Psalm 71

PSALM 71

Jonas Jung

(c) 2010

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VERSE 1

C----------G-----------------Am-F-C----------------G-----Am-F

In You oh Lord I have taken refuge, let me never be put to shame

C------------------G-------Am-F-Am------------G-------------F

Rescue me in your righteousness, turn Your ear to me and save me

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CHORUS

--------C-------G-----------------Am------F

Be my rock of refuge where I can always go

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Give the command to save me oh God, for You are my rock and my fortress

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VERSE 2

C---------------------G-------Am-F-----C--------------G-----Am---F

You are my hope oh Sovereign Lord, my confidence since I was young

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From birth I have relied on You, for you brought me forth from my mother's womb

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CHORUS

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BRIDGE

----C--------G--------F----Am------------G

My lips will shout with joy, when I sing my praise to You

C---------F---------Dm-----------G

I've been redeemed, I have been redeemed

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COMMENTARY

In my own personal quiet times with the Lord I was reading out of Psalms quite a bit. For some reason this one popped out at me and I put some music to it. This one was also featured on the demo album Wholly Yours.

The Almighty's Hand

THE ALMIGHTY'S HAND

Jonas Jung

(c) 2010

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VERSE 1:

E----------------B-----C#m--------------A---E------------B-----------C#m--A

As I look out to creation into the African plains, I see Your beautiful mysteries

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CHORUS

E------------------------B

You are the Lord and we lift Your name on high

F#m--------------------------A----------B

We give You praises Lord, we lift up our praises Lord

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Your Spirit of Truth is our only hope

F#m--------------------------A------B

Pour down Your mercy on us loving mercy on us now

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VERSE 2

E-------------------B----------------------------C#m----------------A

As I look upon the "smoke that thunders" does it truly flow from the palm of Your hand

C#m--B------------A

Oh, the Almighty's hand

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CHORUS

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COMMENTARY

I remember when I first began to write this song. Our family was on a road trip around Southern Africa, and we had just gotten done seeing the famous Victoria Falls on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. I was totally in awe of the raw power that came in the form of thousands of gallons of water flowing down. That day we had passed a statue of David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary to Africa in the 1800's and the first white person to discover the falls. Engraved at the bottom of the statue was a quote from his journal about when he discovered "the smoke that thunders." He said, "surely this must flow from the Almighty's Hand." I thought it was great imagery, and I was honestly in the same awe that he was in, only hundreds of years later. On our way back to the hotel we were staying the chorus just popped into my head. I finished the song at the hotel, and recorded it with Elias on the Wholly Yours demo album.

Oceans

OCEANS

Jonas Jung

(c) 2010

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VERSE 1

----------C#m--B--A------------------C#m---------B----------A

When I'm weak You hold me, when I'm down on my knees You listen

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When I throw myself in Your arms, when I put my trust in You, You take me

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CHORUS

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Spirit of God rescue me from this ocean of tears

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Crying out to You save me from this whirlwhind of fears

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Take me in Your arms, take me in Your arms again

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VERSE 2

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When I stumble and fall You catch me, when I'm hungry You feed me

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When I thirst you give me drink, when I fall on my face You hear my plea

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CHORUS

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COMMENTARY

This song, looking back, was written out of desperation for God to intervene in what seemed like a hopeless situation at the time. I was in a struggle between deciding to believe what one of my best friends thought was God's will and what I was hearing myself as God's will. I thought at the time of writing that fulfilling what I was hearing from God was going to cost my friendship, but God came through and "rescued me from this ocean of tears."

TEACHING ON WORSHIP AT THE YWAM DTS

Teaching on Worship at the YWAM DTS
One of the really cool things that can happen in a healthy environment on the mission field is what I would call CROSS-POLLINATION, when different missions organizations and churches can work together in unity and share resources. We have just such a relationship with the other missions agencies here in Lichinga, Mozambique. One of the organizations that we work closely with here is YWAM, or Youth With A Mission.

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Denis, the DTS, or Discipleship Training School leader with YWAM, invited me to come and teach the DTS students on the subject of worship. I was thrilled that he had asked and agreed to come and teach. Today I taught from 9:00am to 12:30pm on subjects surrounding worship such as: sitting at Jesus’ feet vs. being busy in ministry, the throne room of God, our response to the love of God, lifestyle worship and worship as a weapon. The 15 or so students were very attentive, taking notes through the whole class. Some students were moved so much that they asked if I could come back and teach more on the subject. I feel honored that my limited understanding on the subject of worship could bless them so much. It seems as though I am now in a season of teaching in Bible Schools, as I am also currently teaching through the gospel of Mark at our Great Harvest School of Ministry on the IRIS base. I am loving it. I especially love teaching students that are hungry for more of God and His Word.
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Christian Jung

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NOTES ON WORSHIP
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Sitting at Jesus’ Feet vs. Being Busy in Ministry
In the story of Mary and Martha In Luke 10:38-42 we find that Jesus commends Mary for choosing to sit at His feet, gleaning all she could from the Savior while Martha was busy serving. Jesus wasn’t saying that serving wasn’t important but that all of our serving should come as a result of being in the presence of God. We can do things FOR God or we can do things WITH God. God tells the church of Sardis in Revelation 3:1 that they have a reputation of being alive but are dead. There is the illustration of when you go to cut the head off of a chicken to kill it; when you cut the head off of the chicken, the body of the chicken continues to flap around, with a lot of movement, yet the chicken is in fact, dead. The church today needs to beware of the danger of being busy about the work of God, with a lot of movement and a lot of programs, yet being detached from the Head of the Body of Christ, who is Christ Himself. Worship is about sitting at the feet of Jesus in adoration of Him.
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The Throne Room of God
Something I do a lot of times in my own personal times of worship is to read passages about the throne room of God from Revelation and imagine the throne room as I worship. In Revelation 4:3 it talks about there being a rainbow around the throne of God, as well as mentions different precious stones. What causes this rainbow? We know that rainbows are caused from pure, white light being refracted through something, let’s say a diamond or precious stone. As the pure white light shines through the diamond, it refracts a beautiful rainbow of colors. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. I believe that each of us Christ followers can be like a diamond or precious stone in the hand of the Father, and as He shines His pure, white light into us, we refract His glory in worship through expressions of worship, each differently in the unique way in which He designed us, like different precious stones do as well. And around the throne of God, our worship is like the colors of the rainbow. It also mentions later in Revelation that there are people from every tribe, tongue and nation around the throne of God. Imagine the different colors of the rainbow as God’s pure, white light shines into every tribe, tongue and nation around the throne of God in heaven, and how each group refracts God’s glory differently in its’ own unique expressions of worship.
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Our Response to the Love of God
We know that we love God because He first loved us. Worship is our response to God’s unconditional love for us. The key is to worship God, or express our love to God, in every circumstance in life. It is easy to sing songs of praise and worship to God when things are all going well in our life. But what about when things aren’t going so well? Or what about when we face difficulties? Do we respond in worship? We can take Job’s example from Job 1:20 when his response to the most difficult of situations was to worship the Lord. As we worship God in the beauty of His holiness, and in His wonderful presence, all of our difficult situations seem to fade away into the background, and even disappear. In His presence, everything changes.
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Lifestyle Worship
In Romans 12:1-2 we find out that we can present ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices unto Him, and that our lives actually are worship to God as we remain completely surrendered to Him on the altar. In the Old Testament, the Levites were given precise instructions on how to kill the animal that was to be sacrificed to God. And as the smoke of the sacrifice rose to the heavens, God was pleased by the aroma. The problem with living sacrifices is that they often want to crawl back off of the altar. Even as living sacrifices, we need to reckon ourselves as crucified with Christ and remain on the altar of God. As we do this, our lives become a sweet aroma as worship before God. We can worship God as we just live life; when we go to work, or are doing chores around the house. Worship isn’t just about singing songs to God at church. Worship is about living a life fully surrendered to God.
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Worship as a WeaponWe need to understand that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. One thing that the enemy, Satan, and the other fallen angels or demons cannot stand is the the worship of God’s people. At the sound of God’s saints worshipping the Lord, the enemy must flee. Why? Because Satan fell from heaven because He wanted to be exalted above the throne of God, in worship. When Christ-followers worship God, Satan is defeated as his desire is to receive the focus and attention. We can see evidence of the power of praise and worship in 2 Chronicles 20 where God has His people, Israel, place the worshippers on the front lines of the battle. As they played their instruments and sang songs to YHWH, their enemies were defeated without even lifting a sword. There is power in praise and worship. When we are under attack from the enemy, Satan, we should worship God as it is a key weapon in our fight against the evil one.

MAKING INDIGENOUS YAO INSTRUMENTS

Making Indigenous Yao Instruments
Coke bottles. Old used guitar strings. Scraps of wood. Bottle caps. Nails. From a Western mentality, these would be things found in the green recycled bins that are in front of homes every week to be taken away. But here in Africa, these are the elements that make up indigenous instruments that are used to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. They replace things such as electric guitars, bass guitars and keyboards which are found in churches and used by worship teams across the United States and Europe.
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Since we have been here in Mozambique, working among the Yao people of the Niassa province, we have been asking the Lord to release the indigenous sounds that lie dormant within the Yao believers. Since the Muslims came over 100 years ago, and the Yao people embraced Islam, it has been difficult for the Yao people, even believers, to be musical people. Often, we have seen the Yao people borrow sounds from the Chichewa, Nyanja or Makhua people after conversion, yet it seems as though their own indigenous expression of worship has somehow become lost. This is what we are praying will be drawn out of the Yao believers we are discipling.
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Last Sunday during the church service, I was observing a young man, Kaisi, who is a new believer and who has just been baptized along with his wife. He was really engaged in the worship of YHWH, and was clapping in time with the songs with beautiful rhythm. It was then that the Lord spoke to me about Kaisi becoming a worship leader in the Church of Assumane. I felt as though the Lord was showing me that he would lead a group of young people from the church in making indigenous Yao instruments, and teaching them how to play them, practicing weekly for the worship time in church on Sunday mornings.
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Today, we saw some history in the making. Kaisi brought a group of youth who have been involved in the church to begin making these indigenous Yao instruments. We all met in our temporary grass church building. I have seen some things that other African tribes have used across Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania for their worship instruments, and brought a big box full of those things, which can be found along dirt roads in any given Yao village, along with a hammer and saw, and let them at it. We talked together. I read Psalm 150 about the different instruments used to praise the Lord. Kaisi prayed. Then the fun began. These guys began to make some of the coolest indigenous instruments I have seen yet here in Africa. Then the cool thing is how they made them sound along with Yao worship songs after they had finished making them. They will now continue to look for other materials found locally to make more instruments, and will practice every week under Kaisi’s leadership. The Yao people of Niassa are finding their sound! Praise the Lord!!!
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Christian Jung

Let It Rain

LET IT RAIN

Jonas Jung

(c) 2010

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VERSE 1

D--------G-----------------D-----A---------Em---------------G

Love is pouring from Your heart, grace and mercy from Your Spirit

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CHORUS

-------Em-C---G-----D-----------Em

Let it rain down, let it rain down on me

Em----C-------G-----D-----------Em

Let it rain down, let it rain down on me

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VERSE 1

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CHORUS

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BRIDGE

Em---------C-------G---------D

Showers of mercy, showers of grace

Em---------C------------G-------------D

Love and redemption they light up my face

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COMMENTARY

This song was written after our family graduated from the Iris Ministries Harvest School of Missions (HS11) and I was hungry and thirsty for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I was ready for God to completely rain down on me.