Theology of Worship Music – 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

I love the music of Matt Redman. It is creative, heartfelt, and mostly Christ-centered. 10,000 Reasons is no exception. This is one of the great new hymns being written in our day. Besides being fun to sing, it gives voice to our grateful hearts to express how much we love and adore our God.

Drawing from a similar motif found in other hymns (Count Your Many Blessings, O For A Thousand Tongues, etc.) Matt uses a familiar number found in scripture to quantify reasons to praise God. Clearly this is meant to be a number larger than any we could ever equal; at least that’s them impression I have.

The chorus begins with a familiar phrase used by David in Psalms 103 and 104. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” This is self-talk designed to inspire our soul to obey the commands of our spirit. The saved part of us, the spirit-man, wants to cry out in praise but our soul (mind, will, emotions) are not motivated to do so. But, a spirit rebirthed by the Holy Spirit will override the laziness of the flesh and begin to sing in praise to the One That Loves Us Most.

The verses show a clear progression. Verse one is the body and soul responding to the spirit within: Get up an praise God. Jesus put it this way, “Take up your cross daily and follow Me.”

As we do that with regularity our soul is brought into conformity with Jesus. We begin to learn more and more about the God whom we serve. Verse 2 then lists a few of the attributes he’s learned thus far … rich in love, slow to anger, etc. … then declares, “I will continue in worship until there are 10,000 reasons to give you praise!”

The final verse speaks of man’s mortality. At the same time it speaks of the “blessed hope of the church – eternity with God.” We will continue the song we began on earth, for 10,000 years, then forever!

If there is any criticism it would be that it never mentions Jesus. That is not a problem for me, but for some they prefer explicit mention verses the veiled references of “Lord, His, Your (all capitalized to infer a reference to the Trinity).”

I hope you will introduce this song to your congregation if you have not already. It has been at the CCLI #1 for quite some time. And for good reason.