There are songs that seem to write themselves and there are songs that require a lot of work. ”Worthy” was one of those work songs. While certain parts of it came easily, other parts, I could never find the right balance of making it dynamic yet congregational friendly.
I put it on the shelf for a while and revisited it earlier this year. With some help from Amanda and our great producer, Anthony, the song finally took final shape. The song comes from different Scripture passages but primarily from Revelation 4.
What I love about this passage is it talks about the elders sitting on thrones in heaven. Whoever these spiritual leaders are, the fact that they have thrones in heaven is pretty noteworthy. In fact, the only thing to get them off the thrones is when Jesus enters the room! When the King of kings arrives, all the elders fall down from their thrones and cast their crowns to the side.
In worship, we often think that God owes us something. We come for what we can get. And sometimes, we feel like he should be honored that we are there. This song reminds me that he should not be honored in our presence, we are to be honored in his! In fact, when we enter worship, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with lifting ourselves up, we need to lift him up!
When the verses and chorus of the song became established, I wanted a more dynamic bridge. I wanted something ethereal, heavenly, and big. So I dug into the basket of chromatic passing chords and all kinds of sonic fun to make the bridge seem really majestic. The band did a great job making it sound huge.
Hope it leads you to worship a very big God! Here is a snippet of the end of the bridge and the chorus for you to enjoy:
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
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