We played this song in Church on December 14.  Can’t wait till the snow clears so I can get in and mix it down.  Between practice on Wednesday and Sunday morning we made a few slight changes and I wanted to give y’all the latest version and explain the changes.  Matthew Stinson and Tyler Cutforth, Cedarhome’s new Worship Interns, took 5 or 10 minutes to really comb through the lyrics in detail and do some fine tuning.  We all agreed that the verses needed some simple switching, which you’ll see below.  It flows better with more punch now.  The only other changes we were still waffling on were pointed out by Tiffany Welch, as she read it too:

Verse:

Forget about our sin////Remember not our sin

In terms of ancient vibe and maybe even technical theology, I prefer Remember Not.  Choosing to not remember is slightly different than forgetting, which typically implies inability to remember.  Do y’all see the difference?  “Forget about” is definitely preferable as far as natural flow and more typical modern grammar.  Readers, what say you?  Please feel free to weigh in.

Bridge:

And yet we call to You///And yet we call on you

Again, “call on” sounds more ancient, flows better off the tongue and corresponds nicely with “wait on”.

“call to” provides contrast and is a little harsher on the tongue.

What do you, my readers think?

Here is then the whole song with “forget” and “on”.

We wait on You (Dm)

Dm               C
Don’t be angry with us God
G                  Dm
Forget about our sin
Dm                       C
Our hearts are dry and thirsty
G                       Dm
Lord, spring up from within

Dm                          C
Don’t hide your face from us Lord
G                  Dm
Please wipe away our sin
Dm                     C
Like foolish sheep we’ve wandered
G                    Dm
Lord, bring us back again

C          G       Dm
We wait on You O God
C            G        Dm
To heal our broken souls
C        G       Dm
Forgive us of our sin
Bb          C            Dm
Lord, let your kingdom come
Bb          C           Dm
Lord, let your will be done

Bb                    C              Dm
We don’t deserve your mercy
Bb                    C        Dm
And yet we call on You
Bb                    C                Dm
We don’t deserve your presence
Bb                     C         A7
And yet we wait for you

Bb             C          Dm
Lord, send the Promised One

Words & Music by Jason Chollar © December 4, 2008

We played through “We wait on You” a few times at worship practice today and recorded a rough first draft, but I thought y’all might want to hear.

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/songs/we%20wait%20on%20you%20rough%20draft.mp3

If the flash player doesn’t work for you, you can find the song files at

www.cedarhome.org/mp3/songs

Where did this song come from?

Some of my song “We wait on you” was inspired by the words of scripture as well as an ancient song called “rorate caeli” which is based on Isaiah 45:8 as well as some readings from a book by Robert Webber called “Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year”.

I found a recording of “Rorate Ceali” at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K30dmSW_dQU

You can find the words to “Rorate Caeli” in English and the original Latin at:

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=954

Notice phrases like:

“Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity”

The first thing my wife noticed when reading the words, was that it wasn’t a particularly happy song, and she’s right.  It may be uncomfortable, but I think we need songs of confession like this.  I think it is healthy for the soul.  In some churches they pray a prayer of confession every week along the lines of “I confess before Almighty God and you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned…”  I think there is power in God’s people confessing their sin to the Lord.  It is the natural reaction that people have when coming into the presence of a holy God, they become aware of their sin.  See Isaiah Chapter 6 for a brilliant example of this.

A little note on humility and video recording:

There’s nothing like wathing and hearing yourself recorded on video to humble you.  I see and hear many things that I’m a little embarassed by as I watch that video recording.  I could make excuses: it was one take, I just wrote it, I’ve had a sinus infection for weeks, …  Bottomline though, I think it is helpful for this to be out there, and it’s motivation for me to become a better musician.  I want to encourage you my artist friends, to do this for yourself, if you can: videotape yourself.  There is a lot to be learned from it!

Help me with the song!

I don’t really consider this song finished. This is my first working draft.  Do you have alternate phrases, words, … for me to consider?  Post a reply on this blog or email me directly: jason!  I am inviting you to have input on this project.

For example, I was considering:

Don’t be angry with us
Remember not our sin (instead of “Forget about our sin”)

Which do you like better?  Forget about or Remember Not?

Here are the words one more time for your convenience:

We wait on You

Don’t be angry with us Lord
Forget about our sin
Like foolish sheep we’ve wandered
Lord, bring us back again

Don’t hide your face from us Lord
Please wipe away our sin
Our hearts are dry and thirsty
Lord, spring up from within

We wait on You O God
To heal our broken souls
Forgive us of our sin
Lord, let your kingdom come
Lord, let your will be done

We don’t deserve your mercy
And yet we call to You
We don’t deserve your presence
And yet we wait for you

Lord, send the Promised One

Words & Music by Jason Chollar © December 4, 2008

(you can find the original post at: http://cedarhome.org/mu/worship/2008/12/04/we-wait-on-you-worship-essentials-red-final-project/)

Hoping to hear from some of you!

(You can sign up to have these delivered to your inbox via email too, by the way.  See the “Subscribe Now” link on the right hand side?)

jason

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

The final project for this class was supposed to be a creative project around something that has made an impression on us from the class.  I chose to write an Advent song meant to help us confess our sing and prepare our hearts for the Lord’s coming.

Here is a rough draft, a quick recording that I did in the church office, with the words below.

We wait on You

Don’t be angry with us Lord
Forget about our sin
Like foolish sheep we’ve wandered
Lord, bring us back again

Don’t hide your face from us Lord
Please wipe away our sin
Our hearts are dry and thirsty
Lord, spring up from within

We wait on You O God
To heal our broken souls
Forgive us of our sin
Lord, let your kingdom come
Lord, let your will be done

We don’t deserve your mercy
And yet we call to You
We don’t deserve your presence
And yet we wait for you

Lord, send the Promised One

Words & Music by Jason Chollar © December 4, 2008

The chordchart in Dm can be found in the chordcharts folder at:

http://cedarhome.org/chordcharts/We%20wait%20on%20You%20(Dm).doc