God alone

He was raised by grace to an earthly throne

But Christ the Son demands our praise

for His kingdom has no end of days

Worship band for the 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services:

Jamie Barnes — vocals,banjo

Brooks Ritter — vocals, guitar

Rebecca Dennison — vocals

Katie Vaughn — vocals

Dony Erwin — upright bass

Scott Slucher — liturgy readings

Worship band for the 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. services:

same as above, except that Jamie Barnes and Katie Vaughn handled the liturgical readings.