The Creation, Fall, Redemption framework can guide song selection for next week's worship service. It did
not dawn on me until last summer, after reading Rhythms of Grace, an excellent book (2013) by Mike Cosper, that this
basic framework applies to the selection of songs in worship.
Sometimes we add the category of
Consummation to Creation, Fall, Redemption. I propose adding a few other
categories as well, for planning church music:
Creation
Fall
Exile
Confession
Repentance
Pilgrimage
Redemption
Consummation
We can sing songs from every category. By tending to the entire spectrum
of redemption, we meet worshipers where they are. We bring hope to people who
are down and out by offering them songs that deal with their failure, sin and
despair. These might be songs of exile, like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” For
songs of pilgrimage, “Lead Me, Guide” and “Wayfaring Stranger” are excellent
choices.
The Psalms, which Martin Luther
called “the little Bible,” offer this rich range of musical response and lament.
The best way to get at the range of redemptive history in music is to sing the
Psalms. I remember at boarding school how the teenagers used to choose “In
Silence My Soul Is Waiting” a 1973 rendition of Psalm 62 by Michael Seward:
In silence my soul is waiting
is waiting for God alone
deliverance from him is coming,
my rescuer, fort, and rock.
In silence my soul is waiting;
secure, I shall not be moved.
But it gets darker:
Just puffs of the wind, the people,
great men are illusions, all;
as breath in the air, they’re measured,
then weightless they fade away.
Be silent, my soul, in waiting;
secure, I shall not be moved.
On dark winter nights in Iowa, the
kids would sing this and many other songs, and I think it encouraged their
hearts to know that there was a place (church) where they could express
disillusionment. That’s what singing the whole redemptive sweep does.
Remember, though, that settling on just one area of the redemptive story impoverishes worship. For example, if you choose only songs about creation, and fail to sing about the offense of the cross, you will miss the power of the Gospel. And worship will be weakened if you only sing happy songs about heaven. Remember the whole redemptive
story in congregational singing.
