Worship Song Highlight: "Lord Have Mercy (For What We Have Done)"

I love the modern hymns written by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa! “Lord Have Mercy (For What We Have Done)” is one of their newer songs which they released on their 2019 album, “His Mercy is More.” This hymn is basically a modern, Baptist Kyrie/hymn of confession! You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsYEwXwnQXM

Kyrie Eleison

            “Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison,” even though it is Greek, is the opening prayer in the Latin Mass. You hear these words sung in countless masterworks of sacred music. You also frequently hear their English translation, “Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy.” I started singing in school choirs when I was about 16, and for a long time it was weird for me to sing words that I considered “Catholic.” Yet now this simple prayer really resounds with my heart, because where would I be without God’s mercy? The Psalmist is absolutely right to declare, “Great is your mercy, O Lord,” (Psalm 119:156).

 

“For what we have done and left undone”

            Boswell and Papa, along with Aaron Keyes and James Tealy, drew inspiration for this song not only from the Kyrie, but also from a traditional prayer. This traditional prayer is found in many prayer books, like the Book of Common Prayer used by the Anglican church:

“Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought,

Word, and deed,

By what we have done, and by what we have left undone.”*

 

Corporate Confession

            1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus told the parable of the tax collector and the pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 to commended the tax collector for humbly begging for God’s mercy. Psalms like Psalm 51 urge us to honestly confess our many transgressions. Yet confession is often sorely missing from the free-church worship service. When it is present, it is often individually focused. Don’t get me wrong- I believe that individual confession is a necessary element in every worship service. However, I would argue that corporate confession is also crucial.

            My conviction for this is based on the Prophet Isaiah’s example in Isaiah 6:5, where he bemoans, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah confesses that his lips are unclean, but he also confesses that he is part of a group of sinful people. In my experience, I find about half the Baptists around me are fine with admitting the groups to which they belong are sinful. I find the other half reticent to admit or downright insulted to consider themselves or their groups as sinful. 

            A case in point is racism and racial injustices. You may disagree with me, but I as a white American feel compelled to confess to God that my country, my denomination (the Southern Baptist Convention), and my race have committed and continue to commit sinful acts against African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and peoples of other races, colors, and backgrounds from other parts of the world. This is a HUGE discussion, and I am not going to get into it fully here. My point is that we should be able to LAMENT and CONFESS that our society has been and still is sinful. We should desire for God to have mercy and transform and renew our land. 

There are numerous other things we as Americans can confess corporately, including materialism, pride, works righteousness, sexual perversion, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, lacking zeal for the gospel, and idolatry. If you disagree with me about the racism issue, I hope you can still see that biblically, corporate confession is good for us.

 

More About This Song

            The first verse draws from the traditional prayer discussed earlier, and the second verse is inspired by the book of Hebrews. It praises Christ for his perfect life. He is the perfect high priest, “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). There is a very interesting turn of phrase which says, “Though tempted and tried, You fixed Your eyes, You finished the work God gave You.” I love how this takes Hebrews 12:1-2, which is an exhortation for us to fix our eyes on Jesus, and applies it to Christ. This demonstrates that we should fix our eyes on Jesus precisely because he fixed his eyes on the Father’s mission to atone for our sins.

            The chorus repeats the phrase, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us.” It is very easy to sing and set to a beautiful melody. We taught this song at the Farmersville Worship Workshop at the end of February, and the crowd there picked up on it very quickly. I pray it will encourage us all to fall upon the mercies of Christ, individually and corporately. His mercy is great, and he is kind to those who recognize their need for Him.

 

*You can find the full text for this prayer in “Christ-Centered Worship” by Bryan Chapell on p. 185-186. This book is a treasure-trove of gospel-centric worship material!