In the first of a new series, David Gaskell shares his favourite worship song, and how it has impacted his life.

When I was asked to write about my favourite worship song loads came to mind. At present the Elevation Worship album; Here as in Heaven, many songs in it point towards God and show thanksgiving. Also I’ve been reading Matt Redman’s book 10,000 reasons, which explains amazing stories surrounding his heaven sent worship song, and since watching the movie God’s Not Dead I’ve really enjoyed the song Like a Lion by David Crowder Band or God’s Not Dead By The Newsboys. But the one song that always inspires me and takes me to a place of worship is the song How He Loves By David Crowder Band.

I first heard this song when Alice (my youth leader at the time) took our church youth group to Soul Survivor in 2012 (don’t look at the photos, I don’t look that good in them). The song was played and instantly I was taken aback at actually how much God does love us and me. The song sings about how “great his (God’s) affections are for me (us all)” and his love is better and stronger than any other kind of love song by Adele, Beiber or any other secular artist; past, present or future. The song says “He Loves” 22 times within the 5min 19secs of the song, which really hits home actually how much he does love and no body could out love God. The one line within this song that does cause “conflict” is the infamous “Sloppy wet kiss” line Vs “Unforeseen kiss” line. In my view both do work; the unforeseen line brings the image of someone kissing you unexpectedly and leaving you thinking: “Dude, did you just kiss me?” as it was unexpected and in someways undeserved. The sloppy wet kiss line was explained to me by Katie at my church in York, that it’s like getting a kiss off your Nan. She gives kisses that are wet, sloppy and are in no way dignified, but behind every Grandma kiss there is so much love, you get over the fact you’ve had your second shower of the day courtesy of your grandparent’s spit.

This song spoke to me so much that I decided to have it played at my full emersion (re)baptism as I came up put of the water. The song hit me in such a way because it reminded me that God loves me so much that he took all my sins away, meaning when I came up out of the water I was made clean again. This song will go with me wherever I go, when it’s forgotten and I’m the only one who remembers it, it will be just as powerful then as it was the first time I heard it.

The song is one of the greatest love songs about the greatest love story ever, where I am the princess being saved by prince charming (Jesus on the cross).

David Gaskell is a Physiotherapy student from the North West of England.

If you are interested in sharing what your favourite song means to you, please leave a comment below, or get in contact through the contact page.