The Song of the Lord from Zion

Happy New Year from Jerusalem!

Did you ever wonder what came first, light or sound?

       We know that God began the physical universe by creating light – but He created it with the sound of His voice. This means His voice could have been the first substance to cross over from the Spirit realm into the physical world.

       Perhaps this is why light can open our eyes to understand our physical surroundings while sounds like music can open our soul to experience His presence from the spirit realm.

       In a way, light and sound are the same substance. Both are waves, simply vibrating at different frequencies and so we experience one set of waves with our eyes and the other with our ears. But both are an expression of the goodness of who He is.

       And so when God called Israel to be a light, it should not surprise us that being a light involves the creation of beautiful sounds of music of worship. 

       Songs that were written in Israel thousands of years ago, and recorded in the Bible, still impact worship worldwide today. Has it not changed you? Brought you closer to the only One who is worthy of worship?

       Those songs recorded in the Bible were not written and arranged haphazardly. They came out of a dedicated community of Psalmists who trained from a young age to serve before the Lord.  Singers, musicians, and songwriters with a calling to open the space between heaven and earth with the sounds of worship.

       At Maoz, we understand the need to help the poor, grow congregations and build strong families and communities – which is why we pour our hearts and time into doing all these things.

       But our passion to care for our brethren and build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth does not overshadow our ultimate calling to worship.

       We know that God deserves the worship of all of creation. We also understand our enemy’s first transgression was to try and steal it for himself. He has not turned aside from this goal. That is why we are at war for the heart of worship.

       I once heard of a man who had a dream in which he saw thousands of young people with hands raised, dancing wildly in a club scene. In the dream a voice explained to the man, “The believer’s worship is not just for intimacy with God, it is warfare against the powers of darkness. What you are seeing here is the other side of the battlefield.”

       For the past several years we have worked intensively – even during the lockdown months – to produce worship music worthy of our King. The majority of our efforts have gone to recording original Hebrew and Arabic music – though we’ve managed to pull off a few songs in English and French.

       But creating great music that no one ever hears about is not a good plan. And so, we spoke with Integrity Music about distributing our music. “We’ve enjoyed the peaks of what the world would consider successful careers. Our hearts now are searching for where God is doing new and unique things around the world that we can get involved with – and what you are doing is exactly what we’re looking for.”

       We were supposed to release the new music within months, but unfortunately between the complexity of registering songwriters who are Israeli citizens into a U.S. system and other pandemic delays, the process ended up taking two years. All the while the new music we were producing kept piling up on the shelf.

       The good news is, we’ve completed the process and starting this January we will begin releasing those songs online through Integrity Music, our new distributors.

       You can help Israel be a light to the nations in worship and send songs forth from Zion by sponsoring a child’s early learning, supporting Maoz Israel Music production in Jerusalem, or simply enjoying and sharing the music online!

       However you get involved, we hope the sounds coming from the City of Worship will empower you to be who He called you to be.

Kobi and Shani Ferguson