Great Are You Lord

Short and direct, "Great Are You Lord" gives its reasons in the opening lines: "You give life, You are love, You bring light to the darkness. You give hope, You restore every heart that is broken." The verse is a short list of what God does, and "great are You, Lord" is the response that follows.

The central image is breath. "It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise" connects praise to the gift of life, as Genesis 2:7 describes God breathing life into the first man. Psalm 150:6, with its call for everything that has breath to praise the Lord, fits the same thought. The words "to You only" repeat at the end of each chorus.

The bridge widens the praise to the whole person and the whole earth: "all the earth will shout Your praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing." The singing bones recall Psalm 35:10, and the broken hearts in the verse recall Psalm 147:3, where God heals the brokenhearted. Then the chorus returns once more, with the same breath-for-praise exchange.