I love simple, sparse songs like this! We say and hear a lot of things in our liturgy, largely because we need God to transform our minds by his word. Still, our hearts need the chance to reflect and meditate on all that we experience in the liturgy. Songs like this offer us space to slow down and set our hearts to seek God’s face.
This song is simple, but it is not empty. It plants us in one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible (Ezek. 37:1-14). Ezekiel has a vision of a valley full of dry bones. God tells him to prophesy, and the bones will receive new life. Ezekiel does, and the bones shake and rattle, but nothing else happens. God speaks to him again: “prophesy to the breath.” Ezekiel does, and the bones rise together filled with new life. Ezekiel’s vision holds a promise for Israel. They had repeatedly forsaken God, and the result was exile and destruction. Israel is dead, but God will reach into their grave and raise them to new life. He will fill them with his own breath.
The Hebrew word for “breath” here is the same word for “Spirit.” When we sing “it’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise,” we aren’t just saying we’re glad to be alive. We pour out our praise because God has poured out his Spirit on us (Joel 2:28-29). We can sing because he has given us new life in Christ. Our sin, sickness, fear, and shame don’t get the last word. Even in darkness God’s Spirit cries out in us. Even when we are “bones” we can sing because God has given us His Spirit. We are not alone!
-Justin