“I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5)
“With your help I can advance against a troop, with my God I can scale a wall” (Psalm 18:29)
“The heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones”. (Psalm 89:5)
These are wonderful statements of faith! They don’t quite fit into the Intention to Worship or Worship Song categories, but they are directed to God himself. More examples of these expressions in the Psalms are Psalm 4:8; 7:1a; 8; 9:10; 15; 23:4; 27:8; 40:6-10; 42:1; 48:9-11; 119:89-93, 97-104, 129-131.
Over time, we have dubbed these “Proclamation Songs”. They have more of the words “I” and “we” in them than the Worship Songs. However, the phrases differ from the “I will praise you” phrases of the Intention to Worship songs. They are more like “I trust”, “I can”, “I believe” phrases. The grammatical subjects can also be “the heavens”, “the nations”, etc.
Prophetic songs often fall into this category as well, as long as they are being directly sung to God himself.
Proclamation songs are effective when used to remind ourselves of the promises of God. However, the frequent use of the “I” and “we” in many of these songs can take us dangerously close to self-determination and humanistic thinking. The best way to counter this is to always follow these songs with vertical Worship Songs – the “You” songs. We appreciate your Comments
