10 000 Reasons

May 2

One of the most popular worship songs of our day is less than 15 years old – written by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin in the early hours of the morning in a London church, 10 000 Reasons has become a worldwide favourite. Hear the story of the song and consider why the words have been so loved by so many.

Introduction

Being a minister at a local church, I tend to conduct a lot of funerals, and usually here in South Africa, people will request a hymn or two. Obviously, being a musician, I normally sing at the funerals that I conduct as well. Often I'll sing a classic hymn - How Great Thou Art seems to be a real popular one here, along with Amazing Grace.

But just lately I've often had people ask for this song, 10,000 Reasons. In fact, my mom was telling me the other day how my gran, who died in 2018, really liked the song. That kind of confused me because she was always an old hymn sort of lady. When I heard about her love for the song and when I sang it at another memorial service last week, I thought, maybe it's time to include 10,000 Reasons as a modern classic video.

What do you think of the song? Do you love it? Some people seem to love it. Some people I've read in my research online aren't so keen on it, but for me, this is a real favourite. We love singing this in our church. I've always found it to be a very powerful song of worship. What is your experience of 10,000 Reasons? Please share your comments, your thoughts below and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

The Story Behind "10,000 Reasons"

The two men who wrote the song are Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin. Matt Redman is a familiar name to a lot of churchgoers today. He's an English worship leader and songwriter, and his songs have had an impact in the church over the last 30 years or so. Redman was born in 1974 in Watford, England, and at the age of seven lost his father by suicide. Not an easy childhood. He was ten years old when he attended an event in London where Luis Palau, the great missionary evangelist, was preaching, and he gave his life to Christ there. Soon after, he began leading worship in local churches.

It was in 1993 when he released his first album, Wake Up My Soul. I've actually got that CD, or at least I think my parents do. He became well known through his music. It was recorded and distributed widely across the world, and he wrote some very popular songs. The Heart of Worship was one that was very big, as well as Blessed Be Your Name and various other songs that just captured the attention of the local church everywhere.

Not a whole lot is known about his co-writer for this song, Jonas Myrin. He is a Swedish-born singer and songwriter, and this was the song that introduced him to the world. Him and Matt Redman had been working on songs together, and this one was the one that went big. He's written songs for a lot of other people, not just in the worship world, but he's written for some popular artists and he has written other worship songs that have also been quite popular. But this was the one that really captured the world, I suppose you could say, in the last couple of years.

Redman and Myrin were together working on some songs in a church somewhere in London, and they worked for quite a few hours. It was now early morning, around 1:30 a.m., and Myrin started playing a little bit of the song. Matt Redman said it was one of those moments where everything just fell into place and they put the song together. It was so spontaneous and just so right.

But he didn't think it was finished yet, because they only had a few verses and the chorus and they didn't have any pre-chorus or a bridge. He thought, "Oh, we'll have to come back and finish it off." He didn't really like the song. In fact, he thought, "That's not really good enough to go on to the album that we're going to release." But he was convinced by the producer to put it on, and to his own surprise, this became an absolute smash.

In fact, in a book that he's written about the song and its impact, which is quite a nice read (you should go have a look for it), he talks about how he came to South Africa (which is where I live, by the way), and he started playing the song and the crowd went crazy! He said he didn't understand how they knew this song, because he thought it was just this little side song that nobody really knew. It stunned him how the song had gone ahead of him, so to speak, and started to touch people's lives, even though he didn't realise that it was going to do that. But that's what happened. The song went around the world and soon churches everywhere were singing it, and it's become one of the most popular songs in the last little while.

It was released in 2012, and here we are in 2025, and pretty much everybody knows this song. In 2013, the song won two Grammys and a Dove Award, so it was recognised at quite a high level as being something special. Stories keep coming out about how the song has blessed people's lives. As I said, read Redman's book about this because there are some beautiful stories that he tells about singing the song.

For example, he talks about how he got to lead the song on stage in front of a big stadium alongside Luis Palau, who was the man preaching when he gave his life to Christ. Then he talks about smaller occasions - him and a few others in a hospital bed, singing the song with a dying woman who raised her voice and just worshipped in a most profound way. He talks about a group of martyrs who were killed for their faith, singing this as they breathed their last breath. This song has really had an impact on people's lives, and I wonder what impact it's had on your life. Again, share in the comments below, please! What has this song meant to you? I just always get choked up as we get to the last verse.

What Do the Lyrics of "10,000 Reasons" Mean?

Let me take you through the words of it and let's see why this song is so popular today.

Chorus

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul.

This comes pretty much straight out of Psalm 103. Some modern translations might say "praise the Lord, O my soul," where others will say "bless the Lord, O my soul." Redman talks about how he was captured by that phrase, "bless the Lord," and how when God blesses us, we are improved. Our situation is improved by His blessing in some way, but when we bless God, we can't improve His situation at all. It's just our heartfelt praise and it comes directly out of the Psalms.

I've always liked "O my soul." It's not just a lips thing, it's a soul thing. It needs to be from inside. Otherwise you're not worshipping. You can sing without worshipping. But real worship is always inside, from the soul.

Worship His holy name.

So it's a recognition that He is holy and great and worthy. This is obviously very scriptural. All throughout Scripture, His holy name is lifted up and we are called to do the same.

Sing like never before, O my soul.

I remember leading the song years ago at a missionary gathering. It was Global Ministries, and they had a commissioning service for some of their new people, held at MCNY where I was ministering at the time. So they asked me to sing, and we sang this song because I knew everybody would know it. I remember saying to them, "Let's sing like never before." Boy, that crowd sang! I'll never forget that. Whenever I sing that line, that flashes back into my mind and I'm reminded: sing like never before. Every time you sing this, sing it from the soul!

I'll worship Your holy name.

Now I just want to mention that in my reading and researching this song, I came across people who didn't really like the song because they say it's poor poetry. They say it repeats itself and it doesn't really say anything profound. I disagree with that. I think sometimes the power of a song is not in how clever the words are, but how deeply they touch us. This song has deeply touched millions and millions of people.

Verse 1

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time to sing Your song again.

Beautiful! Every day when the sun comes up, it's a new day and we're going to sing His song. That's so good.

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.

So I'll sing the moment I open my eyes. But when the evening comes I want to still be singing His name, His praise. I still want to be worshipping Him, whatever may have come. This is the Christian call. It's to worship in good times and in bad, just to praise His name, whatever has come.

I wonder if you need to be reminded of this today, that whatever's going on in your life, good or bad - worship. Sing. Praise His holy name. Whether you are jumping for joy or weeping in sadness, keep singing. Keep singing because it is in singing His praise and worshipping Him that your soul finds strength and that you keep connected to Him. Let's be people who worship His holy name from the moment we open our eyes until evening comes and until we go to sleep.

Verse 2

You're rich in love and slow to anger.

This is really biblical thinking about how God is slow to anger and abounding in love. It's a phrase that's used quite a bit in the Old Testament. Both of those things - God's slowness to anger and the richness of His love. It's a beautiful biblical thought. I want you to remember this today, that He is both slow to anger and rich in love. Think about how in your own life this is true and just worship Him for that today.

Your name is great and Your heart is kind.

So He is great, exalted, and yet He's kind. He is both exalted and patient, kind and loving. These are wonderful things to sing, by the way, about His patience and His love and His kindness and His greatness. I love singing songs like this where we are expressing to God who He is and celebrating that. That's beautiful. The more we sing it, the more we internalise that that's who He is.

For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing.

So there's another attribute of God - His goodness - and we just keep on singing. I love that! Keep on singing. It again takes you back to that first verse about how from daybreak to the end of day, we're going to sing. Why do we do it? It's because He is all these things. Whatever's going on in our lives, all these things remain true. And we keep singing His praise.

10,000 reasons for my heart to find.

Countless reasons! 10,000 is even too small a number. It's just a metaphor, I suppose, for a huge number. An unending number, actually. I remember preaching once on being thankful and how I'm thankful for every breath. That was one of the points of the sermon. I'm thankful for every breath I take. I said in the sermon that every human being supposedly takes between 17 and 23,000 breaths a day. So I said Mr Redman was wrong when he said 10,000 reasons for my heart to find - we've got 17 to 23,000 reasons to be thankful every day of our lives! But yes, 10,000 reasons. It's just a large number, a huge number. He's saying, "I've got an unending number of reasons to be thankful and to praise God." Beautiful. What wonderful words.

Verse 3

Then comes the last verse. As I say to you, this one always gets me emotional because I think I've done so many funerals, and I always point out when I sing this at funerals, "Look at the last verse." Because for this person that we're saying goodbye to, this is true. This was something that was real for them.

On that day when my strength is failing,
the end draws near and my time has come.
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending.

The Christian, even in the face of death, sings His praise. In fact, I also mentioned this in a sermon just the other day - my friend who you've seen on my channel, Richard, who plays guitar with me sometimes from Crossroads - when his wife passed away a short time ago, he came to church just a few days before she died and we sang the song. We got to this verse, and I was at the piano and he was in the church. He didn't play with us. He was just in the pews. He stood there and I saw that as we got to this verse and we sang about, "As I get to the end and as I start to breathe my last, still I'll sing Your praise," I was thinking about his wife who was close to death. Then we sang Bless the Lord, O my soul, and his hands just went up in praise. I started to get very emotional… Because that's what it's all about. When the end comes, the Christian can still raise their hands and praise. Even if our bodies are not doing well, even if our strength is failing and the end is near, still our souls will praise.

Is that going to be your story? That right till the end you'll be praising without end?

10,000 years and then forevermore.

That always makes me think of Amazing Grace - When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing His praise than when we first begun. So we'll keep singing forever. This reminds me of that - 10,000 years and then forevermore. We'll be singing with all the other saints and worshipping God together.

Conclusion

This is beautiful! I think this is a lovely song. Even though I do enjoy the old hymns, some of the new songs are beautiful and this is one that I really like singing. How does this song speak to you? Is there a particular line or verse that really means something to you? I'd love if you would share that below.

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