I Will Worship You

John Dreher's “I Will Worship You” runs on a list of contrasts. The opening verse moves through “the stillness” and “the quiet,” “the desert” and “the valley,” “the top of each mountain I climb,” then “the darkness of the shadows” and “the warmth and the light of the sun.” The last pair is the sharpest: “the midst of raging battles” beside “the comfort of victories won.”

Every setting gets the same answer. The pre-chorus declares “You are always God / And You are always good,” and the chorus responds with nothing more elaborate than “I will worship You.” A bridge sung four times shifts to command: “I will bless... Bless the Lord at all times / With all my heart, all my soul.” The lack of any special occasion is the point, with worship detached from circumstances.

Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times,” is the bridge nearly word for word. The “waters You've led me beside” and the “shadows” of the first verse are borrowed from Psalm 23:2 and 23:4, the shepherd's still waters and the darkest valley.