• Beginning: The song starts forcefully, with an almost staccato touch. The words are indicators of the style needed.
• Middle: The key change from E minor to E major signifies a major shift in this song. This shift creates a sound ‘picture’ that interprets the meaning of the text—a sound portraying chaos to a sound portraying order. For the second half of this song, use a more legato, sensitive approach with the accompaniment, possibly slowing the tempo a little. 

Play andante, giving regular and almost equal emphasis to beats 1 and 3. A slight ritard can help to make the most of the two transition chords as e-minor morphs into E-major. (If you repeat the song, consider adding an open B7 chord [no 3rd] after the final cadence to transition back to the timing and feel of the beginning.) While this song is fine accompanied by piano, “God of the Word” is especially well suited to the timbre of acoustic guitar. The key of E on a guitar is rich, with all its open strings vibrating, and accentuates the transition from minor to major mode. 

The first half of this song describes the human condition—one of babble, chaos, and loss of meaning—and then asks what can be done. The second half finds answers in the Word of God, and pleads for that Word to “visit us in grace.” The tune mirrors the textual content very precisely. The first four musical phrases descend in stepwise motion, giving the questioning lyric a pessimistic tone. But in the middle there is a change from minor to major mode; after which the melody is characterized by triumphant, upward leaps. 

Ken Medema (b. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1943) is a song writer, composer, recording artist, and story-teller through music. Blind from birth, Ken began playing the piano at age five and studied classical music by reading Braille. He graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School and studied music therapy at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan. As a music therapist in both Indiana and New Jersey, he began writing songs for hurting teenagers, an experience that helped to launch a career of writing songs on Christian life that has taken him to venues large and small all over North America and beyond. He responds to what he hears and sees in his heart at particular events, often improvising songs on the spot, offering compassion, honesty and desire for integrity in both worship and life. In 1985 he began Brier Patch Music, which continues to publish his music and recordings, including 26 CDs.