Three or four years ago, a good friend of mine gave me a copy of The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers dating back to more than 300 years ago. Since then I have used this book in my times of private worship as a tool to guide my own prayer life. The honesty and transparency of the original authors of these prayers is striking and something very much missing in today’s culture.

Sovereign Grace Ministries recently announced a CD project based on The Valley of Vision. Entitled Valley of Vision, The CD was released at last week’s WorshipGod06 conference and I’ve had a chance to listen through it a couple of times by now.

If you’re familiar with Sovereign Grace music, you know their lyrics are always (and I do mean always) filled with scriptural truth; you won’t find a piece of fluff in any of their material. As a result, they have provided the Church with a great source for Christ-exalting music to use in worship. If you’re familiar with their music (really any theologically rich music), you also know that at first it may seem that the songs aren’t intended for congregational use. That’s because the songs tend to be wordy; in order to write songs like this, you can’t limit yourself to just a few words. On the contrary, most if not all of their songs are intended for congregational use and Valley of Vision is no different.

Overall, Valley of Vision is a little less edgy than some of Sovereign Grace’s previous material. I assume that’s due to the nature of the source material. The CD opens with a contemplative track, “In the Valley”, which juxtaposes our lows with God’s highs and the darkness in which we many times find ourselves with God’s light. “Heavenly Father, Beautiful Son” is an energetic song which summarizes the gospel story with a singable melody that catches the attitude of thanksgiving nicely. The lively “Let Your Kingdom Come” is based on text reminiscent of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s one of my favorites of the project.

The entire project will prove useful to you in your times of private worship, but be forewarned: the texts of these songs, just as the texts of the prayers from which they are derived, provide ample opportunity for hypocrisy. These aren’t texts you can sing lightly. They require a lot of introspection and self-examination of our own thoughts and actions in light of Christ’s great sacrifice. But what results—the exaltation of Christ alone—is what the CD is all about.

You can listen to audio samples of and order Valley of Vision here.