Song Story: Aaron Keyes' Blessing and Honor

A few years ago, my band was leading worship and we began to flow into singing prophetically, singing new songs, and this chorus spontaneously came out: "Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto your Name oh Lord."

I kept singing it over and over, and the presence of God was really stirring in the room. Sometime several weeks later I was meditating on Proverbs 18 where it talks about the Name of the Lord being a strong tower, and I was also looking at Psalms 22:22 (which speaks of declaring the Name of the Lord in the great assembly) and Philippians 2, how the Father has given his Son the Name that is above all other names.

I started noticing how a lot of my praise, worship, and thanks to God had to do with things He'd done, as opposed to simply who He is, so I wanted to write a song that was simply about who He is. His myriad of names gives us great revelation into his nature, and I've clung to each of those names in that song at different points in my life. For example, we've gone through seasons where we desperately needed God's provision in our life, and calling upon his Name as Jehovah Jireh is a powerful prayer, not only because God does indeed provide, but in fact He is, Himself, the Provider!

So then, prayer becomes praise, moving from asking God to do something, to blessing God simply for being who He is. On and on I could go through the names, but suffice to say, I was only able to write about a dozen or so in that song. There were so many others I'd have wanted to include, but Jehovah Tsidkenu turned out kind of tricky to fit into a congregationally sensible meter!

So the idea of the song was simple, to sing through a few of his Names, meditate on what they meant, and then respond with that originally spontaneous refrain, "Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto your Name oh Lord!"

The bridge of the song came from a verse I saw in Job 38 (verse 7), where God describes the morning stars singing for joy and shouting at the dawn of creation. Then recently I read that scientists have discovered frequencies and sound waves coming from stars out in space! So I liked the thought of walking through several names of God, but ending with an explosive declaration that all the heavens declare the glory of God, and that Jesus is the Name resounding throughout the universe.

To start with his first name of Elohim (Genesis 1), to move through his eternal attributes (El Olam), his power and authority (El Elyon), his supreme sufficiency (El Shaddai), and to come to the end where we consider that He is all of these things (and so much more!) and yet still Immanuel, God with us... It seems almost too good to be true.

Aaron Keyes has served as the worship pastor at Grace Fellowship Church (outside Atlanta, GA) for the past seven years. His heart is to restore the Word of God to the foundation of corporate worship, and to see a shift in the next generation of worship leaders (who lead songs) to becoming more biblically empowered worship pastors (who lead people).
"Blessing and Honour" is from his debut album, Not Guilty Anymore, that released in August 2010 and which Foursquare.org says is "a rich and rewarding release from Aaron Keyes that spans the centuries to deliver a powerhouse of worship…Keyes does not offer us trite phrases and clichéd language, but instead presents the words of a true worshiper grounded in solid theology and love for Jesus, which lends a hymnic quality to the whole album...this album will be a treasure for those who find it."
View a video song explanation of the album's title track, "Not Guilty Anymore."
www.kingsway.co.uk

Publication date: October 13, 2010

Originally published October 13, 2010.