The Story Behind the Song Shout to the Lord

Featuring Darlene Zschech 

 

I share the information below from Darlene Zschech's book to encourage you to follow what God is showing and leading you to as a worshiper and a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and as an artist. You may never know how God desires to use your obedience to Him. It is also amazing what is birthed in worship and out of a heart of desperation.

Below is an excerpt from Darlene Zschech's book "Shout to the Lord":

"I think God just means some songs to be written. It's very embarrassing when people expect some big, dramatic story about a song God gave me in a time when I just needed to hear from Him. I was simply in the right place at the right time. I really feel that God should get the glory from sending this song to all of us when we needed it so much. It just happened to come out of my personal worship time with the Lord. Desperate for His peace, I opened to the Psalms. I sat at our old out-of-tune piano tinkling the keys, and "Shout to the Lord" flowed out from my heart. I sang it over and over again and it lifted me up. Over the next few days, the song stayed with me, and it began to dawn on me that it might be a worship song.

I was terribly shy and felt a little embarrassed when I mentioned to Geoff Bullock, the Music Pastor, and Russell Fragar that I thought I had written a song. My hands were sweaty. I could hardly play it, I was so nervous. I kept starting and stopping. It took me twenty minutes to play it because I kept apologizing, "I'm sorry. Change anything you want. I know it's probably stupid." Eventually I made them stand with their backs to me while I played them the song. Even when they turned around and said that it was magnificent, I thought they were just being polite.

We introduced "Shout to the Lord" into our worship services and it began to spread from church to church. Before we had even recorded it, I began receiving thank-you letters from people all over the world who had sung the song in their churches.

I'm still amazed that when my pastor, Brian Houston, heard the song for the first time, he predicted it would be sung around the world. But when I remember that God is the One who gave the song, then I think perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. Truly, the song's greatness comes from Him as all true praise does." Darlene Zschech

Yes, and not only has it been sung around the world, many of us worshiping dancers (including myself) have danced in worship to "Shout to the Lord" numerous times. It has been a personal anthem of my heart. It was one of the first pieces I ever danced in worship to and was the foundational piece for the dance ministry at The Church at Brook Hills. While attending one of the first worship dance conferences I ever attended (Dancing for Him by Lynn Hayden), I was praying about the right piece for the dance ministry, as we had only presented one worship dance piece at this point. I randomly (or so I thought at the time) purchased a video at the conference. On the very end of the video (as an extra that was not advertised on the video), Lynn shared her anointed choreography to the song, "Shout to the Lord". The Lord made it clear that we were to learn and present this piece in worship. I taught her choreography to our ministry team and then, later, added some variations of my own, as we presented the piece numerous times at The Church at Brook Hills and at various other events. Over the years, I have shared this piece personally in worship through dance and have taught it to several dance ministry teams to share as well.

Aren't we all thankful to Darlene for her obedience to write this song and then following the Lord's leading to share it with the leaders at her church and her pastor? I so appreciate her humility, which is so honoring and pleasing to the Lord as well. This also confirms the truth of Psalm 22:3 which tells us that God inhabits our praises. Whatever is birthed out of the overflow of the presence of God's Spirit will be anointed. 

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