Jesus, Name Above All Names

Last week, I had several unrelated conversations with Christians about worship. One was concerned with the trend towards making musicians at the front ‘performers’ with the punters in the auditorium merely watching, adoringly. The other was about many worship songs being essentially selfish, urging the singer to sing about himself, with a bit of Jesus thrown in for good measure. Both situations are deeply unsatisfactory. This is not just me having a rant about modern music and raving about all those wonderful old hymns. Many old hymns were trash, never surviving to the second edition of their respective publications; the years serve as a filter, letting only the better material through. Nevertheless, I was thinking about the song Jesus, Name Above All Names by Naida Hearn and copyrighted back in 1974. It is a simple chorus, yet so honouring of the Saviour and thoroughly immersed in scriptural content:

Jesus, Name Above All Names,

Beautiful Saviour, Glorious Lord;

Emmanuel, God Is With Us,

Blessed Redeemer, Living Word.

Worship is not some youthful band bashing drums and strumming strings till their fingers ache; neither is it dredging up ancient doggerel set to complicated, archaic tunes. It is singing from one’s very heart one’s love for Christ, and adoring the Triune God’s incredible magnanimity in arranging our return to His presence. Furthermore, I cannot understand those professing Christians who frequently absent themselves from public worship. To we who believe, He is precious, and joining others to adore Him is a wonderful prospect, not a chore to be done, nor a mere duty to fulfill. 

This is a short recording of our singing it back in September, during our midweek service:

jesus-name-above-all-names.mp3