Worship Song Highlight: "This Is Our God"

“This is Our God” was inspired by the Nicene Creed (325 A.D.). The music and words were written by Neil DeGraide, Doug Plank, Dave Fournier, Zach Jones, and George Romanacce of Sovereign Grace Music. Sovereign Grace released the song on their album “Sooner Count the Stars: Worshiping the Triune God” in 2015. 

“This is Our God” is one of several contemporary worship songs based on one of the creeds. The other two most popular songs based on the creeds are “We Believe,” which was recorded and made famous by the Newsboys, and “This I Believe (The Creed)” by Hillsong Worship. “We Believe” was written by Matthew Hooper, Richie Fike, and Travis Ryan, and it was wildly popular for several years after its release in 2013. “This I Believe” was written by Ben Fielding and Matt Crocker, released in 2014, and has remained pretty popular since then.

All three songs are great and scratched an itch in the contemporary worship music corpus. We needed songs based on the creeds! All three are sing-able and congregationally accessible. “We Believe” is awesome for a congregation in its use of plural pronouns. It is loosely paraphrased from the Apostle’s Creed. “This I Believe” is a closer paraphrase to the Apostle’s Creed, and I really, really like it. “This is Our God” very closely paraphrases the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed has more language about the Trinity and the Holy Spirit than the Apostle’s Creed.

I like “This is Our God” the best for several reasons. First of all, it is a sing-able fast song with deep theology. Finding a sing-able fast song with deep theology is like finding a sushi-eating hockey fan in Farmersville, Texas. When you find one, you befriend them. (I know because I am friends with all three of those such people in our community). Also, I like how easy it was for our band to learn. The song fit thematically with our current series on the Trinity. Finally, I really appreciate Sovereign Grace Music and their ministry. They may be lesser known, but they write fantastic music (and I may have a little bit of a bent towards indie/alternative/hipster/lesser known bands).

Since I get to pick the music for our church, I picked “This is Our God.” Had someone else been in charge, they might have picked “This I Believe,” for our church, and that would have been fine too.

Here is a link to Sovereign Grace Music’s page for “This is Our God.” It has an audio sample, lyrics, and charts for the song. https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/this-is-our-god/

Here is a video on YouTube of the song: Video.