His Mercy Is More
The Matt Papa modern hymn, "His Mercy Is More" was co-written with Matt Boswell and originally appeared on Papa's "Church Songs" project. The lyric sheet and chord charts are available in Matt's webstore.
The entire Church Songs project captures what you expect from Matt - lyrical honesty, passion, his acoustic guitar and piano - producer Christian Paschall (Crowder, Housefires) tastefully applied touches of Nashville’s famed pedal steel and lead electric guitars to these hymns. The song itself was inspired by a John Newton sermon.
Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you? But let not all you feel discourage you. For if our Physician is almighty, our disease cannot be desperate and if He casts none out that come to Him, why should you fear?
Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power. Most of our complaints are owing to unbelief, and the remainder of a legal spirit. And these evils are not removed in a day. -- John Newton
Written with multiple verses and a repeatable chorus, "His Mercy Is More" has the singable feel of a modern worship song that congregations can sing every Sunday but retains the overall structure of a traditional hymn.
“Hymns have an aesthetic density that isn’t present in all of the church’s songs,” continues Papa. “They represent transcendence both as art for our culture and as a part of our sung worship of Jesus. My own focus on the Psalms as laments and the beauty of their emotional honesty brought these songs to life.” “When we sing a lyric like ‘Our sins they are many, His mercy is more’ that is a truth for all time, all places and for all generations and it is worth the effort for sing that truth.”
At its core, and especially in the chorus, "His Mercy Is More" is a celebratory song although in the opening lines this isn't so obvious. The opening piano feels haunting and the questioning nature of the first verse acknowledges God's omniscience and into the second verse the conversation from the singer's perspective is concerned and questioning "what kind of big God would love a sinner?" But as each verse resolves, we are reminded that "our sins they are many" but God's mercy is more (Praise the Lord!).
That "Praise The Lord" is the real emotion that we should feel - that mercy "welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor" and allows us all to celebrate the fact that "His Mercy Is More."
So as you sing this song, really shout out and sing the gospel because while our sins are many, His mercy is more!
Lyrics
Verse 1
What love could remember, no wrongs we have done
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Verse 2
What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father so tender is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Verse 3
What riches of kindness He lavished on us
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Chorus
Praise the Lord
His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness
New every morn’
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
RESOURCES
Love Your Enemies Publishing is the publishing company for Matt Papa's song catalog.
For licensing, payment or any other publishing related questions, please email us at info@mattpapa.com
ASCAP Publisher Number: 160234 // ASCAP Writer Number: 1721724 (Matt Papa)