Do you ever feel small and insignificant?
When our grandparents and great-grandparents were alive, they were unaware of what their high school classmates did as adults. No one saw pictures from their friends' vacation or the highlights of their Saturday.
Things have changed, though. Today, we carry that information and the expectations they create in our palms or pockets. Because of comparison and the resulting gaps, we don’t measure up. Feeling small makes us feel worse!
However, feeling small doesn’t always make us feel worse. Sometimes, feeling small makes us feel better. For instance, when we stand next to the Grand Canyon or the giant waves of the ocean, something resets within our bodies. When we lay down on a blanket and look up at the stars, catching a glimpse of a shooting star, we seem small and explode with wonder.
In those moments, our smallness points us to God's bigness. In Psalm 8, David describes the same experience we have today.
“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.”
A beautiful and powerful new song gives language to the experience we shared with David. Jenn Johnson recently released a new single, “No One Like the Lord.”
In talking about her new song, Johnson shared, “When I first heard this song, I fell in love with it. It feels like a song we will sing in Heaven…and those are my favorite songs––eternal, singing of the glory, majesty and splendor of God.”
Johnson summarizes the song well. The chorus of “No One Like the Lord” focuses on God's transcendence and majesty.
“So we sing worthy is the Lamb
Who was slain and seated on the throne
There's no one like the Lord.”
These lyrics from the chorus sent me to search the book of Revelation for the reference of a familiar verse. I found it in chapter five, verses eleven and twelve. The Apostle John shared a vision of the throne room of God and the worship taking place there.
“Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’”
There is not only a connection between the lyrics “No One Like the Lord” and the worship recorded in Revelation 5. There’s also a strong similarity with another popular song for the Air1 Family. In an interview on the red carpet at the Dove Awards with The Christian Beat, Johnson compared her song to Chris Tomlin’s “Holy Forever.” I found this comparison fascinating because the first time I heard Johnson’s song, my mind immediately saw connections to Tomlin’s.
When talking about “Holy Forever,” Tomlin previously mentioned that he sees songs falling into two categories - songs of deliverance (like Amazing Grace) and songs of transcendence (like Holy Forever). “There are those other songs of transcendence. There's nothing about me in the deal; it’s just taking our eyes off ourselves and just [switch focus] onto the glory of God.”
In a world where we often focus on ourselves and the places where we feel like we aren’t enough, songs of transcendence like “Holy Forever” and “No One Like the Lord” turn our focus onto God. Singing these songs in worship helps us meditate on the beauty and grandeur of a God beyond our comprehension.
We will never feel like we’re enough when we focus on ourselves. When we focus on God, though, we find a sense of security in a worthy God who decides that we matter to Him. In Him, we are enough!
If you’re struggling with anxiety, comparison, or insecurity today, I encourage you to turn on “No One Like the Lord” and focus on His glory for a few minutes. Then, you can return to your challenges with a renewed perspective!
Scott Savage is a pastor, author, and speaker with the best last name in the world. Scott’s writing helps people transform difficult circumstances into places where they can thrive. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona, and loves watching movies with his wife and three kids. You can begin Scott’s life-changing project, The 21 Day Gratitude Challenge, today.
