My favorite version of Hosanna. Brooke and Darlene are absolute monsters in leading this song. I remember my first time hearing this at my sophomore year winter retreat. I specifically recall that the praise team band wasn’t all that good, but lyrically this song broke me.
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love
Like You have loved me
I think right now though, the chorus is what is hitting me the hardest. The people sing and cry out hosanna; the exclamation of praise.
I sat down thinking/meditating yesterday because both worship sets that I was a part of felt like it could have been a lot better musically, but it wasn’t. That frustration of the how-comes and what-ifs and mentally knowing what I could have done better was upsetting at first… but it made me think.
As a musician there’s always that sense of pride of landing the right note, hitting the breaks correctly, or feeling/hearing complements of praise that you are getting better at your craft. It’s important, and I will never let go of that, but that can’t warp and be my first instinct. Yes, it is important to practice. Yes, it is important to go over dynamics and how the songs should flow… but when that becomes my main focus and starts to blind me from the real reason we praise, that’s when it becomes dangerous. I feel like in practices, I can truly freely praise, but when it comes to Sunday, it feels like a “stage”. I think the sense of “doing everything right” proceeds and overtakes the urge to praise more.
As I urge the Resurgence praise team to do the same, I must do it as well. I need to constantly re-check my heart and take a step back to view and see the awe and glory of God, and once I do that, what can I do except praise.
Other than that, I think back to the times when I needed worship the most. In those times of difficulty, there would be a praise song or something that would connect with me the most and that desperation of music and worship is a reminder for me of why I worship. Not for self-gratification, but that our hearts long for something to worship when everything is stripped away.
It’s crazy to think that notes and words can emotionally and physically move people, but when I listen to music and other people, I’m moved. There is an actual emotional response to it… and as we refine and re-tune our hearts and minds so that our lives can become an act of worship, we realize how our worship is God’s way of renewal and restoration for us and those around us as well.
So even when we have bad days and can feel like crap… I think it’s a good reminder that we’re still human and that we need a God to renew us and restore us… and when that happens what can we do but praise. It’s an endless circle.
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
