Hear The First Full-Song Preview From "Over The Grave" Now! "Only Your Blood Is Enough"

The other day, Sojourn Worship & Arts Pastor Mike Cosper and I were ruminating about the fact that it seems like forever (although it’s just been three months) since recording wrapped up on Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One. And only now in the closing days of May can we finally begin to share some of it with you.

Last Friday I posted info here on sojournmusic.com about the release dates for this project — live copies for sale during Sojourn’s appearance at Advance ’09 from June 4-6, physical copies for sale here beginning Tuesday, June 16, and a Louisville release party on Friday, June 19.

We’ll have details on the digital release of this CD to iTunes and other internet stores at a later date when we know more about some opportunities coming our way.  But for now, know that this CD will be available here on Tuesday, June 16.  IN FACT, YOU CAN PRE-ORDER NOW, AND WE WILL MAIL IT TO YOU ON THE 16TH.

Between now and then, we’ll share one new song mp3 every Tuesday on our Facebook and Myspace pages.  Today, we’ve uploaded “Only Your Blood Is Enough”.  Check it out now on either of these two channels:

Sojourn Music on Facebook

Myspace.com/sojournrecords

Neil Robins, who also produced, sang and played a variety of instruments on Over The Grave, wrote “Only Your Blood Is Enough,” adapted from “Psalm 51, Part 2″ by Isaac Watts.  We’ve been singing it live in worship at Sojourn Gathered for about three months.  It’s a fun song to sing, with a bridge that gives both guys and gals a cool part to sing — something we don’t often do with songs in Sojourn.  Beyond that, it’s simply a great, meaty song about the cross of Christ — only His blood is enough to cover our sin.  As Mike Cosper told Sojourn’s Dominic Gratto, in an interview for our quarterly news journal Travelogue:

I don’t have a favorite song (on the album) but I have a favorite lyric.  It’s from the song “Only Your Blood Is Enough.”  The lyric is, “no bleeding bird, no bleeding beast, no hyssop branch, no priest, no running brook, no flood, no sea can wash away this stain from me.”  It comes from Psalm 51 where the psalmist says that if God had desired a sacrifice, He would have brought it.

When we were recording that song, I told Neil that, because of the way the song is mixed, it would make a great pop song.  Apart from the lyrics about a “bleeding bird” and “bleeding beast,” I could really see Christian radio stations picking it up — but they don’t want to play songs about bleeding beasts.  It’s a little too graphic for them, but I think it communicates a really powerful message.

Listen to it today on either our Facebook or Myspace pages.  We hope you enjoy it.