German-born, Canada-raised worship leader and songwriter Klaus (Kuehn) will release his new CD, Glory, on August 5th. Glory features a mix of Klaus’ best-known songs with new offerings and keyboard interludes that combine moments of celebratory praise with intimate and spontaneous expressions of worship. Here are the stories behind several songs as told by Klaus.

The Lord Reigns

As a worship leader there are always things that you want to say in those corporate times together. One of the declarations I love to make is that there is a King in Zion and He reigns forever. The song “The Lord Reigns” was written with a desire to celebrate just that. One of my favorite scriptures is found in Psalms 2 where the Psalmist asks “why do the nations rage?” He says the people devise in vain to take a stand against the Lord and His anointed one and that the Lord laughs from the heavens because He has set His King to reign in Zion forever. Psalms 97 also speaks of the Lord reigning, which is why it is important to declare the kingship of Jesus. God will have His day where every knee will bow to the King!

No One is Like You

One of my favorite names of God is “Desire of the Nations.” In Hag. 2:7 it says “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” I love this picture. I find that it’s easy for me to sing “No one is like You” when I start thinking about all the attributes of God. The kingdom is coming in great glory. Yet Jesus is the simple joy of the soul set free. In an hour in which tolerance is being encouraged from every side, I love to say that there is No God like our God, the One true God revealed in the scriptures. The nations don’t even know it yet but they are coming and they will sing His song. Wow!

Running

Jesus is always calling us higher. He calls us to the joy of living in His presence every day. I remember reading the book “Practicing His Presence” about Brother Lawrence as he spoke about living every moment in His presence regardless of what he happened to be doing at the moment. God always calls us to a higher place of abiding.

John Piper says “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with Him.” I love that! There are two streams from which we can drink – - the stream of the world’s “delights” and God’s stream. At His right hand are pleasures forever, Psalms 16:11. When we run after Him and are satisfied with Him I believe He delights in that. The scripture speaks often of the picture of the bride and bridegroom and if you have ever been around a couple ready to get married, you know they can’t stand being apart. That’s what I believe is happening to the church as God is releasing more and more worship into the earth. It’s the passionate response of His people Ps 27:4 says “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” Running after Him!

Abba Father

In Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6, Paul talks about our response to God as sons. We call Him Abba Father. I remember being in a night of worship at Christ for the Nations and got into an open time of worship and this melody and the simple phrase “Abba Father” was coming to me and we began to sing it over and over again. It wasn’t till later that I wrote verses to this song and put it all together. In Zephaniah 3:17, the Lord rejoices over us, sings over us with joy (the word for joy here speaks of spinning around), and He quiets us with His love. I don’t know exactly what God does while I worship but everything in scripture tell me that He loves it. In Psalms 23, the good shepherd takes me to the quiet waters, restores my soul and so much more. My response is “Abba Father,” You are amazing. I love the quiet moments in worship where the Father speaks His peace over us and our souls are at rest.

« Return to Previous Page