“How He Loves” is probably one of my newest favorite songs. It is written by John Mark McMillan, but I think it is being made much more popular by the David Crowder Band, in both their “Church Music” album as well as Passion’s latest, “Awakening.” In checking on Grooveshark.com, I found even more people who had covered the song. I put a few in a playlist if you haven’t heard the song before, and here’s a copy of the lyrics (pdf).

The song has a pretty interesting story behind it, and if you heard John’s recording off his “The Song Inside the Sounds of Breaking Down” album, then you may have gotten a glimpse of it by what he finishes the song with. I think Integrity Music snagged this incredible musician up, and they’ve released a single of the song on iTunes, and while the song costs $.99, if you’re willing to fork over another $.30 they’ll graciously include a five minute video about the song. Personally, I thought it was worth the extra cash. The arrangement in the single is pretty cool, and the video was very insightful. John wrote the song as he was working through the grief of losing a very close friend. I like where he talks about how the song is not about pretty love, but how God loves us when we are at our messiest. It sounded as though the song had come out of his realization of the anger and plain old sin in his heart which were coming out in his grief (anger, frustration, etc.) at losing his friend. And then he realized that God loved him in spite of that.

What I love about the song is how it never justifies sin, or excuses it, but the emphasis in the song is upon losing one’s self in the love of God, a love that is glorious and gracious, and in beholding it we lose sight of (and our grip upon) our regrets and afflictions. The song really does focus upon God and his love.

The Structure

The song is pretty simple, structure-wise. There are a few variations between different recordings. In his “The Song Inside…” album, John does a Verse 1 -> Pre-Chorus twice before going into the full-blown chorus, as does the David Crowder Band in “Church Music”. But in the single he recently released through Integrity, John only does his Verse 1 and Pre-Chorus once before hitting the Chorus. I’m not so sure I like the latter option – it builds too quickly. In the single he starts dynamically much stronger, and I think it sounds so much nicer to start with just acoustic (as in “The Sound Inside…”) or even as Jared Anderson does in his version (of course I love starting on the piano…I’m a pianist!). But, then again, on the single John also throws in a pretty fun “Who-o-o-ah!” section at the end of his arrangement for the single.

The Dynamics

This is a song which is closely tied to its dynamics – if you can not get the contrast of quiet, build, and all-out working, the song is almost not worth it. However you structure it, the climax of the build is the chorus, you want it to explode dynamically on the first words of the chorus. If you are going to do the first verse and pre-chorus twice before going into the chorus, then you definitely need to start on a single instrument (be it guitar or piano).

A neat example of the way dynamics can shape the song differently is to compare how the David Crowder Band handles the second verse versus how John handles it. DCB makes it into a bridge of sorts, actually dynamically making that the climax of the song (which could have some pretty neat theological emphasis as well), while John always treats the second verse as the first until the last two lines, starting with “I don’t have time…” where the band begins pounding on the eighth-note – which is so much fun to play!

Instrumentation

This is an excellent song for a minimal band as well as a full-blown one. You can pretty much pull it off on acoustic guitar by itself (and probably piano, though I haven’t played around with creating an arrangement yet). But if you can at least have a guitar, bass and drums you can really draw out the dynamics. Of course, having an electric guitar on rhythm to fill out the arrangement wouldn’t hurt, and another to nail that lead line would be gravy, right?

Speaking of the lead line, we’ve done it at our church with a violin taking it. Beautiful, simply beautiful. It’s one of those lines which you could give to just about any instrument, especially woodwinds or strings. A Cello would probably give the line a little darker tone than the violin had. A clarinet would be different, and probably also add a dark tone with a touch of wistfulness. A Saxophone would probably contrast the tone of the elctric guitars nicely. But I’m not sure how a brass instrument (trumpet, French horn, trombone) would work with the line – though if you have one, I’d say give a whirl and let me know how it works!

As far as piano/keys, this song really lends itself to a deep, strong pad. I will admit, though, whenever I play the song I always switch over to our B3 organ for the build in the second verse and just jam out there until the end of the song. That adds a nice change in dynamic as well, if you have a good b3 sound in your keys (or are fortunate enough, as we are, to have someone who lets us use his B3!).

Special Issue: Lyric adaptation

This came as a little surprise to me. One of my favorite lines is “And Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.” DCB changed the lyrics to “And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,” which is close, but not the same. Our [very wise] Worship Pastor chose to use DCB’s version. His decision was guided on the difference between performance and worship. As a special or offertory, he pointed out, the phrase would be perfectly fine. But during worship the language is a little crass, to be honest. And while the congregation would probably get used to it very quickly, any visitor would be distracted by the words. This logic seems to line up very strongly with Paul’s discussion on order in worship in 1 Cor 14. Something to consider as you teach your team and congregation the song.