Canter Bridge

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When people complain about the shallowness of all modern worship music, they haven’t heard Chris Tomlin. The singer has mastered Christian doxology that achieves true praise—the adoration of God rather than the introspection of self while one worships—by wedding language impregnated with biblical vocabulary to singable melody.

The ‘worship wars’ among which such achievements take their place suggest that Tomlin’s is no small accomplishment.

Arriving focuses on the Lord’s glory and its saturation of a world often too dim to understand that it’s been filled. But not all are sightless:

But rising up all around
Is the anthem of the Lord’s renown
Together we sing
Let everyone sing:
Holy is the Lord God Almighty
The earth is filled with his glory

Even with his focus on the Lord, Tomlin is able to express life here below, lived in the company of this Intimate Stranger:

You have my heart and I am yours forever
You are my strength, God of grace and power
With everything you hold in your hand
Still you make time for me, I can’t understand
Praise you God of earth and sky
How beautiful is your unfailing love
And you never change, God,
You remain the Holy One
And my Unfailing Love

This is brilliant song-writing, rooted deep in biblical faith, understated in the performance arts, contagious to those with a penchant for singing along. Arriving could be a university curriculum for the How To Write a Song that People Can Actually Sing major. May its graduates multiply.