You have chosen us
I can still remember sitting writing this song on the eve of a new millennium in the December of 1999, in the front room of my parents house while we were staying there for new year.
I had two key bible passages in mind as I started writing this – one is the great commission in Matthew 28 ‘go into all the world….’, the other is the passage from Philippians – ‘you are a chosen people…..’
This was a milestone song for us as it was the first one we had signed for publishing. One of the dilemmas we faced almost immediately was that Graham Kendrick, who was compiling the ‘Source 2’ song book (Kevin Mayhew Ltd) said he would be happy to include it as long as we changed it from the original ‘You have chosen me, set my life apart’ to a corporate ‘You have chosen us, set our lives apart’. This is actually more faithful to the bible passage which was referring to the people of God. For the first few weeks this lyric change felt strange and uncomfortable, but now we cannot hear it any other way! It was a useful lesson in giving more focus to our corporate worship and not so much on the personal approach – I think this has influenced our writing moving forwards.
This song is published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd and is available in
the following song books:
Source 2 (Kevin Mayhew Ltd), Release
(Kevin Mayhew Ltd)
Below are the lyrics to 'You have chosen us'
You have chosen us, Set our lives apart
To declare the wonder of Your name
Awesome, Mighty God, Saviour, Friend and Lord
Of Your love and grace we will proclaim
We will tell the world of Your great faithfulness
We will lift Your name for all to see
For You alone are God, You alone are worthy
We will live our lives to Honour You
Andrew & Wendy Rayner
© Kevin Mayhew Ltd