This song draws on different biblical images of ideal times and places: the Peaceable Kingdom (Isaiah 11), the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2) and the new Jerusalem (Revelation 4 & 21). It is written in a Contemporary Christian style perhaps similar to the Rend Collective or Robin Mark. Note that this recording modulates up a semitone for the last verse. This song is included in Then Let Us Sing, a music resource published by the United Church of Canada in 2025. Most pictures in the video are courtesy of www.pexels.com.
More information and downloads available at:
https://sites.google.com/view/musicbydavidwkai/home/the-world-god-imagines
David Kai's YouTube channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidKaisMusic
I was reflecting on the Doxecology project and also thinking about the word ‘Resound’ - and the basic song came pretty quickly while I was driving on a long journey. It started off as my attempt to write a modern ‘How great Thou art’ with all of creation singing praise to the God who brings salvation and restoration to all of creation. However it quickly became clear that the subject matter was too big for this song, so after numerous Resound writing sessions I finally came to the conclusion it needed to be more to the point - that then released me to focus on the song as a call to worship. The verses went through many lyrical re-writes and the bridge was added at some point, using Revelation 4 which I hope gives a sense of call to eternal, everlasting praise.
Starting from John 1, this song explores how the Word of God was present at creation and through Jesus, is available through his Spirit to help us live for him, and will be there in judgment at the end of time.
A simple song for the Whole of Life, or for Advent (verses 1,2 and 4).
Started with a riff and a chorus and then built around that. This dates back to my time at Worship Academy with Chris Bowater. A nice upbeat worship song.
This song draws its origins from the time of the illness and death of my Dad. Singing and making music before the Lord became a particularly important expression of worship for me at a time when I was largely unable to process exactly how I was feeling. And yet there were very few songs that resounded with how I was feeling; often it wasn’t the lyrics that were the problem, but the tone or mood of the song that just didn’t resonate.
While sitting at the piano with these kinds of thoughts in mind one day, this song began to emerge. It sought to express a confidence in God, albeit a confidence expressed in brokenness rather than in triumph; yet a confidence determinedly holding on to the promises of God - not least the ultimate promise that, one day, God will make all things new.
The second, third and fourth verses were written first, and came together relatively straightforwardly - though with lots of tinkering on the way. The first verse was the struggle, and the writing of it encapsulated the move I had to make from seeing it as ‘my song’, coming out of my particular experience, to one that, hopefully, can be sung by others within their own contexts of brokenness - past, present or future.