Justin Tweito

GOOD GROUND – Citizens

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

“Good Ground” is an agricultural synth-worship single from the brand new Citizens album, I Can’t Find the Edges of You. It’s the song that first jumped out at me upon listening through the album, and I love its unique way of inviting God’s Word into our hearts and offering ourselves to him in devotion. I love Citizens (I played “You Brought Me Back to Life” to death in 2014-15), and I love Justin Tweito (see my review on “The Cup Was Not Removed“), so imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered that Zach Bolen and Justin Tweito cowrote this song!

Let’s put our soil judging skills to good use and ask if “Good Ground” will worship.

Focus

This song is a prayer asking God to speak to us, change us, and motivate us by his Word. It’s a song of devotion offering our hearts and lives to him as good ground to bear the kind of fruit he wants to produce in us.

Since the words are addressed to God, we mostly call him “You.” He’s never named specifically except when the chorus calls God “Heaven” in a lovely example of metonymy.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE
There is only one verse to this song, and in it we offer God our ears, eyes, hands, and feet.

In the first two lines, we ask him to give us the kind of ears that will hear his words and the kind of eyes that can see him working. This idea is found in Isaiah 6:10, where God connects eyes that see and ears that hear to a heart that understands and turns to God and finds healing. Jesus quotes this passage after teaching the Parable of the Sower, praising his disciples for their willingness to see and hear his meaning (Matt. 13:13-15). Paul quotes the same verse at the end of Acts, rebuking the Jews of Rome for refusing to see and hear the truth about Jesus (Acts 28:24-28). So when we sing these lines, we are asking God to give us the right kind of heart to understand his Word.

In the next two lines, we offer our hands and feet to God’s service. We acknowledge that he made our hands so that our actions can glorify him. In offering our feet, we are asking him to send us out with his Word to communicate it to others, whether to lost people who need to hear the Gospel for the first time or to our brothers and sisters who need to grow and be encouraged by God’s Word. This line calls to mind Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'”

CHORUS
“Fall on good ground, good ground // We don’t want to waste Your Word”

The chorus of “Good Ground” is based on the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13:1-23. The song imagines us as the soil from the parable and asks God to make us into the kind of good soil that is soft for receiving the seeds of his word and produces much fruit in response.

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matthew 13:3-9

Jesus goes on to explain the meaning of this parable, a rarity in his recorded ministry. He tells us that the seeds are the “word of the kingdom,” (Mt. 13:19) a good reminder that the Gospel is not just the good news that we get to go to heaven when we die because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but also the good news that we get to be a part of building his kingdom here and now. He explains that the path, rocky ground, and thorny ground represent those who either do not receive the word, or receive it but do not grow in it and act on it. In contrast, those who do receive the word and understand it, the good soil, always bear fruit many times what was sown (Mt. 13:18-23).

In asking for God to bring rain to make the seeds grow, we recognize that we need his help to understand his word and bear kingdom-fruit from it. In asking him to let our hearts be soft (like the good soil) to receive his word, we recognize that we are stubborn and need his help to listen and change.

BRIDGE
Like the chorus, the bridge is a prayer based on the Parable of the Sower. We ask for his words take root in our hearts, unlike those in the parable who did not understand or who let life’s worries quickly dry up their passion for Jesus and his kingdom. Plants with deep roots are healthy and can outlast changing weather. We also ask that his words would bear lots of fruit in our lives. Part of that fruit is letting the Good News of Jesus and his kingdom grow and spill out from our lives and mouths onto others.

The bridge also references one of the I Am statements of Jesus. In John 15:1-8, he calls himself the true vine. In a teaching very similar to the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells his followers that they are branches connects to his vine and that as long as they remain in him, made clean by the power of his word, they will bear much fruit.

Accessibility

Much like the Parable of the Sower, this song explains itself. We get a few lines of metaphor, and then a line that clarifies what we’re talking about for anyone who hasn’t caught on already. I admire how the authors have employed rich biblical symbolism to express Jesus’ parable in song without obscuring the meaning or expecting people to have a wealth of scriptural knowledge to draw upon first. The chorus is very clear that the rain we’re asking for is the nourishment of God’s word implanted in our hearts, so I don’t see much potential for misunderstanding it as a request for some other kind of blessings.

The melody of this song falls entirely within an octave and mostly within the range of a fifth, so it’s very accessible from that angle. The lines of the verse all have the same melodic line, so that’s easy to learn. The melody of the chorus is trickier, but it gives the congregation key repetitive phrases like “good ground, good ground” that make excellent entry points. The bridge is short and somewhat repetitive, so some people will chime in on the second half, but there’s not much time to learn it fully. Overall, I think this song is challenging but singable for most congregations.

Music

“Good Ground” uses contrast really well. The quiet parts of the song contrast dramatically with the loud, and the a capella portions are juxtaposed with the highly accompanied portions. I think what is played matters less on this song and how much is played matters more.

I’ll be honest, I’m still figuring out how to play this one with my worship team. The recording is very arpeggiator-driven, and half the song relies on an ambient soundscape rather than a band groove. I’m definitely going to have to lean into the creativity of my musicians on this one, and it will be a challenge adapting some of the electronic beats into something real to play. There may also be some parts of the song where we don’t play and just let the multitrack carry the instrumentation. If you’re going to introduce this song to your church, expect to spend more time than usual working with the band on what each instrument is going to do.

Conclusions

Will it worship? For sure.

The main challenge with “Good Ground” is going to be adapting it for a church worship band, but I think the congregation will grab ahold of these unique lyrics and sing them with their hearts. Especially here in the Midwest, a good agricultural metaphor will go a long way! I’m confident this song will prime the minds, hearts, and hands of our people to hear, understand, and follow God’s Word.


Image by Majharul Islam from Unsplash

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

THE CUP WAS NOT REMOVED – Justin Tweito

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment
rustic cup on table

Image by Rey Proenza from Unsplash

I’m often drawn to songs that highlight biblical ideas we don’t usually sing about, or that present common worship topics in fresh ways. That’s what initially drew me to this song. Starting right in the title, “The Cup Was Not Removed,” written by Ben Wolverton, Justin Tweito, and Taylor Agan, focuses on some of the less-sung aspects of Jesus’ redemptive work. Here, we’ll look at some of these unique lyrics and see how they measure up to Scripture.

Focus

“The Cup Was Not Removed” is wholly focused on the atoning work of Jesus. We also emphasize that the appropriate response to his death and resurrection is praise.

This song speaks about God clearly, referring to him as the Father, the Son, the Lamb, and at its most intimate moment, “my Jesus.” (For more on calling God “my Jesus,” see my review of the song by that name.) It uses I/me language throughout, emphasizing personal salvation and each individual believer’s response of praise.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
The key Scripture for this song is Matthew 26:39, in which Jesus says, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” This prayer comes while Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, awaiting his betrayal. The cup he wishes he could avoid is the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:19, Ps. 75:8), which will be poured out on him the next day on the cross. The cup of wrath⁠—the curse, the punishment that we deserved⁠—lands on Jesus instead of us (Isaiah 53:5, Gal. 3:13).

The authors of the song also draw attention to Jesus’ choice here. He could have gotten out of this. He certainly didn’t deserve death. But the lyrics tell us that the cup isn’t just poured out on him, and he doesn’t just take a sip, instead he drinks all of it.

The authors take just a little bit of poetic license in saying “his tears were as scarlet.” Luke 22:44 says that Christ was in such agony that his sweat fell like drops of blood, not his tears. If Luke is speaking literally here, then Jesus is experiencing hematidrosis, a rare medical condition in which great emotional or physical strain causes blood vessels to burst in one’s skin. This allows blood to leak out through pores and sweat glands. There’s no mention in Scripture of Jesus’ tears being like blood, but hematidrosis is most common in and around the face (see webmd), so it’s not much of a stretch to think that his tears would have mingled with the blood as well.

CHORUS
Jesus is described as the lamb who takes away our sin in John 1:29. At the moment of his death, the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom (Mark 15:37-38), symbolizing the fact that all humanity now has access to God’s presence through Jesus. Jesus’ great work of atonement deserves all of our souls’ praise now and forever.

The scars from Jesus’ crucifixion are still visible—and touchable—in his hands and side when Jesus appears to Thomas and the Twelve after his resurrection (John 20:24-29), so there is every reason to believe that Jesus still bears those scars today. It’s always worth repeating that the Son of God died and was raised (1 Cor. 15:3-5).

VERSE 2
The Law in verse 2 is the Torah, the Law of Moses. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17-18 that he didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Every Old Testament sacrifice points to Jesus giving his life. We are unable to meet the requirements of God’s Law on our own, so Jesus fulfills them for us and puts his righteousness on us. Furthermore, Jesus ends the role of the Law in setting Israel apart from the Gentiles, uniting the two separate peoples into one and making peace between them and God through the cross (Eph. 2:14-16).

In 1 Peter 1:10-12, we see that the suffering and glory of Christ are the culmination of the message of the Hebrew prophets. God revealed to them that their work was not just for their own time, but for the future. God’s hidden plan for the salvation of the whole world is now revealed through Christ and the Church.

Colossians 1:15 teaches that Jesus is the very image of God the Father, and 2 Corinthians 1:20 shows us that Jesus is the “yes” to every promise of God. He shows us who God us in his character, and his work of salvation and blessing is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, David, Adam, and every other saint of the Old Testament.

VERSE 3
In verse one, we already admitted that we belonged up on the cross, not Jesus. Now we take an even more personal look at our own sins using first person pronouns. We praise Jesus specifically for removing each and every one of our sins as far from us as east is from west (Ps. 103:12). The authors also carry the east-to-west metaphor forward into the next line, as if the righteousness of God stretches across the whole sky.

Accessibility

I think this song presumes at least an intermediate level of Bible knowledge. Someone who isn’t a Christian or who hasn’t studied the Bible much is likely to miss many of the references in this song and may not be able to apply the imagery. They might not even realize it’s about Jesus until verse 3 if they don’t already know that he’s called the Lamb. The flipside of that is that this song is very theologically specific and not open to misinterpretation.

I think it’s healthy to have theologically rich songs that challenge us to think deeply and discover new truths about Christ. Even if you don’t understand all the details, you can still grasp the core ideas of the chorus: Jesus takes away our sins, he invites us in, he died and rose again, and he deserves our praise.

Music

This is an easy song for a worship band to pick up and play, especially if you transpose it a half-step down from Ab to G. The only tricky chords are the little pickup notes at the end of each line of the chorus, but if you have beginners on your team then they can just skip those. I really like the two instrumental leads (one at the beginning of the song, one at the end of each half-chorus), both of which work well on piano, electric guitar, or dulcimer. I enjoy it when my drummer leans into the rim clicks on this song, and it is also easy to adapt for cajon.

Conclusions

I’m a little late reviewing this song, because we’ve been singing it for well over a year. So yes, it will worship! It approaches the Gospel in a fresh way, with a special focus on Jesus’ work removing our sins from us. “The Cup Was Not Removed” works well almost anywhere in the worship service. I find that it’s a valuable Communion song, especially on Sundays when I want to make Communion less somber and more celebratory.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.