“Enter His Gates” – Storytellers

I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  The title song, “Enter His Gates,” was a song I wanted to write for a while.  Psalm 100 is such a rich portion of Scripture and such an enduring call to worship.

We have used this Scripture as teaching for much of what we do at North Side.  We are not called to enter into God’s presence and then start the thanksgiving and praise.  We are called to enter in already in the process!  Worship is a lifestyle, and so when we gather together with God’s people, which is a very special thing, we should continue to give thanks.

The song came about in one of my favorite ways – Bible open at the piano and just singing Scripture in my home.  The verse came first.  The chorus was a little tricky at first, because I wanted the vocal range to open up at the chorus, but the verse steadily climbed up the scale.  There was a key that made a tenor sound great.  There was a key that made a soprano sound great.  But, since this is meant for worship, we went with the key that worked for the congregation to sing out the most.  It happened to be Bb.

No bridges on this song.  Just a simple verse and chorus singing Psalm 100:4-6.  While many of the songs on this album are very wordy, this one, as a call to worship, didn’t need anymore.  It is a call to worship.  Scripture is the text, and that is plenty to sing out.

When we recorded it, Peggy and I took lead parts on the song.  She sounded great, but I also wanted a choir to back us up.  We got a lot of singers in the studio one day, and it ended up that the neatest route for the song was for a collective of voices to sing out at first.  No one was distinguishable, just a group of worshipers.

The song caught on very quickly at our church a few months ago, and it has been a pleasure to lead it.

You can get your copy on iTunes here or take a listen below:

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